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I Suppress My Anger

A Constant, Never Ending Struggle...
-I probably have the most awkward anger problem in the world. I don't expect you to understand, and to be honest, I don't really care if you don't. Unlike everyone else whose stories I read, I don't have a short fuse, and my anger is not even comparable to high-grade explosives. I have near perfect control over it, so finely tuned that nobody I know ever noticed that something was off about me.
If I had to compare my anger to something, than think of it as a big river. A never-ending flow of emotion that cannot be stopped. I've been suppressing my anger for four years now, ever since I lost control for the first time.
I no longer even remember what set me off first, but I will never forget that feeling that filled me up. And it was so exhilarating. I felt so full of strength, like I could do anything. I felt i could crush any who would hurt me. And while I could go on and preach about how I turned away from it out of my sense of morality, or religious convictions, or simple... whatever. No. The humiliating, pathetic truth was that I was scared. I was so scared of what I was going through that I ran away. And I never faced that fear.
So I never allow myself to let the anger out. The few people that know my dark little secret tell me that I'm crazy, that I can't go on like this, always pushing it down. That I would break. And they are probably right. But even they don't know the whole truth. The deeper truth. The one I wrote here.

I no longer even remember what it feels like not to be angry. I just go between being angry and more angry.

As I said, it feels like a river. It recedes and it surges. And when the waters reach the top of the dam you built, that is when you know your worst nightmare has come knocking.
I never told this to anyone alive. If I wasn't anonymous here, I wouldn't dare to either. I don't think I could deal with it if the people I love suddenly started looking at me like I'm some ticking time-bomb. Especially since I am not. My anger is just one side of who I am.
I am a man who never would! That's right. I would never.harm another human being. Because I am The Man of Legends. Irredeemably stubborn.
Mapping
One precious thing I have learned while struggling to understand my PTSD is that anger is not a feeling, it is a response to a feeling we hide from. Meaning that when we say we are angry, in fact we are feeling various other things we do not want to admit to ourselves, which creates the frustration response called anger.

And my point is... don't push it back, it doesn't do anybody any good. Including the ones you love. Try to look within yourself and see what it is really that triggers you. This is the way I got back to normal. Just looked inside myself and analyzed what was there to analyze, until my thoughts aligned with my feelings.

I still have some anger issues and I still have moments when I respond quicker than I would like to, but that background anger I used to carry around with me is gone.
themanoflegends · 31-35, M
Would it sound too hypocritical and pathetic if I said that I can't? I don't know. It just feels like, regardless of any progress I make, when my anger starts to build up, that part of me just breaks inside. Simply from knowing what would happen, should I ever lash out. So I run. But I won't run forever. In the future I'm want to live, this anger has nor room to exist.
Mapping
It doesn't sound either way. It sounds honest.
I can relate to the feeling that no matter the progress, it will never be enough. But I guess that just means you'll have to keep at it :)
I can also relate to the fear that anger will take control of you, instead of the other way around. I used to just turn around and leave people mid sentence because I would become angry and feared the consequences. I used to fear that if I let it be, I will just go crazy. The real crazy, the crazy that requires a straitjacket and specialized help.
So no, I don't think it's either hypocritical or pathetic to want to keep it under control, even by running. One day you'll be ready. I hope that day comes soon, so you can free yourself.

 
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