Expressing Anger

Hi Everyone

My therapist gave me some advice and I'm just wondering if it makes sense to you or if anyone can relate. I mean, I understand what he's saying and agree just interested in some opinions.

I'm an extreme introvert and I have a very difficult time expressing emotions, particularly anger. My therapist says that holding on to anger can actually trigger a manic episode, or just upset the general balance of things. I've been struggling recently with frequent hypomanic episodes so I'm trying to put it into perspective and see how it works for everyone else.

I get incredibly incredibly angry sometimes. I can start a day off very well and the more I feel, or the more input I get from the environment, the more unstable I get toward the end of the day. Most nights I feel really restless, irritable and frustrated, even with my seroquel, but I do relaxation exercisations and manage to get to sleep eventually.

I will say life and meds sometimes just dont work when there is alot of enviromental input, people etc. I just do the best i can, and i try and avoid negative infulences, so as not to get sucked in to negative thinking and verbalizing.
As for sleep my generic seroquel works pretty good for sleep for me. I do also find i must be relaxed for it to work better. So i read before going to sleep.

Hi glassbird,

I can definitely relate to what you're saying as I'm also naturally introverted and have difficulty outwardly expressing my emotions, but I'm aware how damaging this can be in terms of stability.

In my case, I also feel I've learnt to do an extremely convincing 'cover up job' of any painful emotions, as I have always had an emotionally and verbally abusive home life. However, to the rest of the world, we had to present an image of a wholesome, middle-class family. Perhaps this partly fuels the irritability of my hypomania and anger/rage of my mania.

Right now, I'm working on becoming more assertive rather than always ultra-polite. Daily exercise, meditation and, as thebetterhalf says, reading at night can help with this. I keep a journal as well, and writing down my thoughts can be cathartic.

I hope this issue improves for you in time. Good luck.

Have you considered trying a medication that can help with anger? I was struggling with this issue, and my Pdoc tried out Quetiapine, guanfacine, and then clonadine...all three of which helped me be a less generally angry person. I only switched around between the three because of other med changes.

l'ennui wrote:Hi glassbird,

Right now, I'm working on becoming more assertive rather than always ultra-polite. Daily exercise, meditation and, as thebetterhalf says, reading at night can help with this. I keep a journal as well, and writing down my thoughts can be cathartic.

Totally. When you have a lot of mixed feelings it can be difficult enough to really recognise whats going on, let alone express it. I started keeping a journal on me at all times, just a little one, to record stuff that goes on during the day. I check it out if I need to "connect the dots". I'm working on assertiveness, luckily I go to group therapy once a week so I have a chance to do something about it.