I Looking back and reading this thread, it's plain to see where his frustration and rage came from; the inability to be ASSERTIVE for so many years)

I don’t understand where you are basing your logic from, speaking personally, I avoid conflict confrontation, not due to my anger issues, but due to the fact that when others loose there temper they tend to project it, inappropriately so, with my experience this has been very extreme…its hard to be assertive of your rights with someone’s hands are around your neck throwing you against the wall, it is very difficult to take a stand when someone is trying to beat the hell out of you while destroying the environment around you, I think you get my drift here...when it comes to Rage, is not an indirect action of assertiveness, to my knowledge...maybe it can be for others as you describe your spouse, what takes over in my case is the instinct for self preservation, and learned behavior of knowing what saying “NO” will lead to, .is this what you are inferring when you stated the Lack of Assertiveness is what leads to Rage issues, guess we have a difference of opinion on that issue, at least with my own experiences..just would rather give people who have issues with anger and Rage a very wide berth..and allow them the opportunity to self implode off of my radar, if that is Avoidance..well then so be it..but I just can’t handle someone in my face anymore going ballistic over what I cooked for dinner, and you can’t reason with a person during a Rage attack..as I am assuming you know...just practicing a little assetivness here..which by the way this site has been an excellent learning tool for me, it offers me a chance to express a little bit at a time, and is helping..so again thanks..and sorry if I misunderstood your statement