Why Am I So Angry All the Time Therapist Boynton Beach

The anger itself is usually not the mystery. The person knows they are angry. They can feel it in their body before a conversation even starts, a tightness in the chest, a shortening of patience, a readiness to snap at something that would not have bothered them five years ago. What they cannot figure out is why the anger has become so constant. It is there when they wake up. It spikes at minor inconveniences. It erupts at the people they care about most, over things that do not warrant the intensity of the reaction. Dr. David Steinbok works with adults in the Boynton Beach, Florida area who are dealing with chronic anger and who sense that the real source of it is something they have not yet been able to identify.

Anger that feels disproportionate to its trigger is almost always connected to something older and deeper than the situation at hand. A man who erupts when his wife asks him a simple question is not angry about the question. He is responding to something the question activates internally, a feeling of being controlled, criticized, or cornered that may have its roots in experiences he has not thought about in decades. The anger is real. The target is misplaced. That gap between the intensity of the feeling and the scale of the provocation is the signal that something beneath the surface needs attention.

Chronic irritability, a short temper that seems to have no off switch, and angry outbursts that leave the person feeling confused or ashamed afterward are all variations of the same underlying issue. The anger is doing a job. It is protecting against a more vulnerable emotion, usually hurt, fear, sadness, or helplessness, that the person cannot access or does not feel safe expressing. Until the emotion underneath the anger is identified and addressed, the anger will continue to flare because its protective function has not been fulfilled.

Where Chronic Anger Comes From and What Therapy Can Explore

Anger is often described as a secondary emotion, meaning it arises in response to a primary emotion that the person cannot tolerate. A man who feels helpless becomes angry because helplessness is intolerable. A person who feels rejected becomes angry because the pain of rejection is too sharp to sit with. A person who feels unheard becomes angry because the vulnerability of needing to be heard feels too exposed. The anger covers the primary emotion so effectively that the person genuinely believes anger is what they are feeling. They are not aware of the hurt or fear underneath because the anger has been performing this protective function for so long that the primary emotion barely registers anymore. Dr. David Steinbok's psychodynamic approach is designed to work beneath the anger to find what it is covering. From his office in Boca Raton, Florida, he works with patients from the Boynton Beach area who are tired of being angry all the time and who want to understand the source rather than simply learning to manage the symptoms. Psychodynamic therapy does not treat anger as a behavior to be controlled through techniques. It treats anger as a communication from the patient's internal world, one that carries information about old wounds, unmet needs, and relational patterns that have never been adequately examined.

Reaching Dr. David Steinbok from Boynton Beach Florida

If anger has become a constant presence in your life, if your temper is damaging your relationships, or if you find yourself reacting with a level of rage that does not match the situation, Dr. David Steinbok provides psychotherapy in a private, confidential office in Boca Raton, Florida, approximately twenty minutes south of Boynton Beach. His practice operates on a private-pay basis with monthly statements provided for out-of-network insurance reimbursement. There is no receptionist in the waiting area. Call (561) 362-9952 to schedule.