I'm 38 years old. I've been around the block a few times. I've been mad many times in my life. Sometimes REALLY mad. Something happened to me recently though, that really surprised me. I was sitting at a table with some good friends at the Red Lion Pub in Houston. As the evening progressed, someone at the table told be about certain actions taken by an acquaintance of ours who was not with us that night. I'll spare your the details because they are largely irrelevant. Suffice it to say though, I was REALLY mad. Maybe madder than I've ever been. What happened next was new territory for me. As the anger built inside me, I could feel heat growing inside me. It started slowly and deep inside, but it grew, and grew and grew. Eventually, my insides felt like an electric blanket that some just switched to "high". There's more though. As the heat built up inside me, my vision started to go dim. Starting with my peripheral vision and moving inward, things got very dark. Before it was done, I could only see directly in front of me. It was like I had a couple of empty toilet paper rolls in front of my eyes. My hearing was almost gone too. All the noise in the bar around us was gone. I mean gone. Silence. My friends at the table knew something was up. They were talking. Trying to be nice. Trying to change the topic. I could hear them talking but their voices sounded extremely faint, like a quarter of a whisper. I'm not sure how long the whole episode lasted, maybe only a couple of minutes. The conditions gradually subsided and a few minutes later I was pretty much back to normal. I was a really strange experience. I didn't even say anything to anyone at the table. I think they a bit uncomfortable. We moved on to other topics of conversation and night went on in fairly typical fashion. Anyone else experience this type of thing where strong emotions have a physical response? Bernard
I'd probably get that looked at by professional medical personnel. Could be some kind of brain thing going on, or a hormonal issue. Maybe a messed up adrenal gland, and who knows why that's happening. Unless you're the Incredible Hulk, that is. Seriously, see a doctor.
Wow. You sound unstable. If this guy slept with your wife, I understand. If this guy didn't put a coversheet on his TPS report, then I fear for your children.
sounds like you were just very focused on your anger. I remember getting like when playing baseball but without the anger part of the equation.
One of my best friends used to have that happen to him (mostly when he was drunk), and I guess he still does. We used to call it the Black Rage. He was by far the smallest of all of us, but it was time to get the hell out of dodge whenever he would stare at nothing, get quiet, and turn bright red. And he swears he never remembers anything about what he was doing whenever he was in that stage. I believe him too, because he was a completely different animal at that point.
Its Bernard, nobody will ever sleep with his wife, because he won't ever have one. I've gotten this angry before and I am very laid back about most things. If it happens its because someone has crossed me or violated one of my core beliefs and thus totally changed my opinion of them. If I sit and stew, watch out.
sounds severe. just FYI: People who have a lot of hostility toward others (often people with Type A personalities) are more likely to have cardiac problems (heart attacks, etc). Just a little tidbit of information that I actually remember from my psychology licensing exam (which I passed!). You might want to get a physical.
ok i gotta ask... what were you so mad at?! can you tell us in a nutshell? i've heard of this happening to people. saw that a guy got so mad at his wife cheating or something that he got tunnel vision and a crazy force made him drive to her house and kill her.
Bernard- I can absolutely relate, although my symptoms aren't exactly like yours. This probably happens to me once or twice a year, when I am at my very angriest. I actually dealt with one of these yesterday over something going on at work. Anyway, my symptoms yesterday were 1) the heat as you described it, starting with my ears 2) My vision narrows, and color fades, not in a visual way, but rather in a focused way, while sense of contrast and movement increases. 3) Everything external seems to slow down to a crawl 4) Sounds are still with me, but I'm no longer processing them, and they seem lost in a low buzz, or hum, or whistle It's important to flush the hormones from this, so anytime this happens you need to make the time to break a sweat, and some pushups and jumping jacks will usually make you feel better.
In response to some of the questions above... I hadn't had that much to drink, maybe three pints at that point. I'm 6'5" and 250 pounds. I certainly wasn't drunk. There was a doctor and a nurse at the table. I didn't say anything to them at the time. I was a little shocked myself at the time. I was happy to keep the conversation elsewhere. I keep meaning to ask him, her or one of my other doctor friends about it, but we need to be in the right company, which hasn't happened yet. For what it's worth, I'm really a pretty mello person 99% of the time. The cuase of the anger isn't that relevant. It's not a secret or anything, I'm just not sharing it would add that much to the conversation here. It made me think about people who commit crimes in highly emotional states of mind then later claim they have no recollection of the events in question. I alwasy thought these people were full of ****. Now I think they may be telling the truth. I didn't black out and forget what happened during the episode, but I was certainly was in the neighborhood, if not the ballpark. So don't piss me off. Bernard
