Hello The Other Guy: Yes, I hear you on this one. I won't go into details, but I'm struggling with some anger issues at the moment too. I'm just seething & trying to figure out to what extent my anger is justified & to what extent it is a by-product of my craziness. I know I do have allot of long-standing anger issues. And sometimes these long-standing anger issues can spill over into current issues that have nothing to do with them.

Some things that can sometimes help include: therapy, meditation, exercise, avoidance of caffeine, etc., all the usual stuff. Sometimes writing a l-o-n-g fiery letter with regard to the reason for your anger can help. Don't send the letter. Just write it. Then destroy it & let this be symbolic of letting go of your anger.

Some writers I have read suggest that anger over something, or at someone, is really anger at some aspect of yourself that is projected outward. If you buy into this idea, then the anger that is causing you to hurt your friends is really about something you dislike about yourself. In such as case, what is necessary is for you to figure out what it is about yourself you are dissatisfied with & work on changing that. Here again, therapy is the way in which something like this is typically accomplished.

An additional thought, with regard to anger, is that the problems it causes can be mediated if the person who is experiencing the anger can simply stop momentarily, be with the anger, breathe into it, & let it float away like a dark cloud in the sky. Creating that moment of self-awareness, that pause, at the moment just before anger bursts forth & causes hurt feelings, can short-circuit the anger-reaction connection.

Yet another idea is that anger sometimes can be fueled by pent-up depression & / or anxiety. So if one struggles with allot of these two problems the internal stress they cause can manifest itself as outbursts of anger. In such a case what is needed is for the person to resolve the depression & / or anxiety they carry around. This will then lessen their tendency to "pop off" sometimes at even the slightest provocation.