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Temper vs. Friends

Temper vs. Friends

Where is the line between blaming your mental illness for shitty behaviour and just making excuses, and addressing the fact that you do the things you do because you are literally sick and physically can not control it?

I can feel my emotions physically and I get angry, anxious or depressed very easily. I'm sure y'all know what I mean; a pindrop and suddenly my entire body is burning with rage.

I've gotten a lot better over time. I'm not violent towards other people anymore, for the most part. And the antidepressants help, along with getting a good night's sleep (yeah right) and avoiding hurtful situations. I try to be chill, I try so god damned hard. I rarely snap at people directly, but sometimes my tone or body language gives away my hurt or anger and I can't do anything about that. I don't know what to do about that. I've tried everything, and it's just a thing. I have intense, uncontrollable emotions. Hi, I have BPD.

My friends know this - they kind of avoided the conversation when I told them I got diagnosed, didn't really seem to care or want to talk about it. But I feel like they are always having a go at me for being so aggressive and short-tempered and mean. I swear I'm not that bad?? Over the past few months I've been pretty calm, I'm usually laughing in public, but I get irritated for once or two days because I missed my meds, and then I just maintain the reputation that I'm that way ALL the TIME.

I have a very crude and offensive sense of humour, and I am the type of person who insults their friends as a joke. Y'know, banter. I expect them to insult me back. I tell them constantly that I am joking, that I don't mean it, and if they agree with my insult I go "NOOOO YOU'RE NOT MEANT TO AGREE, YOU'RE FABULOUSSS."

Anyway, something I say a lot as a joke is 'shut up,' like as I'm smiling and laughing and clearly messing around. I guess I said that to my friend today, didn't even know that I did it, and he got mad. I couldn't tell if he was joking or not, I assumed he was. But then I got up and walked across the room and he said really loudly "Y'know Llamalord, sometimes you're really annoying." In a very serious tone. And I was like "??????" And I asked him what I did and he was like "If you tell people to shut up enough without context then no wonder they'll get annoyed."

And I just kinda sat there and I didn't know what to do, so I just started detaching and dissociating because I didn't know how to cope. I know it sounds like such a minor remark but there's so much punch behind it - he barely finds anyone annoying, but he thinks that of me. Thinks I'm a bitch. And my other friend was like "Well you are really aggressive and defensive and short tempered."

It's stuff like this that just escalates. Because I have no idea how to fix it, I can't stop the thing they hate about me, so in turn I think I should just totally socially isolate myself so I don't hurt anyone, but if I totally socially isolate myself it gets so much worse, and I basically settle on "Well, clearly the only solution is suicide." My self worth gets really really really low when I find out people feel that way about me, because I try so hard to be a good person and a good friend. But it's just in vain.

And it's like, I just have no idea what to do. I can banter with other people and they don't get offended, do my friends just need tougher skins? Is this them, not me? Because I feel like it's me, and I am just a horrible person, and I don't deserve friends because I only make everyone miserable.

I can't talk to them about BPD, they don't wanna hear it, they think it's just some excuse and I'm like bragging or whatever. Like I literally just mentioned BPD to my friend and she was like "BPD?" when I've literally tried to tell her all about it before. I have long distance friends and a long distance boyfriend I can talk to who understand, but no one where I live. I just feel so isolated and alone all the time, and like everything is my fault and I don't even deserve to be alive.
All of this from one little comment, plus a few others on top. What is wrong with me?

3 replies

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In response to: Temper vs. Friends

Re: Temper vs. Friends

Hi @LlamaLord ☺ It is nice to 'meet you. Love the name and avatar! Is that bird yours?

You asked where the line between using excuses for behaviour and not actually being able to help behaviour is. I think that's a really interesting question. I don't know what the answer is but I do know my mental illness/mental health stuff is behind a whole lot of things I would prefer not to be doing/thinking/feeling/experiencing. I think there are also parts of my personality that don't gel well with everyone, as I think is probably normal for us all. Sometimes it hurts to reflect on and it is very hard to fight wanting things to be different but not really being able to force them to be, and still trying to do better anyway.

I noticed in reading your post, that you are clearly thinking and reflecting on your behaviour and interactions with your friends and trying to work it out. I think that's really important as we all make mistakes and we all do things that maybe aren't how we would really like to do them. Rather than wish we could change the past (which obviously we can't), all we can do is learn from it and I think we learn from it by reflecting and trying. We can only do the best we can with what we have available to us, which it seems as if you are genuinely doing.

I'm sorry to hear that your friends don't seem to be understanding of what's going on for you. People not understanding can make me feel like retreating inward, which makes me feel massively alone and that leads to a whole lot of other not fabulous feelings, similar to what you mentioned. I can definitely relate to feeling emotions physically. I get funny tummy feelings, or a sinking kind of feeling, a tightness, buzzing in my legs, pains, a fizz or bang or jolt etc. When I am angry or hurt I can feel like exploding, but I don't want to hurt anyone so I shut myself down. It can make things really hard. It really helps to have people who understand.

There's a lot in your post that I am sure many others here will be able to relate to and understand also. It's great to see you here and I hope you find it helpful to be here ☺

In response to: Temper vs. Friends

Re: Temper vs. Friends

Hi @LlamaLord,
I read your long post and must congratulate you for your honesty and for questioning your behaviour in a safe place...here.. where others understand and will not judge.
One thing that stood out for me was that you have friends.
Can I just say that it is really worth continuing along this line of questioning how you can stay calm around your friends and help them understand you in a gentle way....
Because , take it from Me.... being without friends is gut wrenchingly lonely.....

In response to: Re: Temper vs. Friends

Re: Temper vs. Friends

The bird isn't mine hahah it's just a picture I found that makes me laugh. I do have a cockatiel who looks just like that though.

And thanks for the support and advice

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