What's wrong with me - help me please. (I'm angry...)

[Anonymous]

I'm you, OP, and I'm sure it's depression. I don't have the energy or the knowledge of where to start looking for help.
Do you exercise regularly?

[Anonymous]

Are you on birth control? I had this happen with tri-phasic birth control pills. Little things would make me fill with rage and not be able to self-calm for hours.

Have you ruled out food allergies? Maybe try an elimination diet to remove dyes, additives or other triggers.

It could be seasonal allergies. My DH has been having an awful sore throat for going on 3 months - Zyrtec helps - so we think it is allergies and they are extra bad this year for some reason. I has a friend who was very depressed / angry for reasons she didn't understand after moving to a different region of the country. After a year, someone at work made a comment about how allergies were really bad there b/c it was a valley. She went on Claritin and she said she was like her old self in a week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm angry all the time, and I can't identify why. I'm married with a 7 and 4 year old, a SAHM. Thankfully my kids are healthy, DH has a good job (tho with really very long hours - counsel at a big firm). We have a nice home. Etc.

But the last few weeks (months?) I've been really angry and I don't know why. Like for ex., taking the kids to the grocery store today when the kids are "can I have this?" and grabbing stuff when that's annoying to everyone, it makes me almost shake with anger but also sadness, like tears in my eyes. Like I can't deal, I'm losing it. I'm snappy with kids, sometimes DH. It's like my rope is FRIED. But I can't figure out what I feel angry at.

I exercise a few times a week, eat pretty healthily. I try to sleep well but often wake up multiple times per night (though fall asleep ok). I even got bloodowrk checking thyroid and that's fine, as are other things like Vit D. I seem healthy. Please help me, I don't know what's wrong with me.

You are getting a lot of suggestions to think about depression and I'm worried that your mind will snap to the points in your first sentence -- stable marriage, healthy kids, financially secure, nice house -- and you'll get down on yourself for not being content with the good things you have. Then you might push yourself to feel happy which will only make you feel more stressed. Don't fall into that cycle/trap. Depression is chemical and happens to people with great lives and shitty lives. If it's depression, it's not you, it's it. If it's just chemical, drugs can help.

On the other hand, as some other PP"s suggested, there could be things in your life with which you are not satisfied but you are suppressing because you feel pressured to be happy with all you have (maybe DH's long hours, maybe the grind of being a SAHM (even if you are happy with your choice, there are still long days and it's a lot of work), maybe something else entirely like your relationshp with family/sick parent/estranged friend/anything). In that case, talk therapy can help to get to the root of it and deal with it. And, maybe meds, too.

Good luck. I think it's great you are a) holding on b) recognzing you and your family deserves for you to feel better and c) reaching out.

[Anonymous]

Op here: thank you so very much for your kind replies. I truly appreciate each one. Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Hormonal? I have noticed I get really sad or very angry 1-2 days before my period. Took me montgs to figure out the connection, but now I know to take it easy, get my Omega-3s, and roll with it. Has happened to a number of my female friends, we are all in our 40s. Best of luck.

[Anonymous]

Anxiety/Depression

[Anonymous]

Dehydrated

[Anonymous]

Yep, depression/anxiety.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dehydrated

??

[Anonymous]

I have angry depression as well. Just like you describe. I take medicine for it. Really helps a lot.

[Anonymous]

Depression. Therapy for the long run and meds at least for now.

[Anonymous]

I have an anxiety and one of the signs of it was my constant irritability and quickness to anger. Hang in there. Just a small dose of an anti-depressant may help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have an anxiety and one of the signs of it was my constant irritability and quickness to anger. Hang in there. Just a small dose of an anti-depressant may help.

Can I ask you to expand a little? I think I have an anxiety problem- but I'm weary of going to talk to someone because I don't want to be on a prescription.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like depression, but therapy and/or meds address the symptoms, not the root cause. Try changing your diet (you say you eat healthy, but conventional wisdom about what is healthy eating is wrong in so many ways).

This is one site that explains the link between digestion and mood: http://chriskresser.com/the-healthy-skeptic-podcast-episode-9

I speak from experience, btw. I had the exact same issues as you. I completely altered my diet (everything else has remained the same), and I have no more problems like that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like depression, but therapy and/or meds address the symptoms, not the root cause. Try changing your diet (you say you eat healthy, but conventional wisdom about what is healthy eating is wrong in so many ways).

This is one site that explains the link between digestion and mood: http://chriskresser.com/the-healthy-skeptic-podcast-episode-9

I speak from experience, btw. I had the exact same issues as you. I completely altered my diet (everything else has remained the same), and I have no more problems like that.

Ugh, I hate these kinds of posts. Yeah, it's great that you sorted out your problems by changing your diet. But it's possible that your problem wasn't clinical depression in the first place, and that's why you didn't need medication.

For many people, mental illness -- be it anxiety, depression or something else -- has nothing to do with diet and can't be fixed by dietary changes. So, again, just because your issue was diet doesn't mean that diet will fix clinical depression in other people. For many people, the "root cause" of depression and/or anxiety is a chemical imbalance that has nothing to do with diet but rather with their brain chemistry. That is why there is increasing evidence that mental illness, like depression, is hereditary (i.e. if you had a grandparent who suffered from severe depression, you are at a greater risk).