Why do i get aggravated easily

What causes irritability? Symptoms, severity, and treatments

When a person feels irritable, small things that would not usually bother them can make them feel annoyed or agitated. The resulting tension can make a person more sensitive to stressful situations.

Irritability is a common emotion. Many factors can cause or contribute to irritability, including life stress, a lack of sleep, low blood sugar levels, and hormonal changes.

Extreme irritability, or feeling irritable for an extended period, can sometimes indicate an underlying condition, such as an infection or diabetes. It may also be a sign of a mental health condition, such as anxiety or depression.

People may experience the following symptoms along with increased irritability:

confusion or difficulty concentrating
excessive sweating
a rapid heartbeat
fast or shallow breathing

In this article, we look at what can cause irritability in adults and children and provide tips for managing irritability.

Share on PinterestLife stress is one of the major causes of irritability.

Going through a stressful period can make a person feel more irritable than usual.

When someone experiences a stressful life event — which may tie in with work, school, trauma, or grief — they may find it more difficult to manage their emotions and can become overwhelmed. They may feel less tolerant of the people around them.

Feeling overwhelmed by life stress is normal, but prolonged periods of stress can lead to emotional exhaustion. Recognizing the early signs of stress and taking steps to relieve this feeling can help people avoid burnout.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) provide useful tips for coping with life stress.

Depression affects nearly 16 million adults in the United States. It can manifest in a wide range of symptoms and often causes persistent sadness, fatigue, and irritability.

One of the early signs of depression or a depression relapse is stronger feelings of irritability.

Irritability is more likely to be one of the symptoms of depression in men than in women, and it often occurs alongside aggressive feelings, risk-taking, and substance abuse.

The National Institute of Mental Health state that people may have depression if they experience any of the following symptoms for 2 or more weeks:

feelings of guilt, worthlessness, or hopelessness
loss of interest in once pleasurable activities
fatigue
concentration or memory problems
headaches
digestive problems
sudden changes in appetite or weight

Not everyone experiences every symptom of depression. Symptoms can vary in severity and duration.

Feelings of anxiety often arise in response to stressful situations in life, such as problems at work, preparing for an important exam, or going through significant life changes. This type of anxiety usually goes away once the stressful situation passes.

However, anxiety may linger or worsen over time and can severely affect a person’s daily activities, work performance, and personal relationships.

If a person has excessive anxiety or worry that lasts for 6 months or longer, they may have generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), which affects up to 20% of adults in the U.S. each year.

The symptoms of GAD can occur in other types of anxiety disorder and may include:

irritability
a rapid heart rate
shallow breathing
muscle tension
difficulty concentrating or making decisions
problems falling asleep or staying asleep

People may also experience panic attacks. A panic attack refers to a period of intense fear that develops with little to no warning and peaks within minutes. The exact triggers vary from person to person, and they may not always be apparent.

People who experience panic attacks may find themselves worrying about when the next attack will occur. They might go out of their way to avoid situations, places, or behaviors that could trigger an attack. Thinking about triggers and panic attacks can make a person feel overwhelmed and irritable.

The term phobia describes an intense fear or aversion to a certain object, person, or situation.

Thinking about or having exposure to the phobic situation or item can make a person feel overwhelmed, panicky, and more irritable than usual.

People who have a phobia disorder may feel intense fear or anxiety about:

flying
heights
needles
blood
being outside
social situations
specific animals, such as dogs or snakes

Share on PinterestA lack of sleep can cause a person to feel irritable the next day.

Not getting enough sleep, or sleep deprivation, can make a person feel irritable the next day. Children are especially likely to be unusually irritable or emotional if they have not had enough good quality sleep.

If a person feels tired all of the time or finds that sleeping does not make them feel refreshed, they may have a sleep disorder that causes them to wake up regularly at night, such as insomnia or sleep apnea.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) state that one in three adults do not get enough sleep. They recommend that adults get at least 7 hours of sleep per night. Teenagers should get 8–10 hours per night, while babies may need up to 16 hours.

Getting enough good quality sleep is important for health. It plays a role in boosting mental performance, concentration, and immune system function, and it also reduces the risk of heart disease and depression.

People can boost their quality of sleep by adopting the following practices to improve their sleep hygiene:

avoiding eating large meals and drinking caffeine and alcohol before bedtime
sleeping in a dark, quiet room
removing electronic devices, such as televisions, computers, and phones from the bedroom
trying to fall asleep and wake up at the same time every day, including at weekends
getting regular exercise

What causes irritability? Symptoms, severity, and treatments

When a person feels irritable, small things that would not usually bother them can make them feel annoyed or agitated. The resulting tension can make a person more sensitive to stressful situations.

Irritability is a common emotion. Many factors can cause or contribute to irritability, including life stress, a lack of sleep, low blood sugar levels, and hormonal changes.

People may experience the following symptoms along with increased irritability:

confusion or difficulty concentrating
excessive sweating
a rapid heartbeat
fast or shallow breathing

In this article, we look at what can cause irritability in adults and children and provide tips for managing irritability.

Share on PinterestLife stress is one of the major causes of irritability.

Going through a stressful period can make a person feel more irritable than usual.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) provide useful tips for coping with life stress.

Depression affects nearly 16 million adults in the United States. It can manifest in a wide range of symptoms and often causes persistent sadness, fatigue, and irritability.

One of the early signs of depression or a depression relapse is stronger feelings of irritability.

Irritability is more likely to be one of the symptoms of depression in men than in women, and it often occurs alongside aggressive feelings, risk-taking, and substance abuse.

The National Institute of Mental Health state that people may have depression if they experience any of the following symptoms for 2 or more weeks:

feelings of guilt, worthlessness, or hopelessness
loss of interest in once pleasurable activities
fatigue
concentration or memory problems
headaches
digestive problems
sudden changes in appetite or weight

Not everyone experiences every symptom of depression. Symptoms can vary in severity and duration.

However, anxiety may linger or worsen over time and can severely affect a person’s daily activities, work performance, and personal relationships.

If a person has excessive anxiety or worry that lasts for 6 months or longer, they may have generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), which affects up to 20% of adults in the U.S. each year.

The symptoms of GAD can occur in other types of anxiety disorder and may include:

irritability
a rapid heart rate
shallow breathing
muscle tension
difficulty concentrating or making decisions
problems falling asleep or staying asleep

The term phobia describes an intense fear or aversion to a certain object, person, or situation.

Thinking about or having exposure to the phobic situation or item can make a person feel overwhelmed, panicky, and more irritable than usual.

People who have a phobia disorder may feel intense fear or anxiety about:

flying
heights
needles
blood
being outside
social situations
specific animals, such as dogs or snakes

Share on PinterestA lack of sleep can cause a person to feel irritable the next day.

People can boost their quality of sleep by adopting the following practices to improve their sleep hygiene:

avoiding eating large meals and drinking caffeine and alcohol before bedtime
sleeping in a dark, quiet room
removing electronic devices, such as televisions, computers, and phones from the bedroom
trying to fall asleep and wake up at the same time every day, including at weekends
getting regular exercise

EVERYTHING IS FUCKING. How to stop being angry about everything? Instructions - Meduza

Anything can cause anger, irritation and an outburst of anger - including keys that cannot be found at the bottom of the bag, or stupid comments on social networks. Or you are denied a well-deserved (in your opinion) promotion. Or, for example, you are late for work - and suddenly a child spills freshly squeezed orange juice on a white and ironed shirt. All of this is VERY FUCKING. On the one hand, feeling angry is quite natural, it is a basic emotion. On the other hand, your relatives suffer from your intemperance, and in general, it’s hard to get angry all the time. At the request of Meduza, Alyona Prihidko, PhD in Psychology and an expert in emotional regulation, explained what to do if you are often angry, unable to control yourself, and lash out at others (and want to deal with it).

If you like to rage , put this instruction aside and read about censorship on Facebook or an investigation into how Igor Chaika's business partners receive state money for Muscovites going to paid toilets.

So, everything irritates you - and it is this that irritates you first of all. In any family, there are so-called patterns of emotional response: even in childhood, we learn to control ourselves by watching adults - through imitation and identification with parents or loved ones. If the elders allowed themselves aggression, then the child can learn to express his feelings with screams and fists. Restraint is basically a social skill: someone learns to manage their emotions (for example, by evaluating the consequences in advance), and someone is not able to cope with them. Or doesn't want to. In addition, anger is an emotion of a socially privileged person: a boss can express anger at a subordinate, but not vice versa. It's the same with parents and children.

If you feel that you have anger management problems and want to fix it, consider that the first step has already been taken.

Analyze your triggers

Triggers are situations, people, thoughts that make you feel intense emotions. For example, for parents, the most common trigger is the disobedience of the child. The traditional model of family and parenting implies that the child must obey the parent in everything. If this does not happen, parents feel that their authority is undermined - and this ultimately causes anger and aggression. Especially if before my eyes there was the experience of my own mothers and fathers, who resolved controversial issues with a cry or even physical punishment. Or someone may absolutely hate being late: if your friend is late (never happened before, and here again!), You literally begin to shake. Anger arises where we care, and where we are especially sensitive.

Therefore, you need to study your triggers - in order to prepare for the situation in advance. For example, if you know that your friend is constantly late, then you can take a coloring book with you if it calms you down. Or turn on music that lifts your spirits while you wait. In addition, remember that any action has its own reason - even chronic lateness or unwillingness to do homework.

Be prepared for an outburst of anger

A well-known proverb says: if you knew where you fell, you would spread straw. You need to prepare in advance for the fact that you will get angry: think about how to remind yourself to stop and not dive into the emotional funnel. Imagine how you pour hot coffee into a large cup: you pour, pour, pour - and in the end it pours over the edge right onto your bare foot. It hurts, it's embarrassing, and the consequences must be eliminated. This would not have happened if you had followed your actions and stopped in time. But for this you need to be attentive to your feelings, know the size of the cup and the temperature of the drink. So it is with anger.

If you know in advance in which situations you can experience it and in which situations it is especially difficult for you to cope with yourself, then it will be much easier for you to stop it at the very beginning and exhale. And then there will be no breakdown. Signs of an approaching outburst of rage can be different: someone begins to clench their fists or their neck warms up, someone feels that they are out of breath. Watch yourself, remember what is happening to you - and then it will be easier to cope with the impulse.

Change your way of thinking

Emotions, including anger, are directly related to thoughts. It could be thoughts about how terribly wronged you are, or that life is fundamentally unfair. Marsha Linehan, creator of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, offers a metaphor for "teflon consciousness". Imagine that your consciousness is like a Teflon frying pan, from which even the remains of a burnt scrambled egg easily slip off - straight into the trash. And now bad thoughts are slipping away, and you are peacefully drinking coffee that has not overflowed from the cup. No matter how tired the word "mindfulness" (or mindfulness) has been lately, this is it.

It is interesting and useful to look even deeper and understand what your values basically influence your anger - what role it plays in your relationships with other people. Our emotions are functional: being angry with a person, we try to convey to him that his behavior is unacceptable for us. Think about how exactly you can explain this without anger? Most likely, it will turn out that the same goals can be achieved in a much less aggressive way.

Use the environment for peaceful purposes

In a fit of anger, we often want to throw something at the wall or even at the person we are angry with. Throwing plates, throwing things or hitting a pillow is a classic of unrestrained display of anger. In fact, these are aggressive actions that can only recharge your anger.

To calm down, you can use the surrounding objects or stop words. Emotional regulation specialist, Stanford University professor James Gross calls them "helping elements." For example, in the film Anger Management, Jack Nicholson's character, a psychotherapist, taught his clients to chant the strange word "gu-usfraba" in a moment of acute anger. “Gu-usfra-a-a-aba,” the clients sang and gradually calmed down: they associated this nonsense with the psychotherapy group, gave a pause and threw a bridge between anger and the ability to pull themselves together.

Let's say you know how difficult it is to put children to bed, but you don't want to raise your voice or punish them. Not only the rules in relations with children will help, but also work on yourself. For example, you can hang a print on the wall in the form of the frontal lobes of the brain (which are responsible for managing emotions) and write on it: “Calm down! Take care of the neurons! Or, for example, a colleague annoys you for some reason. Put a postcard to yourself with the inscription "Breathe" next to the computer - and every time anger rolls over you, you will remember that you need to breathe - for example, on the count of ten. Finally, it's important to remember that anger is the emotion needed to attack, so exercise is a good way to deal with it.

Don't try to "show things off" during a fight

If you want to talk to a loved one about being angry, it's best to do so before you get "pissed". You can talk about what upsets or annoys you and what you would like to change. Maybe you have ideas how - or you want to find a way together. Try not to blame or "make claims": this is also a kind of aggression, which again can result in a quarrel or a serious conflict. During a quarrel, in principle, you should not try to solve the problem. In the case of most other emotions, to cope with them, it helps to talk about your feelings. But with anger and anger, everything is more difficult. If you are already in the heat of a quarrel and start talking about your problems and emotions aggressively, anger can only increase.

Remember that emotions can be "infected"

There is such a relatively studied phenomenon as emotional contagion. This is an unconscious process associated with empathy: we "intercept" someone else's emotion non-verbally, through facial expressions, gestures, and direction of gaze. Scientists say that this can even happen remotely (for example, if you watch a video), and sadness is more “contagious” than joy.

Of course, this is not always the case. In order for this to happen, the person "transmitting" an emotion to you must express emotions brighter than you, but at the same time not worry about your feelings. Like, for example, a small and desperately sobbing child. It is important to notice such moments, protect your boundaries, not succumb to someone else's anger and again try to remain calm.

Don't be afraid to study yourself

Be sure to analyze yourself - after all, it won't be worse than it is. Watch how your reactions arise: from a situation to an emotion, then to a clear thought, a desire to do something, and, finally, a real action.

Let's say you're stuck in traffic on your way to an important meeting. First you feel angry, then swear to yourself, then you start to panic (“horror, I’m late, what will happen now, everything is gone”), then you feel like ramming the cars in front, like in GTA, and as a result, you press hard on beep.

If you carefully observe your anger for several days, you will begin to notice patterns in reactions and their ins and outs. For example, Emotionally Focused Therapists note that anger is often a secondary emotion that masks fear, anxiety, shame, or guilt. And anger is a kind of disguise, like the lid of a saucepan, under which completely different feelings seethe.

Did this manual piss you off? Let's discuss in the chat!

Alena Prihidko

What to do when everything annoys you. Psychological advice

Health

Author Alexandra Egorova

July 14, 2020

Do you notice that you overreact to little things? Do you chastise colleagues and lash out at loved ones? Increased irritability can signal unresolved problems or be a symptom of an illness. In any case, irritability must be dealt with.

The material was checked and commented by Olga Kitaina - psychologist, founder of the service for the selection of psychologists Alter

What is irritability

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This state is often described as a mood. Unlike outbursts of anger or aggression, which are usually caused by specific events, irritability monotonously accompanies a person for some time. In everyday life, this is called "everything infuriates." Even the most minor everyday difficulties or setbacks — coffee suddenly ran out, a shoelace broke, a friend was late for a meeting — cause a distinct negative reaction [1], which seems too emotional.

Everything turns out one to one (only in a bad sense), a person does not expect anything good, and the next mistake is perceived with tired irritation and even gloomy satisfaction, as it makes it possible to express everything in the face of the first person who comes across.

Everyone can experience irritability, but it is not always a cause for alarm. We can talk about increased irritability, including in children and adolescents [2], if it interferes with normal life: it makes work difficult, overshadows communication with loved ones, and deprives them of the usual joys.

Causes of irritability

They can be divided into two large groups [3]: psychological and physiological. Unfortunately, this division does not give an answer in which cases you need to go to the doctor, and in which a person can handle it himself. The first group includes both temporary stress and serious psychological conditions that require attention from a specialist, such as bipolar disorder. The second also includes completely different conditions: lack of sleep and diabetes, unbalanced nutrition and toothache. Some conditions can be caused by infections (flu), others by hormonal disorders.

In women, additional causes of irritability can be premenstrual syndrome, menopause, polycystic ovary syndrome, and some others. In addition, irritability as a symptom of conditions common to both sexes [4] is more common in women.

In order to provide the doctor with the necessary information already at the first appointment or to cope on your own, it is worth observing your condition. Of course, as long as you don't feel any pain (like a toothache), you don't have a fever or other obvious signs that you need to go to the doctor immediately.

What can be done at home

When you visit a general practitioner or specialist, the doctor will probably ask about your habits, daily routine, nutrition and physical activity, stress level. He will ask you to tell about the diseases of your relatives and the drugs you are taking, because irritability can also be a side effect of taking medications [5].

If you don't get enough sleep on a regular basis, you don't exercise enough, and you don't follow nutritional guidelines, you'll have to deal with this. Observations of oneself can be made the basis on which it is realistic to build physical and psychological comfort.

It is ideal to keep a diary of emotions and nutrition, note workouts and sleep time. Brief explanations will suffice, indicating probable causes (both physiological and emotional). In order to structure observations, you can indicate your state of one of the template marks. It can be, for example, a smiley or one of the pre-selected words. It is better to keep notes electronically, so you can quickly print your notes or email them to your doctor.

Psychological causes of irritability

chronic stress;
poorly developed coping skills;
insufficient self-care (not enough sleep, food, time for hobbies and loved ones).

Irritability can also be a symptom of depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and other illnesses.

It is fundamentally important to understand whether you did not get enough sleep or do not tolerate being late at all? Headache unsettles you or are you sick of work? These states may overlap. And only observation and respect for yourself and others will help you figure it out.

How not to hurt the feelings of those who are dear to you

Honesty is the best policy both with yourself and with your loved ones. Tell what you are experiencing. Not necessarily in all the details - only what you are ready to share, and what seems appropriate to you. If you explain to relatives and friends that your irritability is not a manifestation of hostility towards them, but a consequence of circumstances or your internal processes, it will be easier for them to understand and support you. To learn how to pronounce problems and accurately determine your condition, it is useful to develop emotional intelligence.

Psychologist's comment

Olga Kitaina, psychologist, founder of the Alter psychologist selection service: “In a certain situation, irritability is useful - it signals that our boundaries have been violated, our values are under threat, something is not going according to plan. We tend to think of irritability as something bad, while anger can be experienced positively as a feeling of vitality and energy. Irritability becomes a problem when it leads to a reaction that is inappropriate for a stimulus, which in turn can lead to difficulties at work or in personal life.

Feeling annoyed is part of our lives and is absolutely normal, but we must remember that a certain reaction may be read by others as a violation of their rights and boundaries.

How to cope with irritability when it becomes a problem

During an attack

). This breathing helps to relax.
Distract - try to distract yourself with something that will take your thoughts away from the irritant.
Ventilate emotions - you can “reset” emotions in a useful way: move to a place where no one sees or hears you and yells into a pillow, tear paper that no one needs, inflate a balloon. All this makes it possible to channel the emotional charge that has arisen without harming anyone.
Transition to assertive behavior [6] - learning not only to act out an emotional reaction, but also to take steps that would help correct the situation that causes an acute reaction. We always have a choice of reaction, we need to learn to catch a pause between the stimulus and our response to it and make a choice that is more useful for us.

After an attack

Develop awareness and acceptance skills. Mindfulness techniques will help you develop your ability to linger between stimulus and response and choose more appropriate behavior. And developing acceptance skills will help you not perceive more stimuli as annoying. How to learn it? There is a lot of literature on the topic of mindfulness, there are applications that help in the development of this skill, you can find specialized trainings and classes. Psychotherapy, especially Acceptance and Responsibility Therapy (TPO), is helpful in developing acceptance techniques.
After you've shown irritability in a bad way, say offended someone, you might want to think about what you can do to minimize the damage, such as apologizing.
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