Why am I so short tempered?

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This morning I snapped at my partner for staring at me me too much. And for trying to make me eat when I didn't want to. And for sitting too close to me. But mostly for staring at me too much.

Afterwards I was horrified at myself. How could I snap at her for something so small?

I think maybe it was because she interupted my Youtube video and the conversation I was having with someone over Twitter while I was trying to organise some files on my computer. I think the reason having some activity interupted makes me furious is an executive function problem. I have little short term memory so I can forget what I was doing very easily and then it takes me a long time to get started again.

Not that I'm trying to make excuses. I just want to know how I can prevent it happening again.

Stop the multi-tasking?

I sometimes get a little frustrated when asked to do something when I am focused on something else, or just leaving the room to do something. Ultimately, I chose it would be better to just do the task asked and then get back to what I was doing. If what I was doing was important, I will remember to do it.

Perhaps it's best to talk to your partner as well to determine what you want to do peacefully and accept what you will allow her to interrupt. After all, if you are going to be a father, your attention will be required more often than not on your partner and soon to be child.

When you feel irritation come to the surface, try to realize that she is your lady and she doesn’t want to be treated roughly.

Did you say you were sorry for the outburst?

Yes this is the problem.

@RetroGamer87 it's a good thing you are so self-aware. I think you're way ahead of where I was at your age.

I have exactly the same problem. In my work I have to hold a lot of variables in my head to complete a task and if I am interrupted, I have to start over from the beginning. I've explained to my husband what the situation is and he has learned to back off from asking me stuff when I am working, or waiting till I have a good stopping point. Then I stop and give him my full attention. I think he appreciates that.

I snap at my girlfriend a bit too sometimes. I also do worse like have meltdowns directed at her cuz she did something that triggered em like freaking out about something or getting upset & taking things out on me that don't have much to do with me. I know Cass cant really help it cuz of her anxiety & depression & problems handling stress & she's moody in general but I have limits on what I can deal with. I sometimes feel I get annoyed easily in general thou. I started seeing a psychiatrist to try & work on this & he made a med change that's helping a little. He reduced my antidepressant Wellbutrin/Bupropion & I've gotten a little better at biting my tongue. He also just prescribed me the antipsychotic Seroquel/Quetiapine which I'm gonna start taking tonight. For the record Cass has been seeing a psychiatrist for years now(different one that the one I see) & he had fairly recently put her on the mood-stabilizer Lamictal/Lamotrigine partly for anger & her moodiness. It's hard to say if it's helping her cuz she's been dealing with a lot of stuff lately like various health issues & family stuff including some deaths. We would both guess that it's helping a little thou but cant really say how much.

I wouldn't suggest you trying the med route thou RetroGamer unless your having problems with anger & moodiness in general or snapping at your girlfriend is a fairly regular occurrence. If this is a one time thing, I would highly recommend apologizing & doing something to make it up to her as well as trying to explain to her why it made you upset & suggest ways your & her can help minimize that. If this is a more serious issue, other ideas might be therapy & couple's counseling.

Nick brings up a good point. Learning to bite one's tongue is one of the most useful skills in relationships, in the sense that expressed anger toward a loved one causes irreparable damage.

It also goes beyond that. Body language/facial expressions can do the damage if your silent with your words. It only takes an eye roll, a sigh, even the way you take a deep breath in an attempt to bite your tongue.

Oh yeah. When stuff like that happens at work. I used to have this supervisor who thought he could speed people up by micromanaging them. It usually had the opposite effect. Often when I was just getting the hang of a complex task he'd come and start asking questions about it.

It's funny how doing a task and explaining what I was doing feel like two very different tasks. I guess I was thinking about the task in more of a visual way so then when someone asked me what I was doing I couldn't find words to explain it in the most basic way.

By the time I uhmm and err my way into a rudimentary and childlike explination of what I'm doing (especially difficult if I'm doing it in an unconventioanl way), I've lost the grove of what I was actually doing.

One incident that particually stood out was when the micromanager expected me to read some instructions while also listening to him talk. Really? He really thinks while I have to listen to him talk I can read an unrelated text?