how do you deal with it?

i don't know how to control it. i don't know how to just let go. sometimes, everything is okay. i have no issues. i get over things quickly. i am generally a pretty rational person. but then, on days like today, everything irritates me. i hate everything and everyone. every noise that isn't like a box fan or something pisses me off. i try to hold it in, but something finally sets me off and i explode, throwing things and breaking things and the whole time i'm trying to restrain myself, i'm trying not to break anything, if i feel like throwing something i try to find something that won't break or cause a huge mess but the entire time this rage, this hatred, just keeps building up. i end up having miniature explosions when really i just want to pick up the whole coffee table and fling it through the window. i want to destroy something. i want to completely obliterate it. i want it to look like a bomb went off. i don't know why. but that just makes me feel like i've expressed myself fully. like i've drained it all out.

obviously, this is not positive in any way. even my hobbies just piss me off. i have no way to redirect it. i just have to bottle it up, and that makes it even harder to control the next time something pisses me off.

how do you deal with rage?

[HealingTimes]

I wish i could give you some helpful techniques to deal with rage, but i am having a very hard time with this, especially today.

i'd like to be able to deal with it healthily, but i normally end up using some unhealthy technique, as i am tonight. I normally feel the need to get out of my head..not good.

[gary290]

Hello DreamAddiction:

I too struggle with anger and rage. I google anger management techniques and then read about them. Rage is so difficult to deal with. I have discovered that for me rage is part and parcel to Hypomania (I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder type 2). The antipsychotic (Risperdal) is helpful for my rage. I see a cognitive therapist regularly (this helps a lot too). But like you...just talking about it can be helpful. You are not alone in your struggle. There is hope that the symptoms of anger and rage can subside in time with work. Good luck!

Gary290

[k12573n]

I can definitely relate. I refer to it sometimes as carrying around a "dull rage" all the time. I have terrible road rage! But sometimes driving helps--not in town with heavy traffic where I might just be more infuriated, but out in the country. I listen to music, sometimes angry but sometimes not; I scream at the top of my lungs. THAT helps me a great deal.

I work in an office and have a quiet little desk off to myself. Some days it takes every morsel of strength I have to control my anger at the tiniest things irritating me. Like the sound of the phone ringing, how ridiculously slow my computer is, the tone of someone's voice on the phone. I have to get up from my desk, go outside, and will usually smoke a cigarette but that isn't a recommendation.

I know the feeling you describe, though, wanting to destroy something because nothing else seems sufficient to release all the rage you have at that moment. I have broken a few cell phones, computer mouse, etc. I wish I could be more destructive without actually breaking my own stuff or hurting someone/myself by accident.

I fantasize about going out to a junk yard and smashing car windows with a baseball bat or throwing glass vases or throwing bricks into television sets. Then sometimes I wish someone would pick a fight with me, throw the first punch, so I could beat the crap out of them, but it never happens and I am a pacifist by nature so it isn't likely that any of this will ever surface so it just simmers under my skin and makes it impossible to concentrate.

So, I don't know what to tell you. I'm working on this myself. I hope you find some calm and figure out how to deal with it better than you are now. Good luck, friend.

-K

[Thunder Bow]

Computers frustrate me. I smashed my other laptop last year out of pure frustration. It was Windows 7. Now I bought a new one, and it is Windows 8. I litteraly Hate Windows 8. It is horrorably frustrating, it does not work well for on lap top format. It frezzes, locks up, pop up unwanted windows. I don't think this computer is going to last very long, before I throw it into the Colorado River!

[justmemaybe]

I dont do rage. I do the sorry thing over and over. My ex has rage.
If you can let go of it. Its not worth it.
It will eat you alive. Throw some paper plates and move on.

[Gus1234U]

i am learning that the sources of rage are deep and painful, and it is this residual trauma that keeps the trigger for the brain chemistry of rage always coc.ked and loaded. particularly with me, having so many early childhood traumas (both physical and mental, including concussions), the triggers are deeply rutted in my brain.

it has nothing to do with the dog next door barking, or the toilet backing up,,, it is a primal, residual response to frustration, irritation, feelings of helplessness, victimization and so on... to deal with those primal causes of the rage is to reduce it's volatility and frequency. bipolar is a particular problem, because the manic phase of the dysfunction often includes reduced inhibition, thus expression of otherwise controllable emotions. PTSD is also one of the most common syndromes associated with rage disorders. i have worked with both, over coming the bipolar, and lessening the PTSD. the problem was, for me, how long that took. and how complex the process is.

the most important thing is to make the decision to work on the causes of the rage, to exercise whatever skills work to reduce its expression, to notice when those skills work and reinforce them, and to honesty praise yourself for any success~! that inner child is craving praise, it is an incredibly powerful tool. use it.

best wishes,,,
Gus

[Candlejack]

I can definitely relate. I've been dealing with increasingly difficult rage issues for a long time. Luckily, I can keep control of it 99/100 times, but when I can't it looks like a bomb went off in the room. Then I just feel like an A-hole for terrifying anyone that happened to be in earshot and for breaking stuff that wasn't always mine...

I find that music, playing or just listening, really helps me a lot. Pretty much anything that requires a lot of concentration to enjoy. I just wish I could concentrate on my real responsibilities like that, haha.

I've been diagnosed with PTSD which is probably responsible for some of the worsening of my dilemma, but after some heavy self-reflection, I am deathly afraid that I have developed some kinda of bipolar like behavior. Unfortunately, that could mean the end of a successful (so far) career if anyone were to find out that I was positively diagnosed with BPD. Total bummer...

[Ultra Darkness]

I have some trouble with rage myself, and have categorized it as hot and cold anger. Oftentimes I'm fine, but sometimes the slightest thing will set me off, and I'll start shouting and making illogical accusations. I can't hold it in at all. That's hot anger. Sometimes, however, I'm in a better mood, and the anger makes itself known through short bursts of intense frustration. This "cold" anger doesn't fade. It just waits beneath the surface, growing harder to control the more that's added to it. It makes my chest hurt, and makes me far more anxious than normal. Eventually it gets released as hot anger, but since it's been repressed for so long, I can become physically violent. It usually takes several outbursts to get it all out.

That said, I don't know what to do about it. I'm definitely worried that I'll hurt someone someday though.

my T says it's probably from the stress of finding out we're moving across the country in the near future due to my husband getting transferred, as well as finding out that my husband had been being stupid with our money the same day he told me he would be getting transferred.

and my daughter is going through the terrible twos and it is definitely noticeable. we were hoping she wouldn't because she's usually so quiet but ugh. every morning i wake up to the living room in shambles. can't keep doing this.

[avlady]

I sometimes feel the need to vent, but i usually get loud and obnixious and scream at my husband, bringing up the past sometimes. He understands and i feel so guilty afterwards i apologize. It usually happens when i am trying to do something hard for me to do or also when i can't figure something out. I am my own worst enemy sometimes.This doesn't happen often im really not one to do such things either.

[Gus1234U]

a big bear hug for anyone who has ever felt like the victim of their own emotions, especially RAGE~!