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[The Worst Gamer]

Now, usually, I'm a completely stressless person. I take everything as it comes, things don't bother me and I generally just happily plod through life without a care in the world, which hilariously infuriates everyone around me.

Lately, though, I've been getting worked up, snapping at people and being unable to actually feel calm. I feel angry, frustrated and incapable of dealing with the smallest of things that irritate me. I've also not been able to unwind AT ALL, and I'm getting slowly more and more pent up with all this anger.

The worst part is other people. It feels like everyone's trying to cling to me, or force me to cling to them, and I'd just like to live in a cabin in the woods somewhere with only the internet as my friend. I'm not the most social of people at the best of times, but I'm still quite capable of putting on a facade of sociality in order to get by. This is starting to slip, and people are beginning to get rubbed the wrong way.

I'd understand if something terrible had happened that had set me off, but my life has been getting better. I'm getting more cash, training to be a sys admin and I'm in a generally better situation than I was before.

Any idea, Oh Armchair Psychaitrist of B12G, what the trouble might be?

[Astral]

I (in all seriousness) had a similar issue when I completely cut my caffeine supply. Perhaps a chemical imbalance, or otherwise lack of certain nutrients, could lead to an abrupt change of mood? I ended up replacing caffeine with exercise in the long run (and still partake in the occasional container of Arizona) and nicotine in the short run (e-cigarettes, all you smoker haters), take a multivitamin, etc. Haven't felt better in a long time.

Or maybe you just need a break from people; the holidays are some of the more stressful parts of the year, and everyone needs some alone time.

[Ephemeriis]

Any idea, Oh Armchair Psychaitrist of B12G, what the trouble might be?

Sounds like you need to get laid.   

I'd understand if something terrible had happened that had set me off, but my life has been getting better. I'm getting more cash, training to be a sys admin and I'm in a generally better situation than I was before.

Actually, this may be the problem right here.

I don't know the exact details of what is going on...  But more cash typically involves more responsibility, or at least more bookkeeping.  If you've recently gotten a promotion or a raise, that can actually be stress-inducing.  Even if there aren't new official duties, you can feel subconsciously that more is expected of you.  And even if there's nothing going on at work, more money means more money to keep track of and spend appropriately.  When you're broken enough it's easy to make a budget - food, clothing, shelter, done!  When you've got some discretionary funds you have to ponder whether you should save them, or buy toys, or get nicer clothes, or whatever.

Also, if you're doing training, that implies some additional workload.  At the very least you're following somebody around and paying attention.  Maybe you're actually taking classes.  Maybe you're reading books.  Whatever.  It's some additional work to cram into your daily routine.  And, no matter how easy that daily routine is, or how easy the training is, it's another thing to juggle.

Now, usually, I'm a completely stressless person. I take everything as it comes, things don't bother me and I generally just happily plod through life without a care in the world, which hilariously infuriates everyone around me.

Here's the introspective bit...  Are you actually that stressless?  Or are you just unaware of the stress you're feeling, or doing a good job of ignoring/hiding/mitigating it?

I'm a pretty easy-going guy.  Always have a smile on my face.  Surprises don't faze me.  And I would have, until fairly recently, claimed that I was completely immune to stress.

But the fact of the matter is that we all suffer from stress.  It's a physiological thing.  Your body does certain things when it's put under stress, whether you want it to or not.  And just because you're happy and relaxed and care-free on a conscious level does not mean that you're actually stress-free.

Do you normally do anything to let off steam at the end of the day/week/month/whatever?

I recently discovered that, completely unbeknownst to me, I was getting really stressed out.  Had more headaches, stomach was upset, was feeling run-down.  Figured it was just the fall weather or something.  It wasn't.  It was stress.

I've had to make a conscious effort to find time to relax and unwind every few days/weeks, even though I'm not actually feeling stressed.

The worst part is other people. It feels like everyone's trying to cling to me, or force me to cling to them, and I'd just like to live in a cabin in the woods somewhere with only the internet as my friend. I'm not the most social of people at the best of times, but I'm still quite capable of putting on a facade of sociality in order to get by. This is starting to slip, and people are beginning to get rubbed the wrong way.

Sounds very, very familiar.

I hate people.  Can't stand social situations.  Would happily live as a hermit.  But I usually do a good job of hiding that.

When I get sufficiently stressed, I don't do such a good job of hiding it.

And I've found that one of my biggest sources of stress is the other people in my life.

I dunno...  The training you're doing, are you working with anyone new to accomplish that?  Maybe they're just rubbing you the wrong way?

Or maybe it's family/relationship-y stuff.  Are your parents/siblings/children/spouse rubbing you the wrong way?

Any idea, Oh Armchair Psychaitrist of B12G, what the trouble might be?

So, what actually works pretty good for me...  When I'm really getting stressed-out...  Is just to take a couple days off.  Call in sick.  Or tell your friends/family that you aren't feeling well and just need to rest and recuperate this weekend.  Sleep in later than normal.  Don't worry about other people.  Don't worry about being productive or running errands.  Do your own thing...  Read, watch TV, play video games, eat junk food, do yardwork, exercise...  Whatever floats your boat.  Just take a break from your normal responsibilities.

And to prevent it from reaching that point, I make damn sure I'm taking some time-out for myself every couple of days/weeks.  Just find an hour or two to forget about everything else and just relax.

[Heliman]

What a coincidence! My mom is a Systems administrator! It seems like your stress is stemming from dealing with "The Data Beast." Data management, which, if I'm not mistaken, is what you do, is stressful. Why is it stressful? As soon as you start doing data management, you realize that all the people you talk to are now not in data management, and don't know alot about the system. You are the medium between computers and people, and whenever the people and the computers clash, guess who gets the anger stick? You.

The important thing is, after dealing with the bad ones, you then deal with the normal people, while on edge.

But how do you cope? Remove your mind from reality. Sorry, that must not make any sense, lemme give an example. My mom reads books. When she reads books, she becomes involved in the story alone, and becomes "detached from reality." Suddenly, you aren't thinking about work or what to do next, you're thinking about what the character in your story will do next.

It doesn't have to be reading books, either. you could watch anime, become a movie fanatic, or just be a couch potato, as long as you are able to find a little cove of refuge from your life.


Well, that's what I think, I hope I helped, but I could just be spouting shit.

[nenjin]

It's hard to overstate how good physical activity is for releasing tension and frustration. I assume you spend a lot of the day being semi-immobile, stuck in an office or in a chair? Go running, at like 10pm at night. And run fast. Run until you think your legs are going to explode at the knees. Run until you burn through whatever it is that's eating you. There's also sorts of biochemical mood enhancers you get pumped full of after exercising too.

[Miggy]

It's hard to overstate how good physical activity is for releasing tension and frustration. I assume you spend a lot of the day being semi-immobile, stuck in an office or in a chair? Go running, at like 10pm at night. And run fast. Run until you think your legs are going to explode at the knees. Run until you burn through whatever it is that's eating you. There's also sorts of biochemical mood enhancers you get pumped full of after exercising too.

I'll agree with this and Astral's stance on nutrients/diet. How much do you exercise, if at all? How are your eating and sleeping patterns?

[ChairmanPoo]

Multivitamin supplements are linked to morbimortality in the US. So dont take that shit. There's such a thing as hypervitaminosis.

[Neonivek]

Multivitamin supplements are linked to morbimortality in the US. So dont take that shit. There's such a thing as hypervitaminosis.

There was a HUGE study on vitamin suppliments

You won't believe how many of them are outright terrible.

[Ø]

The majority of people that actually need vitamin supplements are starving to death.

Yay straying off topic.

On topic: What Heliman said I think sounds right about your source of stress. New/extra/special/lone responsibilities are guaranteed to be a major source of stress. Compensating with more hobbies is a good idea.

As for me: I think it's not just that you're a normally/previously stress-free person, but also you don't know how to deal with new found stresses. Again, new outlets is a good idea, and you need to build some stress tolerance. Either you get good handling the extra stress, or you turn into a spewing fountain of foulness. Steer towards the former, you're on the path to the latter.

[Heron TSG]

The majority of people that actually need vitamin supplements are starving to death.

No, I'm pretty sure that no dead person has ever swallowed a vitamin.[/nitpick]

[Heliman]

I could force a vitamin down a cadaver's throat to prove you wrong.

[Ø]

I could force a vitamin down a cadaver's throat to prove you wrong.

Assuming Barbarossa didn't mean that the dead person was the one responsible for and intentionally put the pill down their throat while they were dead. I think he did. Therefore, we could prove him wrong by having the pill attached to the roof of the mouth and the release is triggered when the heart stops, clinically considered dead, while in an upright position so it falls down the throat. Provided that the just-deceased rigged this up, and it was fully their intent and now their doing of the pill traversing into their now decaying stomach, technically then a person would have swallowed a vitamin pill while dead under the unstated but implied assumption in Barbarossa's statement that the person who died made themselves swallow it whilst dead.

[Miggy]

There are other nutrients than vitamins.

[Urist is dead tome]

It's hard to overstate how good physical activity is for releasing tension and frustration. I assume you spend a lot of the day being semi-immobile, stuck in an office or in a chair? Go running, at like 10pm at night. And run fast. Run until you think your legs are going to explode at the knees. Run until you burn through whatever it is that's eating you. There's also sorts of biochemical mood enhancers you get pumped full of after exercising too.

Listen to this man. Go running, lift weights, if ya smoke, stop. All these things will decrease stress. I just don't care as much as I used to. Simple as that.

[malimbar04]

<snipped line by line commentary, thank me>
There are several different physical sources of the stress response. The first is the standard fight/flight hormonal response. The second is how stimulated your nervous system is. There are more, but they're harder to categorize.

The signs of happiness are all signs of a self-stimulated nervous system. This causes small muscle contractions that cause a person to stand straight, shoulders back, smiling, and so forth. It further causes a person to walk/run much faster and even think faster. it's this reason that before sports games the teams cheer each other on and give motivational speaches - it gives better performance. It's also one of the reasons (though not hte only reason) that exercise is useful to depressed people. It works both ways, so if you walk quickly (try 120 steps/minute, it's hard to keep up), then you should feel a little better.

After 6 weeks of doing this all the time, the energy-producing parts of your cells will actually multiply to compensate for the extra energy your using. Thus if you keep this up (for about 6 weeks), it will become easier to maintain and you'll in general have more energy.
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I'm not sure if you actually have a fight/flight response going on here. What you're describing sounds more like normal depression. However, I'll list a few things to combat that anyways. The system that combats that response also causes erections, sleep, digestion, salivation, deficating and urinating. For some reason I doni't know, it also responds to deep breathing. You can't control it directly, but you can control it through behavior (which your hormones just follow). I'd suggest you get laid if possible, eat, poop, and sleep. Oh wait, you do those anyways? well try deep breathing.