Anger Management - What works??

[Lalisa]

I am a person who is easily annoyed and often grumpy for no particular reason. About once a month I explode in a shouting at the top of my lungs dont care what the neighbors think sort of way. It was bad enough when it was just me and long-suffering DH, but now I'm scaring the children and I really need to get this sorted before I ruin their lives.

I thought it was PMS, so I tracked my cycles, rating my feelings for a few months only to discover that despite regular cycles, the angry thing could happen any time in a 3 week period.

I have tried cognitive behavioural therapy. I have tried being a buddhist for a few years. Both helped improve my life in a lot of ways, but through it all, I continued to periodically explode.

Do drugs work? I read that prozac is for depression which I dont think I have.

Anyone been there? Any ideas? Today was a very, very shouty day and I said some horrible things to an innocent 4yr old, so I really have to get this thing sorted.

Thanks.

I have had problems with anger, due to bad childhood and now problems with marriage, and my counselloe has suggested getting a punch bag which apparently really helps to get anger out of your system (and helps to keep fit too!).
A bit extreme, I know, but it may work.
I am also worried about my shouting at the dc's. It isn't fair on them is it?

There is a kind of depression called irritable depression that can manifest itself in the way you describe-- ADs can help with this.

What is ADs ?

Sorry, just realised, you mean anti depressants, dont you?

You need to find out why you are so angry. You need to investigate the root cause. I used to get very angry all the time and I know that it's because of the way I was treated as a child. Now if I feel myself getting angry for something which I don't think a 'normal' person would, I say to myself "I'm angry because my mother didn't love me", (sounds strange, but it does help).

thanks mbitg I've never heard of irritable depression - from what I've googled it looks like it might be related to bipolar disorder which sounds a bit scary...

Jerryernie - you're right, I really should try to find the root cause. I've just always been very sceptical of that classical therapy/freudian approach - am far from convinced that knowing the cause of the behaviour would enable me to change it, hence my attraction to pragmatic short term CBT in the past.

ok, action plan so far:

1. get a few hours of weekly childcare so I can...

2)get a break from the kids every now and hopefully reduce overall stress and have time to

3)go back to cbt therapist regularly again, possibly checking with him if CBT is really the best way to get at root causes and asking for referral

4)talk to gp to find out what is available on the NHS, whether counselling or drugs

Sorry, was off for a while there; yes ADs are anti-depressants. Irritable depression does look pretty dire when you google it but I think most of the things coming up are very extreme cases. I only know about it from a friend who had similar moods to what lalisa and stirlingmum describe and went on Prozac for a few months which seemed to sort it out. She seems to be fine since coming off it too. Don't know how helpful this third hand info is! But your action plan looks like a good start.