Inappropriate Anger (No-BPD)

Written by Dr. Leland Heller

QUESTION:

Lately I have been having some anger episodes. ok, my situation is this: my husband's mother is staying with us for a few months, and since she came here, I've been going into rages over the littlest things. For example: She takes over the kitchen by cooking and cleaning, and I get angry about it because I start to think that she thinks it is her house and possibly thinking I can't do it myself. Tonight we had a friend over and he said to me to not use the dishwasher because it takes too much energy. I felt like screaming at him, "what do you care, this isn't your house, and you don't pay the electric bill" and I just walked away seething with anger. I slammed the door behind me. About a week ago, I hit my husband in the face. I throw things, sometimes, and I cry. It's surely not PMS, either. And then before I know it, I seem to forget all about what happened and get happy again. I need to know what may be wrong with me. My husband has told me if this keeps up we're going to have to divorce because it is torture for him to live like this with me.

DR. HELLER'S ANSWER:

Your degree of anger seems inappropriate. You seem to be overreacting to feeling devalued. There are many possible reasons for this problem, and they need to be diagnosed and treated.

If you exhibited none of these symptoms until recently it's unlikely to be the BPD. I encourage you to get help ASAP.

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