Hi, my name is John Washington and I’ve had anger issues for as long as I can remember. [...]]]> Will a hobby help you with your anger management? My friend keeps telling me it helps him with his so today he will be a guest poster. I hope you think about his ways of anger management. Jeff.

Hi, my name is John Washington and I’ve had anger issues for as long as I can remember. If it weren’t for my hobbies I’d probably be in jail for life. Before I go any further tho I want to make sure you understand that what I do to manage my anger does not solve my anger issues.  I can’t afford the arm and a leg for gas let alone an arm and two legs for a shrink so management is how I cope. Solutions will have to wait until another day.

Reality is I was born to be a mountain man so I should have been born about 200 years ago. Unfortunately I wasn’t. I was born into a crowded world where there is little in the way of acceptable escape from other humans. Little in the way of acceptable rule breaking and way to much tolerance of pure stupidity.

You should have figured out, by now, that my hobbies are probably things I can do alone. When I get stressed out I get angry. Nothing stresses me out quicker than other people so it should be no surprise I’m a solitary man.

My favorite two things are fishing and hunting. By My Self! It’s a good thing I’ve loved hunting and fishing all of my life. Both sports require tons of patience and for those, I have it. I was at the lake before I could walk and I remember hunting with my father when I was 4 yrs old. I’ve enjoyed target shooting all of my life and still do.

Besides the hunting and fishing I love, I also enjoy boating, traveling, reading, video games and the internet. More solitary hobbies. There are only two people I play video games with and surprisingly enough I hate the hunting and fishing games.

I also like building furniture in my shop and in the past I’ve done Native American type bead-work, paint by numbers and refinishing furniture. Still all solitary hobbies. To do well at any of them requires patience and attention to detail. I can do that just fine. People are another story.

Yep, I manage my anger through my hobbies. The two best for me are fishing and reading. I seldom hunt as they let to many idiots have guns nowadays. I like to travel but I do keep to myself and I do travel alone 95% of the time.

While I don’t like hunting games I do like games with guns. It’s relaxing to go kill stuff and blow up stuff on the game. Gets rid of a lot of my stress. I don’t keep score on the shooting games but I do on the racing games and Golf.

So how do my hobbies help with my anger management. Pretty simple really. I can get lost in all of them and never have a thought of what made me angry or who. It just doesn’t matter when I’m involved in doing any one of them. It takes my mind away and involves it in something else. Hours can go by and I feel like it’s just minutes.

As I said before, people think I have tons of patience to do the things I like to do. They kinda freak out when they discover how easily I get irritated. Then they want to argue with me about it. Sheesh. My solitary hobbies keep me calm and allow me to interact with others a few days a week without getting to stressed out.

Oh, I forgot. I make a living with one of my hobbies and it’s about as solitary as it gets. I work on the internet. By myself, from my house. No interaction with real people. Although I do get angry at some of the things I see on the net, or read. The nice thing is I can leave the site and the irritation is gone. Yes, I can get lost on the net too.

All of my hobbies help me with my anger management but as I said earlier they are not a solution. However they do leave me good enough that the few people I associate with on a regular basis don’t know I have an anger problem at all.

I suppose I should take some kind of anger management course but I don’t feel the need to do that. However if I found out what was making me so angry or learned a few easier ways of not getting angry I might go out more. Might being the operative word.

You see, I’m not unhappy with the way I live so I don’t see a real need to change it. I don’t recommend anyone try to manage their anger the way I do as I understand it’s not the best way. However it’s a way that works for me. Finding a few hobbies that you can get lost in might be exactly what you need if nothing else has worked.

Finding the best way to manage your own anger is what’s important, not how you do it. Just doing something about it will help. Anything you enjoy enough to get lost in and forget the stress the world causes will help. OTOH my girlfriend says I spend way to much time with her when I’m not really there. She doesn’t know but it’s the only way I can spend as much time with her as she wants me too. My body is there but my mind is gone on to other things.

I don’t recommend that one either but it works for me. She’s a nice lady and I care about her but if I pay 100% attention she drives me crazy. So for the most part it works out that even when I’m with someone I’m still pretty much alone.

That’s my way of managing anger. Fishing works best. Try it.