this post was submitted on 25 Dec 2023
308 points (97.2% liked)

Asklemmy

44152 readers
1031 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Here recently it seems like everything just gets under my skin so quickly and easily. It's not that I get mad and take it out on others, it's just the fact that I'm constantly annoyed and stressed. Something as simple as the dogs tracking some mud through the house will just ruin my mood. I know some people who would just laugh it off and clean it up. Meanwhile I'll get pissed that I didn't wipe their feet and be mad the entire time I'm cleaning it up. This has nothing to do with the dogs, it just an example. Any number of seemingly insignificant things can trigger me like that. Like forgetting something at the store and having to go back. I would love to be able to go, "well that sucks" and just get over it.

(page 2) 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] debounced@kbin.run 6 points 1 year ago

prozac

though i'll be honest, the several months of dialing-in the initial dosage were an absolute hell, but once it starts working... like hot damn, a whole new person. i can't function without it, but everyone reacts differently to SSRIs... so YMMV and it's definitely something to consult a physician about if you're serious.

[–] ulkesh@beehaw.org 6 points 1 year ago (3 children)

So many good suggestions here. And while therapy is definitely a good option, I’d start simpler before spending money on that.

I’d ask one simple question: what are your sleep habits? Sometimes it’s as simple as working to get better sleep. Not more sleep. Better sleep.

If you wake up tired, feeling physically exhausted, then a few things could be at play: you may simply need to stop eating four hours before going to bed, and only drink water, but stop that like two hours before going to bed — and try to use the toilet before going to bed no matter what.

You could be losing sleep due to using a device when you lie down. Either due to time, stimulation, light patterns, etc.

And another, bigger issue, is sleep apnea. A few of the biggest symptoms of sleep apnea are: waking up feeling physically tired (like your arms feel like salamis hanging off, or you feel in a brain fog); falling asleep in the middle of the day for what seems like no reason; finding that to get through the day, you have to have a lot of caffeine to function; nodding off easily while driving; and the most obvious of them — waking up in the middle of the night as if you had to take in a huge gasp of air.

Sleep habit issues and sleep apnea are both major causes of impatience in a person. Source: myself. When I get better sleep (especially after I got on a CPAP), I generally became a more patient person and in many ways a happier person.

There will always be other stressors than the above that can factor in, but for my money, I’d begin there. The other suggestion of drinking more water is another easy first step to see if that helps. Exercise is also an easy step to take because it has the immediate physical and chemical effect in the brain of helping to ease one’s mind.

Everyone is different, but the above has helped me.

I wish you luck in your journey.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] sloppy_diffuser@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm often seen as calm even though I have my frustrated outbursts. The one thing I make sure to do is not direct that frustration towards other living things.

As you mentioned in the dog analogy, I'll outwardly vocalize what I could have done to avoid the situation and own the blame. I have a couple dogs as well. If I'm upset enough that I notice a change in their behavior I'll play with them to show its okay. Now that I think about it, they started bringing me toys when I'm upset which has a calming effect on its own.

I want other people witnessing my tantrum to understand I'm frustrated with myself. There is always something I could have done to improve/avoid the situation. On the rare occasion I'm unable to self regulate I'll remove myself and take time to reflect. Sometimes it takes a night of sleep.

I've lived with a number of narcissistic and borderline personality types throughout my life. Seeing and experiencing the damage one can do with anger, I've made it a core principal to never project my own shortcomings onto another living thing.

For situations where one could not have done anything, I'll resort to assertiveness principals if I'm not okay with another's behavior or accept the the situation and go into "fix it" mode to mitigate what's in my control.

Key point I suppose is to remove anger, shaming, eluded ignorance, and other forms of manipulative behaviors as a means to control others and to see every frustration as a test of my principals.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] prole@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I can't tell you. I experimented with psychedelics in my 20s, and it wouldn't surprise me if that change in behavior was one take away from that time... It's easy to say life is meaningless, but to personally experience it (or at least what felt like it at the time) is a whole different thing.

After that realization, you get some perspective I guess.

[–] fury@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It took me a lot of practice. I used to get mad at everything too. Almost violently so (hence the username "fury"). I realized over time I don't want to spend that much effort being mad at anything. It's not worth it. I'm going grey fast enough as it is without willingly adding to it. I'd rather focus my energy on something more enjoyable.

Except Bing Chat. Bing Chat can go take a long walk off a short pier, and I wish everybody who worked on Bing Chat a very "good heavens what were you thinking". Give me back my regular search results, thank you very much.

[–] Daxtron2@startrek.website 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Why are you using bing in the first place

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] dingus@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

OP, if you figure it out, do honestly let me know. I'm very similar to you, but instead of anger at the world, mine is despair. Stupid, insignificant things make me catastrophize and freak the fuck out and make me think of stabbing myself whereas other people just have an easier time shrugging life off. I don't get how they do it and why I'm so unintentionally dramatic.

[–] 474D@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Imagine you're being recorded and you have to watch it back later. Sometimes it's easier to see ourselves from others perspective than our own. Patience is a skill, you have to use it to get good at it

[–] rockSlayer@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Once upon a time, I had anger issues and would get pissed at anyone for any reason. I have 3 main self-help tricks, but keep in mind that self-help can only go so far.

  1. The moment you notice it, stop everything and reflect on if it's worth being upset about. Everything is deserving of some amount of irritation, but only the big things are worth getting irritated about.
  2. Practice mindfulness. Check in on yourself every so often during the day to see how you feel. If you're in a bad mood, try to identify why first. If it's a general feeling and not a specific cause, take about 10 minutes to pause your day and focus on breathing.
  3. Redirect those feelings towards something that deserves it. Righteous anger is a very strong tool, and fighting the things that are the focus of that anger is highly rewarding because it often leaves a positive impact. As an example, I have a lot of righteous anger towards the way my coworkers and I are being treated. To fight that anger I'm helping to form a union. It's rewarding to see people realize that they deserve better
[–] grabyourmotherskeys@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I always ask my son if getting angry is helping. He usually stops, realizes it isn't helping, and tries another approach. No always, though, just like me. Doing our best, right?

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Nemo@midwest.social 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Oh, by not caring. Apathy is the answer.

[–] hactar42@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

Need to channel my inner Gen x and just go, "whatever"

[–] Lophostemon@aussie.zone 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I started drinking lots of alcohol. It didn’t really help in the long run.

It’s like liquid therapy.

Then you lose your family and job.

It’s great!

[–] NounsAndWords@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

I understand your frustration. It seems the two answers are "try therapy" and practice controlling your thoughts in the moment. Which can be annoying when you've already been doing both. I don't have any better answers unfortunately.

[–] Phen@lemmy.eco.br 4 points 1 year ago

A silver lining in having a bunch of mental disorders.

[–] Daxtron2@startrek.website 4 points 1 year ago

Meds, weed, accepting that everything you worry about probably won't matter in a few years anyway so why bother getting mad about it.

[–] MrAlternateTape@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago

I have been stressed out about everything in the past, but I worked through a lot of things.

The main thing for me is acceptence. I accept whatever comes at me, and I deal with it.

Missed the bus? I accept that that is the new situation, and then start thinking about how to deal with the consequences. Do I need to inform somebody that I will be later, or do I need to do anything else? Is there a different route I can take?

And what is also important, I watch myself. I make sure I get enough sleep and I have some time for myself to chill. It helps if you are not tired or burned out. I have been tired and burned out and it makes me far more emotional and unpredictable.

I accept that I am not in control of a lot of things. But I can always control my response to those things. If somebody is trying to piss me off, I can stay calm and that puts me in control of the situation.

I also realized that bad moods are contagious. If somebody was in a bad mood around me I would pick it up too. But now I figured, why? I don't want somebody elses state of mind to control mine. So I accept that they are in a bad mood, and choose to keep my mood going.

I choose to control myself in all circumstances, no matter how crazy, and it makes me happier and less stressed. I'm still not perfect but I feel a lot better a lot of the time.

And it's a great practice for emergency situations too. I've been able to solve some things rather quickly just by not panicking and making the right calls to give some things priority over others.

[–] indepndnt@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

In the movie Point Of No Return, the main character is taught by one of her trainers to say "I never did mind about the little things." To demonstrate the appropriate use of the phrase, later in the movie a guy shoots her friend then looks at her to see how she's going to react and she says it to him. Given the time and perspective thus afforded her, she later kills that guy before he kills her.

I dunno, I just think of that phrase a lot. Also I've been through a lot of big things that make practically everything seem like Little Things in comparison.

[–] fruitycoder@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago

I sometimes just sit down and figure out why something happened and try to figure out what I could do to fix it. If I was really mad about it I would let myself think about how far I would go to make it happen, what would I give up, what extraordinary lengths I would go to fix it. Normally, most things, are just absurd to think about like that. Like if I really didn't want my dogs stepping in mud maybe I could get rid of all the dirt in the yard, maybe make a little AI powered spraying bot to wash their feet, maybe get a second job and hire a guy that just hangs out by my back door to wash their feet. If I'm still feeling it, I mean really think about it, I mean maybe there is a way to reduce the dirt outside, maybe a rug to clean their feet, etc. Normally I go "oh that's WAY too much work" and I just think about the imaginary Tim that would be wiping my dog's feet instead of me, and it makes me chuckle.

The other one is just comparing the consequences. Like what if I didn't clean the dog's feet. They would track mud in for sure, and ? Like, maybe, I get some mud on my feet? Maybe on the couch and on my arms? If I get mud on me, what happens? What's the consequence of getting muddy? Is it really that bad? Can't I just wash it off?

The latter is what my therapist helped me with, I worked a life and death kind of job for a bit, where things really had to work just right or people could get really hurt or worse, I was taking that anxiety back with me and applying it to all the little things I also wanted or cared about. I really had to take a step back more on things and go "So what?" to more things, and I got better about being able to role with the little punches again.

You should probably focus on the problem/problems underneath, this is probably just an epiphenomenon

[–] cheese_greater@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Can you give us a little anecdote or vignette of a recent situation?

Re:dogs - It sounds like you might need to set boundaries with your dogs and whomever allows them outside so there is a procedure everybody (including dogs) is aware of and knows needs to happen that you have put together to avoid having this problem again.

Anger is a sign that we feel we being treated unfairly or things are happening that we believe are not acceptable to continue happening. I would encourage you to make friends with your anger and allow it to illuminate that which needs to be examined or altered so your anger doesn't need to pay it further attention as you work to resolve the discrepancy

Anger is really good at intuiting that the equation isn't adding up and that there is a miscalculation that you must rebalance in order to discharge its responsibilities. Until that happens, anger will be wherever you go and be activated by more and more related and unrelated things.

Edit: I had a small breakthrough just now grappling with this question, thanks OP, lets have another if you like

[–] 13esq@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

I just think about all the times that getting mad actually helped the situation in any way at all.

I mean, in some situations, getting mad is the correct response, but I find that to be extremely rare.

After getting mad, the situation is usually still just as shit but you're even more upset and you've probably upset some other people around you too.

[–] Slowy@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Are you very low on time? I see this happen to people who feel they just don’t have enough time to get everything done that they need to, and therefore any little delay causes a lot of stress. If you can offload some chores or reduce your activity load that may be some help. But there are other reasons for irritability as well.

[–] Breakyfix@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

cut away from social media and news. it'll make you a sadder and angrier person and will rarely add anything meaningful to your life.

[–] hactar42@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I cut out Facebook in 2020 an Twitter when it became X. I can't tell you how much that has improved my mental state.

[–] Breakyfix@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 1 year ago

that's fantastic!! for the media you still consume (youtube, Lemmy, etc.), avoid negative/angry/drama-driven communities and content. focus on positive things you really enjoy, like your hobbies, animals, uplifting news etc.

back when i still used reddit i cut out subreddits like antiwork and mildly infuriating and subbed to scrungy cats and things like that. my feed was so much brighter and it really made a different to my mental state and attitude!

[–] MissJinx@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Medication. That's my secret

[–] MonkderZweite@feddit.ch 2 points 1 year ago

You should take a sabbatical or however else a time out.

[–] shiveyarbles@beehaw.org 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I feel smoking crack helps smooth out the edges

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] dpkonofa@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

That all starts with being able to recognize those emotions in the moment. If you can’t change the past, then why are you putting energy into getting angry over it? In your dog example, you’re going to have to clean it either way so stop to think about what’s more valuable to you - moving forward and learning for next time or using your energy to get angry.

There’s nothing wrong with getting angry. Anger is a useful emotion. Use it to your benefit rather than to your detriment.

[–] lung@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Buddhism, meditation, and generally knowing that everything is temporary. Gratitude / "counting your blessings" helps increase general happiness, as it's easy to forget what's going right

[–] notthebees@reddthat.com 2 points 1 year ago

For me, I do get mad occasionally but I just see that me getting mad doesn't get me anywhere. I just gotta fix the problem.

[–] shani66@lemmy.comfysnug.space 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What can i say, the dude abides

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] leds@feddit.dk 2 points 1 year ago

Get checked for vitamin deficits?

load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›