Rage over things that don't perform as they should.

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Ever since I was about sixteen I started to get extremely pissed off when things didn't work as they should. Computers that glitch for no discernable reason, bad television reception, doors that don't close right, even clothes that don't keep me as warm as advertised set me off to the point I start breaking things at times. I used to think that I was getting angry because I felt like things should never break with regular use. But after getting angry with some idiot yesterday, I'm pretty sure I was simply funneling my anger towards other people towards machines because smashing my monitor doesn't get me thrown in jail.

I've never been particularly fond of other people. And while I hold myself up to a very high standard, generally speaking I don't expect people to try as hard as I do. For the past few months however, I feel as if I'm surrounded by a world of complete morons.

I expect mistakes to happen. As I said, while I try to be perfect, I try not to expect other people to. But how in the world can people mess up the same crap, over and over again, regardless of the fact that the tiniest amount of common sense or God forbid intelligence would keep them from screwing up? I can step people through sequences and have them make the same mistake less than five seconds later. Even actions that take no skill whatsoever. It's as if they make a conscious effort to NOT pay attention.

Beyond these simple, repeated mistakes, I've been dealing with people that I can classify as little else but stupid as*holes. People that start yelling for no reason, people that curse for no reason, and people just act like a jackass in general towards me. The pinnacle of which was yesterday, where some fellow and his friend decided my air conditioner window unit would make good practice for their air rifle. What in God's name makes someone think it's okay to shoot someone else's property? To top it off, when I told him to stop he insulted me.

To shorten the story, he ended up on the ground minus an air rifle. While I'm not really worried about legal action in this case, I am pretty concerned about what I did. I've been in fights before, but I've never been the one that threw the first punch. The worst part is while it was (incredibly) satisfying when it happened, I just brooded all day afterwards and was still angry.

I feel as if I've stepped over some line and I certainly don't want to get into the habit of hitting people that make me angry. I'd be in court constantly, if nothing else, and I doubt I'll have a good excuse every time. I do plenty to control my anger. I make a true effort to be happy. But my fuse is getting shorter and shorter. I'm not really sure what to do at this point. I can't even stay in my house and have peace apparently.

I hear ya man. It seems that the world no longer cares about common sense, let alone intelligence. I unfortunatly have the same "problem" as you. My mother just bought a crappy mp3 player and wanted me to put songs on it for her. Well, it decided that even though it CLAIMS to have 512mb storage on the player itself, it will only hold UP TO 477mb. Ok, I can deal with that. There's programming on it so that takes up space. I understand this.

Then when I try to actually put on the music, it decides that certain songs dont meet the legal copyright laws so I lose about 15 songs to this. Alright, fine, I can handle that.

Then it decides that it doesn't want to "respond" half way through so it only gets about 90 of the orignal 166 songs(which would have taken up a whopping 461mbs(notice I made sure it would even fit with the whole not holding as much as it advertised it would!)

I tell my mother this while Im brooding because its not working like it should and its brand new. My mother didnt want to spend the extra money on an ipod when I told her it would work better, but its her money and she can spend it as she damn well please. I finally convince her tho, that this mp3 player is a piece of garbage and tell her to get something else. This is when the fun REALLY begins.

In order to make it so no place could tell her she cant take it back, I have to make sure nothing is on it. It seems like an easy process to just select all and press delete. BUT NO, it doesnt want to respond again. No matter how long I wait or unplug and replug, it doesnt want to let me delete whats on the damn mp3 player. I had to lock myself in my room or I would have gone beserk and prolly thrown the damn pice of crap at a wall.

It seems I either have to (like you) take my anger and frustration out on an object(realize I was pissed that my mom ASKED ME what kind of mp3 player to get and then got some cheap piece of sh*t), or worse, I take it out on myself. Im not one of those self mutilators, never will be. What I do instead tho, may actually be worse. I have a problem when rage builds up and there's nothing to punch, I end up hitting myself in the head or something. I mean, I at least know then that if people see me do this, I will look crazy and they will stay away from me/not try to mess with me, and if people dont see this it only hurts me and not something that either doesnt belong to me or is valuable.

Hoorahville
do you work for tech support ?

hoorahville, that reminds me alot of my father, he used to threten to smash computer and even a in dash radio because of things not working right then to find out he wasnt doing it right in the first place, even today, hes trying to get to system info and try to find out what type of cd rom drive his machine uses, i had to show him and take him directly to were the system info for drives was, then starts talking about drives called scuzzy drives i thoguth was what??? scuzzy??? never heard of that as a cdrom drive,

as far as doors that dodnt close right, i never comaplin or distroy it even more, i wind up telling the building owner and offering to fix it! (hence nickname) printers can also be such a bit pain in the mega butt!! ! especially network printers(grrrrr) espeically when tehy have this favorism to what computer it wants to print from(weird)

i wonder have you tryed any other relaxation techniques??

I now get really pissed when things don't work right either. there was this radio in my car that seemed to have a mind of its own. Everytime I tried to play music with a CD, it would hold it in. Also, it didn't want to shut off when i pressed the power button. Sometimes, it would just spontanously change channel for no reason whatever. But then I learned how to fix that and other things....


HAMMER + BROKEN ELECTRONICS = .

Hell yeah, I have all sorts of rage. If i take Ibuprophen though it maginifys the rage factor beyond all reason. I can get mad because the start menu is too far away from my cursor.

Smashed 4 laptop screens last year in rage!!

Grr.. I had a response all typed out with quotes and everything and the freaking computer rebooted on me. I really need to get around to reformating the hard drive.


@Atomika,

I've always wanted to pull an Office Space on my electronics. Unfortunately, after I hit something with a nice jab, I realize if I hit it any harder it's going to stop working completely, then sulk.


@ahayes,

You're the second person I've heard of that ibuprofen messed with them. I never would have thought something like that could affect a person in such a way. Do you know of any documentation describing it? I have an interest in medicine.


@doordoctor,

Np. I'm glad my education came in handy for something at least, lol.

I just realized your nick is doordoctor and we were speaking about broken doors earlier. That's amusing.


@Warren,

I have a problem with taking swings at my monitor too. I don't use anything that's wireless because I know I will end up throwing it one day. I've put fear into my remote controls.

Interesting. This describes me as well. Impatience with stuff that doesn't work, impatience with idiots.

Impatience is probably too mild a word. Extreme impatience? Probably more like rage. When I was 7-8, I smashed in or kitchen cabinets because something didn't work ( I forget what it was now, but I remember kicking the cabinets. Funny...) I put my foot through a wall when I was 8. I wrecked my lawnmower when I was 15 in a rage, took it apart and fixed it, and then destroyed it again the following week, crushing the gas tank with, yes, a swift kick. At work, as an adult, I've kicked office chairs across rooms. I kicked one chair so hard, I completely shattered the seat because of a software problem. When I worked in kitchens, I was known for throwing pans, sometimes at people. Not enough room or low objects to kick, I guess. I also went through a phase of hitting stupid people who bothered me, almost always while drinking. Thankfully I got over that before getting hurt or jailed.

I've gotten better about this, and this only flares up about 1-2x a year now, but it's not good. 99.9% of the time, I'm the quiet, hard working guy, getting stuff done. The other .1% I'm an insane MF who looks and acts like he'll kill everyone. At least I've worked with my current people long enough that they know I'll be fine once I smash something and swear a few times, and they don't take it personally, although I know it spooks them for a week or so.

Computer problems are a real pain!

I broke my old laptop out of rage
Then I got an Optima desktop to replace it. I haven't smashed it yet, but I've hit my fist on the keyboard a few times.