Problems controlling anger...!

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I had a traumatizing situation nearly 3 years ago. The thing is that it was in a locked ward in a psychiatry.

Since that time I get "anger attacks" sometimes when I talk or think about what happened in the psychiatry and it can also happen that I get anger attacks towards other therapists/psychiatrists.
Sometimes I even have the feeling I want to hurt my self when I think about the trauma (I've NEVER actually hurt myself and I NEVER had that feeling before that trauma).

I would like to know how to handle those intense emotions?

You are allowed to be angry. A good therapist will allow you to direct your anger at them, if necessary. Should anger spill over into harm of self or others, then there is a problem which you need to address.

When I feel rage, I notice it wants to express itself physically - however this physicality doesn't necessarily need to involve violence. For me, running, sharp movement or shadow boxing are all sufficient to express this need to be physical without causing harm to myself or others. Have you tried anything like that?

Hello CuriousBlue and wellcome to WP.

Well I have the feeling I don't have the right and also I don't like it myself when my emotions get too intense.
I'm ashamed of it.



Usually I'm like "blocked", I can't really do anything, freeze, get anxious and when it gets out, those emotions, they change into anger and rage. I haven't found a way to let them out any other way, but I'll talk to my therapist about it, but I've the feeling that the advices my therapist gives me doesn't really help.
I've been there approx. 10 times I guess and I've also talked to my psychiatrist about it, who is very good and I like a lot, but I'm just there once in 6 weeks for 20 minutes, that's why I started therapy in addition. My psychiatrist meant, I've the right to decide for my own if I want to stay or not or make a break for a while or something. But I can also try, also because my insurence just pays for 25 therapy settings and I've already 10, so just approx. 15 left.

I dunno.
But at the moment I feel it's "too much" again with therapy and stuff and I'm not sure if it helps me or even harms me like in the past and I've to find a different way to deal with that what happened!?

That sounds like PTSD - cognitive behavioural therapy should help, but will take some time to get to where you want to be.
The sooner you start the easier it will be to get this under control, and the more effective it will be.
Don't be like me and let it turn into a short fuse anger problem, or you'll find yourself with few friends and family distancing themselves from you.
You may have needed to be hospitalised, but that sort of thing is known to cause trauma, and of course is only worse for us Aspies as we like order, routine, and control, which is all surrendered when you go to the funny farm.

I thought PTSD is more extreme?



The thing is that first I had claustrophobia and totally freaked there and second legally they would have been just allowed to keep me 72 hours BUT they kept me 14 days and I didn't know back than that they would have to let me go. Since that time I've the feeling that I can't do anything, because if they really want to keep me longer, they just can write that I'm crazy and in 95% of the cases the court will decide in their favour, but I'm really scared of them and I know I would freak again there and the paradoxon is that for them it would be "proof" that they can keep me.
The only thing I have the feeling I can do, is to stay away from there.

I had with that psychiatry to do after that insident when I had a friend over in my house who was suicidal and I called the psychiatry and they didn't come and help (after they found out I have psychological problems myself they didn't took me serious anymore) and after that I called the police, they didn't help either, so my friend drove off with his car and died. But I can't really do anything about it, because officially it was just a car accident. (What can be even correct because he drove off under the influence of alcohol).

I just can't communicate right with them and after all that I get so nervous that I can't talk at all or just say "stupid stuff".

Last edited by Raziel on 15 Jul 2013, 3:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I have PTSD and my issues sound milder than yours.

Raziel, I'm very sorry about your friend. And for that hospital not to take it seriously, Wow, that is a failure of professional ethics. And also a failure of professional ethics on the part of police.

If you wish to officially report it, you might be able to do some good for other people, with emphasis on might. And I think you do read the overall situation pretty well, for they do try and discredit people who report situations which are uncomfortable to the institution.

You have good reason to be angry at psychiatrists, you asked for help in a serious situation and they looked for excuses not to take it seriously.

Now, if you walk in there by yourself and say I wish to report an incident, there's a good chance it will be this weird, bizarro conversation in which they are telling you the steps, also trying to dissuade you, also giving you the cold shoulder. If you instead walk in with an advocate that's off the table. You are there to make a complaint. The person might a little bit give you the cold shoulder, but they're likely to be quite a bit more professional.

In the U.S. we have NAMI, National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, who I would think wants everyone struggling with thoughts of suicide to be taken seriously, certainly if the person is in imminent danger. Some cities have ASAN, Autistic Self-Advocacy Network, chapters vary widely. But it really seems like the first kind of group would be spot-on for this professional failing.

And please don't battle with them out of some misplaced sense of obligation, that's dry as dust and is very unmotivating. But if it kind of whets your appetite, especially the outside chance of victory, then it might be worth doing. And your odds are significantly better having an advocate with you.

Last edited by AardvarkGoodSwimmer on 15 Jul 2013, 3:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

In how far?

The (you could say) "FBI" (we have a bit different system) investigated in the death of my friend and I had to tell them what I know what happened and so on, and they said in the end that we'll never know for sure what happened with my friend, but he drove of the car with high speed in a curve and tried to stop the car before that, so in the end it was at least to some part an accident.



I told my insurence, they didn't do anything, but I told them to erase a diagnostic document that the psychiatry had send them from my documents and after several months they did.

I wrote the psychiatry that if anything will happen again and if they'll send any other documents about me (without my aproval) to anyone I'll take legal measures.
After that letter of mine, I haven't heart from them again.

But all that is not that long ago.

PTSD test:

Cureent score is: 12

PTSD Test Scoring:

* 1-3 (fiew symptoms of PTSD)
* 4-9 (PTSD likely)
* 10+ (You display many symptoms of PTSD)

I still dunno what to think about it...!

Good for you for writing a letter to the psychiatry. Now, they are a goofy institution, you know that. And just by being an institution, they can be clumsy and awkward.

So, it's good to have a back-up plan. And this can be as straightforward as being prepared to tell a doctor, I want to be treated with respect, just like any patient. And yes, if it comes down to it, you might need to find a lawyer who believes persons with psychological problems have the same rights as anyone else.

I wrote with another hospital, who have a smaller psychiatric part. It's not exactly next to me, but usually I've to go to this psychiatry in my town and the other hospital is a more religious one, so the usuall regulations don't count for them. I asked them if they would take me if I would have to go to a hospital and they told me "yes" and the waiting list there is usually just two weeks long.

I'm actually more agnostic, but I don't have problems with religion and it was the easiest way "out" for me of this situation.

Ok then, Anger. The psycologists in the know will tell you to take a step back from your anger and rate it out of ten. Become a passive observer within yourself. Acknowledge your anger as a right and just emotion; don't try and fight it. Just observe.

I will spout this advice easily, but then, I'm not sure if that really works either. For myself, I never express my anger- good girls don't get mad; good girls forgive. Maybe I should more often. I've heard it's healthy. Bottled up inside is obscure anger - moral outrage - at so many of the things I have seen in the course of my work. Frustration at the stupidity and weakness of others in decision making positions. And above all, anger at myself for doing nothing about it except within my convenient reach. I know that standing up for what I believe in will result in an elimination plan by others. I've been there before.

I believe that it was anger that sparked the bipolar gene in me, and anger that propels it. Beware the pointless fury. Dispel it however you can.

Okay, that sounds like a good back-up plan. And a hospital is likely removed enough from the actual religion to be relaxed and middle-of-the-road about it.

I myself am atheist/agnostic but . . . I'm not all that relaxed about it. Starting with 7th grade (age 12) my family went to this church that was too dogmatic, fundamentalist and judgmental and I bought into it. For about a year and a half, I believed in most if what they believed in. And the youth group was even more dogmatic, fundamentalist, etc, than the main church. I left at age 15. The whole episode was stressful and disruptive to my life.

So, I try to look at religion more relaxed view. And sometimes I succeed.

I'm meeting one of the psychiatrists who cause all that trouble, by just seeing me back than for 5(!) minutes.

I caused him what's happened, that he missdiagnosed me back than, with what I'm diagnosed now, what happened out of my view and that I want to talk. I was mad like sh*t, but he answered very polite.

I took the test. I scored a 9.