It’s hard to say what you should do.
I have a physical condition that predisposes me to being irritable. There are real things out there that are problems, but it’s another thing how they affect me.
Some of these things over which I have no control and they’re not going to change, no matter what I do, I am trying to avoid contact with them. I have decided to try to reduce my exposure to the local newspaper and the problems of the local government, which irritate me so.
There are people who are bad for my health. Like it or not, I have to try to avoid them.
Doctors have been basically ignoring my medical condition, and I’m scheduled to see another doctor to try to start over with treating my condition. There are many things that bother me, and in my case, I need a prescription drug to help me relax.
As far as scriptural advice goes, note that anger is bad. We’re all in trouble, right? I know somebody in my family that is very out-of-control angry. I sense that it is a situation where she feels that her dignity is violated. From my point of view, her dignity is so easily violated.
Show me an angry person, and I’ll show you a person who who feels extremely violated, sometimes for abstract reasons, like losing money, or for more social reasons, like being ignored or slighted. But, we all know, that the anger response can be very large in either case.
There’s coping mechanisms, such as developing perspective. If the stress of dying is 100 on a stress scale, then getting the wrong food at McDonald’s window is a 5. It’s not 0, it’s really irritating, but it’s only about a 5. Divorce is about 60, a heart attack is about 50, if you survive. And, so on. Traffic is 0 to 30 on the stress scale.
But, that’s all that it is. We all have to try to measure our response to the stress, and limit its effects on us, for our own good.
I’m not preaching here. I’m just telling you what I try to do with my stress.
