Irritability

Does anyone have strategies for reducing irritability while it is happening? It can come on suddenly for me, and it is so physiological, that it seems it could be helped by some kind of specific meditation, aromatherapy, exercise... watching a comedy. How do you reduce the actual feeling; the urgent, tense, on-edge feeling that seems to be out of nowhere sometimes and can cause you to act rashly and be rude for no reason?

I really dislike it when I get irritable and it can come on suddenly as well. There is an app called Calm that has calming scenes and sounds. If you subscribe, there is a 10 minute Daily Calm meditation that has helped me tremendously. There are other meditations as well. I also have lavender and orange and vanilla aromatherapy that helps me. Best wishes...

It's the rush of anger & irritability that turns me into a monster. Still not 100% sure what triggers it. I'm still searching.
I really have to focus on relaxing my jaw...blowing out candles...to keep my jaw from clenching & keep nasty things from being said.
Honestly I feel like I turn into some rabid beast!
Would love to find a med....something!

Sure - you can explore using a simple, safe, and easy to employ breathing technique when these 'episodes' come about in your life... One that I know of is called 'equal breathing', which simply entails focusing on inhaling and exhaling for the same number of counts/seconds (recommended is 4 seconds):
https://www.verywell.com/sama-vritti...athing-3566764

Not only can this be beneficial physiologically, but what you are accomplishing by intentionally directing your focus/attention to your body & controlled breathing practice is that you are effectively shifting your conscious awareness away from the disturbances that have surfaced - whether it be the physical feelings of agitation and/or unwanted physical mind activity ('chatter')... For instance, if your physical mind was acting erractically and generating anxiety-inducing thoughts - the act of shifting your awareness to your body/breathing and importantly within yourself (your core), this will draw conscious energy away from the head (physical mind / brain) region and effectively de-energize that unwanted mental activity going on up there...

If you find that you're interesting in exploring this, than I would say try to make it a point to test this out for maybe a period of 2 weeks or so and then reevaluate how you feel and whether or not you've found that it has helped you and made a difference - you know? I would love to hear about your findings...

Thank you, I will try this.

I definitely find something else to occupy my mind. Art usually helps. I stay away from journalling as writing seems to only worsen it. I realise I have made the mistake of posting to PC while irritable as an example and later rue the fact that I did so. Even emails in hindsight take on a unfortunate negative tone. Similarly I find talking to a friend about it a bit of a fire bomb too. This is not to say I keep it bottled in however. I simply use the energy to try and do something positive - like the art I was mentioning and getting active like going for a walk.

I am fortunate to have benefited from a CBT course which has given me some skills to get myself over the hurdle or at least lessen the burden. One of the things I do is ask myself how being so irritable is an advantage to me. I don't come up with many excuses for it.

This is not to say it doesn't happen. It still does. Only I am better able to cope with it.