Great Displeasure

Anger:  Implies emotional agitation of no specified intensity aroused by great displeasure.


"I think I'm a little angry about this trip back to The Old City," I said to SuperK.  "What with the family and the work and the lousy weather returning and all that."
"You're not a little anything," she pointed out, pointedly.


The Book warns us many times that anger is an emotion that has a lot of grim consequences for the drunk in recovery.  There are famous phrases like "a dubious luxury of more normal men" and "the grouch and the brainstorm are not for us."  I'm not sure what a grouch is or why brainstorming leads to being pissed off but I'm not sure about very many things.  There you have it.


I don't think I hew the company line too closely when it comes to anger.  I don't interpret these phrases to mean that we shouldn't get angry, ever.  I don't think Bob and Bill were suggesting that we're going to be able to avoid anger once we get sober and then forevermore.


My opinion is that these guys are counseling caution when it comes to quick and powerful angry responses to irritating situations and people.  Counting to 10 works for many people; counting to 2,873 is very reasonable for the alcoholic.  I know my technique was to jump to a conclusion, get very, very angry very, very quickly, then launch a furious counter-strike.  After all, the best defense is a big offense.  I can't be reminded often enough that "restraint of tongue and pen" is going to pay handsome dividends for me.  I say stupid things when I'm calm and thoughtful.  When I'm angry and impulsive I'm just an idiot.


I also think that the recommendation is to make sure that anger -- a normal, unavoidable human emotion -- needs to be carefully managed.  So when I get angry I count to 2,873, biting my tongue hard enough to draw blood, then I try to deconstruct the anger.  Keeping my mouth shut helps me to minimize collateral damage so that I can take a look at why I got angry.  Usually, it's because I'm not behaving very well and I'm annoyed that I got called on my bullshit.  The important thing is that I deal with the anger so that it doesn't develop into the deadly Resentment.  That's what I need to avoid.


Resentment: taking poison and waiting for the other person to die.