Depression and Anger

I have been dealing with depression for some time now. I am a teenage girl, I have a therapist and I think that she has been helping me, and I have been controlling my depression pretty good for the last few weeks. But today (actually maybe a half-hour or so ago) I couldn't get my phone to work right (I was trying to post something to Facebook) and I got OVERWHELMINGLY angry about it (way more than I should have). I finally got it all to work and then I feel into a really bad depression (which is where I am, now). Does anyone else get like this? Are those things related? This has happened to me, before, but usually I am depressed, first, and then I get angry. I try so hard to keep my anger under control, but I just can't seem to do it, sometimes.

Randi wrote:I have been dealing with depression for some time now. I am a teenage girl, I have a therapist and I think that she has been helping me, and I have been controlling my depression pretty good for the last few weeks. But today (actually maybe a half-hour or so ago) I couldn't get my phone to work right (I was trying to post something to Facebook) and I got OVERWHELMINGLY angry about it (way more than I should have). I finally got it all to work and then I feel into a really bad depression (which is where I am, now). Does anyone else get like this? Are those things related? This has happened to me, before, but usually I am depressed, first, and then I get angry. I try so hard to keep my anger under control, but I just can't seem to do it, sometimes.

I know what you mean. It's hard to control our emotions, especially when we're teenagers. When you feel overwhelming anger again, recognize that you're excessively angry and try to relax. Breathing exercises are useful. Realize that the frustration is not real.

Thank you, Vinylvanilla. I really don't know why I can't control it, sometimes. Most of the time I do control it, but when it comes out it is bad. I yelled at my dog and scared him and I hate that I did that. I feel terrible about it.

The anger might also signify a different disorder than depression itself. I have bipolar disorder, which was misdiagnosed as depression for 8 years. My manic episodes -- luckily rare nowadays -- often make me angry and irritable, and I have very little control over it. This is not to say you have bipolar -- only your psychiatrist can determine that -- but it could be a possible explanation. I suggest talking to your psychiatrist or therapist about the anger outbursts.

My last therapist thought that I might be bipolar (because of the anger and because of other behaviors that I have: sexual acting out and fighting), but my psychiatrist doesn't think so. The anger really does seem to be a part of my depression. Normally I don't get really angry (unless it is for good reason), except when I am depressed. But I think this is the first time I have felt the unreasonable anger first, and THEN the depression. I feel better, now, though I am still kind of down, but not nearly like I was on Thursday. And Thursday should have been a happy day for me. I just don't understand WHY I am this way. My doctor tells me it is purely biological, and intellectually I can understand that, but then everyone else tells me "SOMETHING must have set it off", but I can't think of anything on Thursday that did that.