Mike & Anger Management
Hi. My name is Mike (Hi, Mike). I’m Angry. I’ve always had a temper for as long as I can remember. It generally doesn’t extend to people, I can be infinitely patient with other people. Situations and machinery set me off. Today, it was the dishwasher. Several months ago our old dishwasher, after slowly grinding down, doing a worse and worse job, finally called it quits. After a short round handwashing dishes Carleen’s parents helped us out to get a new dishwasher. Today, after I pulled dirty dish after dirty dish out, I simply lost it - cups, silverware, you name it, got tossed and banged around. This of course was not an isolated incident.
Mostly, I get angry at work. Again, a few months ago Maintanence replaced some belts on the machine I work on. The old belts were causing some of our forms to be damaged and marked up. The machine hasn’t run correctly since. After a few months of dealing with this, my patience has finally worn thin. I dread going in to work, which I have never previously done.
Compounded with that, is our house, which is in a constant state of disrepair, while all I seem to have time to handle is doing dishes/laundry and steaming bottles for Carleen. The chores pile up and we both feel over-burdened by all of it. Our dogs, meanwhile, have been completely neglected while we fuss over Liam, so Chani pees on the already significantly stained carpet, while Turbo continues walking on Carleen’s feet - Carleen casts no shadow anymore, Turbo has taken it’s place. I’ve never been more frustrated in being a dog owner in my life. Financial worries loom overhead, since in the near future I’ll be quitting work to take over as Mr. Mom full-time, an occasion which I am both eagerly awaiting and dreading all at once. Add to that my Crohn’s is flairing up now - probably in response to all the stress, which is piling on even more stress, in a lovely little vicious cycle. So I’m finding it difficult to eat what I want, which just upsets me more.
I’m checking some books and videos out from the Library to see if that helps, if not I plan on seeing a psychologist. It’s frustrating to have outside forces so easily push your buttons - I hate the feeling of not being in control of my own emotions. It’s not something I want to teach my children.
Tara on 
stephanie on 
Carleen on 
March 27th, 2007 at 13:42:33
Hi Mike. My name is Beth, and I too have an anger problem. I really do work hard to overcome it, but sometimes I forget to be careful and I’m short with people. The thing that sets me off most is when I’m working on something and get interrupted by someone. It also really bothers me when there is a problem and the person with the problem doesn’t even try to solve it themselves, they just call and interrupt me and expect me to come down right then. Then there are the patrons who seem to think they can ask me about the issues with their home computers.
March 28th, 2007 at 10:46:14
Mike most psychologist do not specialize in anger management. You may benefit more from an anger management class or couse. Anger Management classes teach stress management, improves commuincation skills and enhances emotional intelligence.
Here are a few national resources for you to try.
http://www.daybreakservices.com
http://www.andersonservices.com
March 28th, 2007 at 17:49:46
Hey Mike - I’m sorry to hear that things are not going so great! Hang in there! I hope you get over this soon!
March 31st, 2007 at 05:01:28
Mike, we all lose our temper sometimes - things pile up, and it gets to be too much; we’re only human. Anger is a completely healthy and normal emotion, it’s what you do with it that matters - as long as you let it out on things and not people you should be fairly safe, though it can become expensive -throwing dishes around, I mean, plus you could hurt yourself or someone else that way
so your idea of learning how to control/manage it may not be a bad one, if it worries you, that is.
I once worked with a fellow who got so mad, he kicked a wall so hard he broke his big toe, and had to walk around with a cast on his foot. Boy, did we ever tease him, poor guy!
April 8th, 2007 at 08:37:54
Woo, SAHD eh? It’s a fun job much of the time (for me anyhow).
If you’re angry now, you may want to wait a bit on the SAHD thing, though. It’s more isolating than not to be at home all day with just little tykes and the pets. You need to seriously get into anger management classes or learn to meditate or otherwise get help with the frustrations.