Anyone else feel, hmm, less "in control" as they get older?

[GilloD]

When I was a kid, up to and until the time I graduated college, I was almost never seriously angry. I never snapped at anyone, I never took anything too seriously and I was always looking for solutions before I lamented problems. In some ways it was a "Better me than them" mentality and I got stepped on sort of often for it. But as I've gotten a little older it seems like I've made a serious 180.

I get angry pretty quickly, I frequently snap at people, I get mad at them for the wrong things. And all of it just feels a little out of my control. I feel like in the past I was able to say, "Well, don't be angry. Just deal". But now I can't do that, my anger just piques and then I'm MAD MAD MAD.

I think some of it has to deal with kind of really well and truly being on my own. In the past, whether in high school or college, I was largely coasting on someone else's dime, living out my free time as I pleased. Now it's my money, my life, my investment and I think I've just gotten over protective, maybe. But there's definitely been a major change and I'm not sure how to swing back.

Actually, some of it is nice. I've learned to stand up for myself, to take my life more seriously. But there's a point at which I'm just over stepping.

Thoughts?

[Eric P]

should we get off your lawn before answering?

[duckman2000]

I'm a lot calmer now. At one point in my life, I decided to simply become bitter, which took the edge off of the violent anger. Drugs and druggy sex helped, too.

[Brehvolution]

Welcome to the machine.

[Van Cruncheon]

oh yes. this is the point at which dumber folks become conservatives. that said, my tolerance for stupidity and self-importance has gone from quite high to I WILL MURDER YOU NOW bottom-out levels. sociopathy is part of aging and realizing the true motivations that drive folks.

[duckman2000]

oh yes. this is the point at which dumber folks become conservatives. that said, my tolerance for stupidity and self-importance has gone from quite high to I WILL MURDER YOU NOW bottom-out levels. sociopathy is part of aging and realizing the true motivations that drive folks.

See, I will go on long rants about things like advertising, but really, it's just bitterness now. I'm still as deeply annoyed by things as I've ever been, and possibly more so due to plenty of life experience to back everything up, but I'm just plain not as violent about it.

[Reb]

Yeah, I used to be able to roll with everything, now I'm just freaking out.

How old are you GilloD?

[Crushed]

Anyone else feel, hmm, less "in control" as they get older?

They sell adult diapers you know.

[GilloD]

Yeah, I used to be able to roll with everything, now I'm just freaking out.

How old are you GilloD?

Twenty Four. Why'd I write that out?

Anyway, I think Prole nailed it. I used to be anti-death penalty and I still am as a matter of modern asthetic; That is, I don't think it has a place in modern society. But I'd just as soon murder some of these motherfuckers myself. I'm all for public execution of public officials who betray the good of the people. I don't have time for (mean) drug dealers or rapists: Send them to murder island!

But politically I'm still a dirty hippie liberal. I just feel like having been out there in the "real world", I have less and less patience for idealism and happy endings. Things just feel so "business".

[Mupepe]

I'm a lot calmer now. At one point in my life, I decided to simply become bitter, which took the edge off of the violent anger. Drugs and druggy sex helped, too.

this is me.

I gave up on being angry.  I'm a really bitter and just generally pessimistic person now so that I expect the worse and am usually pleased (in my own sort of way) that I wasn't wrong.  And when I'm wrong I'm happily surprised.  And the few times when I get my hopes up too high and I'm let down by someone or something, I just say "it's your own stupid fault for not being realistic"

[TVC15]

I'm anti-death penalty, but I basically think murder should be legal.

[Powerslave]

mo age mo problems

[Mandark]

For me it's the opposite.  17-21 was my peak for letting things get under my skin.  I got really resentful over being under the authority of people I didn't really respect at school and work and if someone had given me a copy of Atlas Shrugged around that time who knows how it would have gone.

At some point I got a lot more tolerant of human fallibility and idiocy.  As long as people don't demand I validate their dumb decisions it doesn't bug me at all.

I've got two friends who had serious anger issues as teens (I remember pouring iodine onto the cut knuckles of one of them after he punched a wall) who are a lot more mellow now, and one friend who used to be completely laid back but seems to be fraying under pressure from his job, home responsibilities, and commute.

Plus there are a few people who used to be overachievers who are now heavily medicated burnouts I knew in high school, but that seems like a different subject.

[APF]

oh yes. this is the point at which dumber folks become conservatives. that said, my tolerance for stupidity and self-importance has gone from quite high to I WILL MURDER YOU NOW bottom-out levels. sociopathy is part of aging and realizing the true motivations that drive folks.

This, but I'm not as smart as Prole.

[Van Cruncheon]

it's the pettiness that irritates me. i can handle scheming and manipulation and any action, no matter how ultimately destructive or self-promotional it is, that looks like there might have been a bit of long-term thought put into it. i have no problem being used if there's an intelligence pulling the strings. but when i see teens and grown adults react in the most mind-numbingly stupid ways just because of a wounded ego, and remain completely oblivious to the fact that their pride is 99% of the problem, i want to round them up and put them into a dumpster and fill that dumpster with vaporized hydrochloric acid. is that so wrong?

it's why i hate libertarians. short-sighted, instant gratification obsessed twats unwilling to make even a basic sacrifice for better individual gains in the long term, and who really, REALLY want nothing more than to feel SPECIAL to the exclusion of all else. if you need specific, immediate validation from society, die. life is not about feeling good all the time. freedom isn't a persistent condition. you don't get to be happy when you want to be, so sit down, shut the fuck up, and get your kicks when the opportunity presents itself, rather than at everyone else's immediate expense. or die. i don't care. i have too many meetings today. i want to be home playing soul calibur 4.

[laesperanzapaz]

this is really funny

when i was a teen, i was a strict conservative.  lemme tell you , i was so christian, i prayed in schoool

I PRAYED IN SCHOOL. IN LUNCH TIME.  IN THE VIEW OF OTEHR PEOPLE.  DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT DID TO MY PSYCHE

eventually i got over it.  I stopped being christian, i stopped hating homosexuals, i stopped being a racist and a religious bigot, i stopped believing in evolution and libertarian principles.

on the flip side, i became quite cynical, even before leaving high school.  before that, i remember i used to have no friends, and sometimes crying myself to sleep because of bad expereinces in family or school, but always praying before going to sleep, thanking God for letting me live in a First world country, instead of living like a poor African or as a child soldier or whatever, and thanking him for saving us and loving us so much.  i remember my dad used to insult my intelligence and make fun of my praying

ah life. maybe this explains why i am unhappy all the time, and view someone like Obama with cautious, cynical support

he'll prolly get rimmed within months of entering office.  meh politics

[Eel O'Brian]

when you have daydreams about murdering the people you work for, and those daydreams don't bother you so much as bring a warm smile to your face, it's time to think about a career switch

[APF]

I just want to be secure enough to make my own decisions, and powerful enough to be left the fuck alone.

[Eel O'Brian]

i'm slightly right of center on some things, somewhat because i own and operate my own business, but mostly because i realized all the super libs i knew were hypocritical douchebags who for one example spend fuckloads of money on materialistic things while complaining about all the materialism in society

[drohne]

i've actually mellowed a lot. i rarely get angry, and when i do, i've always got a moment to catch myself. now i'm one of those people who can exasperate other people with his detachment and composure

[Powerslave]

Gillod feels less in control because he's drunk all the time looooooooolll

[bagofeyes]

I've always had a really short temper

[Flannel Boy]

I've always been rather emotional, though it's not anger that I have had to control.

[Brehvolution]

I've always been light hearted. I will give people the benefit of the doubt. I hate tension and can sense it a mile away so I avoid it as much as possible. If anything, I'm more in control since I'm older. The consequences of quick reactions can be worse than just walking away. The bruise of an ego is far more tolerable than a bruise to your face which, in time, it breeds revenge and the downward spiral.  Sure there are people that bother me. Those who are pompous and emit a sense of entitlement for which they have not earned. But I don't let it get to me. Putting someone back in there place will be more their own doing than mine so I don't even bother wasting a breath.

[abrader]

you just gotta relax a bit and learn how to live good.

[Fresh Prince]

As I grow older I become more apathetic, more resentful of the idiocy of people in general, more sleepy and more conservative.

[Fragamemnon]

I'm a pretty mellow person in general, but due to the cynical, hyper-intelligent people I grew up around (high school, college, early working years) and my general sociopathy, I sort of developed a terrible sarcastic streak that is so full of bile and mean-spirited I am actually now afraid of it due to the ramifications to my home life and career that not controlling it would have.

The key for me for controlling that is a balanced life. I play games, I exercise often, I enjoy time with my wife, I do my job well, and I am a good cook. I don't let the petty stuff get under my skin and accumulate like some aggregating carcinogen, and I communicate with others to quickly resolve the serious stuff when it comes up.

I still entertain that awful, mean streak (by polite societal standards) in my political views beacause it's such a core part of my character-you can't take the philosophical positions on stuff like the non-sanctity of  life and NOT have it affect you somewhat. Sadly, there isn't ever going to be anyone running for office who would carry out the agenda that I would love to see in America, so I have to vote with the worthless dirty fucking hippies since they are the closest approximation to my beliefs.

[ToxicAdam]

I've become a cork floating in the ocean.

Before, I was a salmon swimming upstream.

[Reb]

You're a smudge of excrement.

[drozmight]

When I was younger I was an idealist, resisting society, wanted to change society, blah blah jargon boom jargon... now I'm just figure, fuck it, whatever, people think what they want to think, know what the think they know, and are going to do whatever it is they want to do.  Myself included.  We're all precariously floating around in the wave pool at Wild Waves.

Nothing we can do to change anything.  Unless you're some sort of public relations god with the ability to sway the masses. 

Now I just do as everyone else does, but I still try and incorporate a little advocacy in my everyday life.  Mostly when it comes to food products.

Yeah no control over anything.  Kinda just walking around pissed off a lot.

[demi]

I just like to jerk off and play video games