holding in anger and its effects on depression/anxiety.

About a week ago, i posted something called ''bad dreams''. For roughly the past week i have been in a kinda grumpy mood, even tho i am on holidays from work. It goes like this= i have time off from work and i go about doing whatever i please, and i guess i subconciously make little mental notes of things and people i see .....and i reflect on how the same situations were for me in those stages in my life. I then go to bed that night...and i toss and turn as i re-live moments from my past that were very difficult at that time in my life. SO, i wake up grumpy and i need to shake off the bad feelings. Sometimes the anger lingers on for the day and thru most the night...till i get occupied and find something pleasant to focus my attention on. My reason for typing this is this: anger is depression , which in turn walks hand in hand with anxiety. I do have ways to dissipate my anger...such as walks on the beach, meditation/breathing, calming music, and herbal supplements that work on calming me. Last night was a warm summer night, so i called up a buddy and we walked the beach stroll for 3 hours and had cigars and coffees along the way...all the while engaged in conversation about why we feel the way we are and how to cope/fix the problems we are dealt with. Anybody here have any positive feedback? Thank you, i wish everyone the best. :wink:

Hi savage_beagle!

Sorry to hear you're having a hard time sleeping properly this week. I had a thought that perhaps because you are off work at the moment, you have a lot of time on your hands to think over the less pleasant things that float around in the background of our minds. At least, I know it's the same for me.

What I have done is I try to implement some sort of relaxation routine which I continue throughout the day. You already have the right tools- your meditiation/breathing, calming music and herbal tablets. All you need to do is try to carry these out at roughly the same time each day, you don't need to stick rigidly to it...as long as you know that there are things you enjoy doing which you can look forward to throughout the day. For instance, you say that you wake up in a grumpy mood-now would be a good time to put on some calming music or go for a brisk walk. As you try to unwind in the evening before bedtime, you could practice your meditation to help put you in the right frame of mind for peaceful sleep.

Also, if you feel it would help, you could try to address the painful memories by writing some thoughts down. Although these memories are horrible, you could perhaps try to view them in a positive light, because you can think back on how you were at the time, and realise how much progress you have made since then.

I hope I have been of some help to you, and that your week starts to improve for you.