「故事·听力」My Anger Issues Almost Screwed Up My Life

My Anger Issues Almost Screwed Up My Life

This guy’s name is Robert, and sometimes he thinks he’s the Incredible Hulk. Only that’s not as cool as it sounds.

He was always a happy and calm child, but that all changed when he got a bit older. For some reason, it became hard for him to socialize with his peers. He usually sat alone and drew in his notebook or listened to music, because if someone tried to talk to him, he got angry very easily.

There were many situations when just one wrong word from a person could make him angry, and he would raise his voice at them, or even throw something at them.

He couldn’t explain why this happened, because he couldn’t control himself once it started. He can only describe it like this: once he got angry, his eyesight started flickering, and then everything turned somewhat white. He could still remember what he said and did during those moments, but it was always a bit hazy, like in a dream.

He has no idea what triggers it exactly. It’s more like a lot of small things annoy him and then that turns into anger. First of all, he gets annoyed by his parents arguing, then because his bus arrives late, and then by people who walk too slowly in a narrow hallway. At this point, he’s already angry, and he can’t do anything about it.

It got a lot worse when he shouted at his teacher. Robert asked her if there was a way for him to improve his grades, and she responded: “No, because you don’t pay attention in class and don’t study at home.” He tried to explain that he hadn’t had the time at home to prepare for the last test, but she wouldn’t have any of it. He realized that she was trying to make him feel guilty for slacking off, and she would eventually give him the chance to fix his grades, but at that moment he couldn't contain himself and just lost it.

Robert shouted at her at full volume, while other people were present in the classroom. He used words that he...shouldn’t repeat here, and even threw a few things off her table.

She was livid! She ordered him to the principal’s office, but he said that he wouldn’t go. He was so frustrated with everything – his parents, school, his classmates. Nothing ever went how he wanted it to in life, and it was unfair.

Robert stormed out and spent the remainder of the day in the park, where he felt calm without any people around to get angry at.

He could usually understand when he was wrong but if he was given some time to cool off, because it was too hard to work it out in the heat of the moment.

When he got back home, he found that his parents were angry at him – the teacher had called them and explained the situation. They told him that the next day he was going to have a talk with the principal whether he liked it or not.

Of course, he got angry at them too, shouting and slamming his door shut. Again, when he was left alone, he kept thinking if there something wrong with him. He decided that he would try his hardest to contain his anger the next day.

And so, when he went to the principal’s office, he got a stern talk about how inappropriate his behavior was. The teacher was sitting next to him. Robert tried his best to keep silent, but the teacher couldn’t ignore that his face had turned red and his leg was shaking a lot.

After the principal had finished, he asked if Robert understood, and he said “yes”. Then he went straight outside the school and angrily kicked a wall several times in frustration.

It turns out that his teacher had followed him. He assumed she would start scolding him again, but instead she just started asking questions – very...kind questions, like if he needed help or whether he needed to talk.

Robert was shocked! Nobody had ever asked him how he felt. They had always just told him that his anger was wrong and that he should do something about it.

It was so weird but also pleasant that he even started to sob a little bit, and he talked and talked without stopping: about how he felt trapped and frustrated all the time, about how school was difficult and so was his home life, and also that he had nobody to talk with because he got angry at everyone.

His teacher told him that if he need someone to listen to him, then her door was always open, and that he shouldn’t keep his emotions pent up inside of himself all the time, because then they just got bottled up and exploded later. She told him that he wasn’t a weird freak or anything like that, and that she understood him.

Robert is very grateful to her. Since then, his anger issues haven’t disappeared, but it’s now easier to deal with them thanks to her. He’s practising some techniques to calm himself down when he needs to, and he’s more open with people about his problems. He feels much better.