2d ago

I've been told that I "bottle things up and then explode". How do you not "explode"?

First, don't tell me that the answer is just to "not bottle things up", because that's objectively incorrect too. Society doesn't want you to have any negative emotions. I need to know how to not express negative emotions at all whatsoever unless I'm alone. I know it can be done because it is done in many other people on the planet.

Edit: Ok so I think one of the things I want to try doing next is ask for a med change from my psych provider.

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You need to voice your concerns when they actually come up. The idea that showing emotions is objectively bad is completely false.
You need to learn how to phrase negative comments with a neutral tone. You should not be describing anyone as mean, rude, bitch. Especially not your coworkers. Do you mean straightforward? Concerned? Talkative? Direct? Extroverted? Confident?
- No, my supervisor is actually literally mean. She is mean to everyone and it causes a lot of struggles with everyone. I just have a harder time handling a bully than other people, and she bullies me more often than the rest of my coworkers.
  
  How much of the situation is within your control?
  Perhaps you can't change the supervisor. You can still leave.
  Or perhaps you can change the supervisor (e.g. talk to someone else in the org and get help).
  Or perhaps the way you're reacting is part of the problem, and that is amplifying the problem, and perhaps you can change something about how you're acting, to reduce the problem.
  There are always multiple ways to change a situation, but you have to actively seek them out yourself. People on the internet might give you useful ideas (there are lots in this thread), but they don't have the full context, so they can't give you off-the-shelf answers.
  
  At the moment I have lodged a complaint within the company and asked for a request that I think would help me out. So that is an ongoing process right now. But I am not hopeful because there have been complaints lodged about my supervisor in the past without any helpful resolution.
  Yes, I can leave the position. But I work a small field and everything else about the position is amazing and hard to come by. But my sanity is constantly being pushed over the edge by that person.
  
  That sounds fucked, dude. Best of luck with your complaint.
  TBH now that you say this, it sounds like might be in a similar situation to me at my last job, which I persevered with for 3 years of riding burn-out (because the work was almost ideal for me, and the people were mostly amazing), and then quit.
  There's already lots of other good suggestions here, but one point that might be worth noting: I think there are two different purposes types of therapy: psychological help (e.g. understanding your own brain, and figuring out ways to change it), and counselling (listening to your problems, and probably offering some professional guidance).
  It sounds to me that given the circumstances you describe above, counselling is probably more immediately valuable - what you really need to do is to get some clear external perspective on your situation, from someone with whom you can share details privately. A good counsellor should be able to help you find multiple paths out of your predicament (you might also benefit from seeing multiple different counsellors, since they will all provide different perspectives). In my experience this really helps to ground your understanding, and helps answer the "Is it me, or them, or something else that's the problem?" question.
  IF that process provides more indication that your angry outburst are because of what's going on in your head, and not just a fairly justified response to a shit situation, THEN maybe it's a good indication that you should look in to psychology or anger management approaches, or similar. If your angry outburst have existed prior to this work situation, then perhaps you could skip the counselling step, but it still might be worth it.
  At my last job I was having angry reactive outbursts (which I had had in the past, but to a much lesser degree, and they were now spilling over onto family and friends), and getting anxiety (which had never happened before). I saw a few psychs and counsellors, and the last one I saw while at work said something like "If you anxiety is about a real work problem, and not an imagined/exaggerated/catastrophised problem, then it's not anxiety, it's stress". That really tripped a switch in my mind, and made the decision to quit super clear. Immediately after handing in my resignation my anxiety levels dropped off a cliff, and my anger slowly dropped back to tolerable levels over the following months.
  
  Thank you for your lengthy message. Many others on here are quick to shun and judge me.
  I actually didn't realize that there was a difference between counselling and therapy. I'm sure I could use both, but that is a good thing to be made aware of. I have both stress and anxiety haha!
  The vast majority of my outbursts are with my supervisor. I do on occasion have it with someone else if I feel they are treating others inappropriately.
  From the internet, a lot of people ask me why I don't just quit. In some scenarios it's not really that simple and really not what I want to do. I don't entirely feel comfortable as to stating all the reasons why, but you just have to trust me on this.
  
  For sure. Quitting is not an option for many.. Job security is hard to come by in a lot of places. I don't think you need to state reasons for it not doing it, it's enough to know you've considered it and it doesn't seem viable to you.

78 comments