Do you or someone you know experience moments of intense rage or frustration that seem to come out of nowhere? It could be a form of anxiety expression—specifically rage anxiety.
In this video, JoyGenea, international neurodiversity coach, shares a powerful story about recognizing and managing anxiety-driven rage. Learn how understanding your triggers, practicing breathing exercises, and developing a consistent routine can help de-escalate intense emotions.
If you’re neurodiverse, understanding how anxiety uniquely shows up in your life is key to living successfully and thriving.
Transcription:
So, I had a client come on the other day, and literally the first thing they said was, “Why is everybody else so bleep slow at everything?” They were fired up, and I was like, “Okay, what’s going on?”
They said, “I just told this, you know, employee to do this thing,” and then I recognized that they were, unfortunately, in the middle of a rage and anxiety attack. They were expressing their anxiety, and I knew this about them, but it hadn’t fully shown up quite yet. This time, it was fully showing up at our meeting, and I felt for them.
I did not smile—I did not want to antagonize that monster at that moment—but I get it. Neurodiversity is fun, but it is different. You’re a different thinker, and with that different thinking comes some different forms of emotional expression.
One of the forms I’ve definitely identified in some of my clients is rage, anger, and anxiety. When I see that, I know they need to be heard. We need to figure out what they’re not feeling heard about and determine what to do or say about it.
Recently, I wrote a whole article about this—I highly recommend you check it out. It can be really debilitating, really frustrating, and really not fun in relationships if this is one of your major anxiety expression tools.
So, a few simple things you can do about that are:
1. Just know that your anger, your frustration, this rage that comes over you at times—where you go from 5 to 100 really fast—that’s a hint that it might be anxiety.
2. If it’s anxiety, that means you can do some things to manage it.
Some simple steps include:
• Breathing exercises.
• Recognizing and identifying the trigger.
• Having a good, solid exercise routine to get rid of some of that pent-up frustration and energy, so it doesn’t lead to rage.
It’s just anxiety with a little bit of an anger chaser—maybe some sarcasm—that can be caught and adapted a little sooner than when that all-consuming energy takes over.
Rage anxiety is very real. If you’re someone dealing with that, or you recognize that you suddenly get really mad about things and don’t know why, it might possibly be anxiety. You might want to learn more about it and how to better handle it.
Again, de-escalate it for yourself. Understand your triggers and know when it’s time to just walk away.
I’m JoyGenea, an international neurodiversity coach. Anxiety shows up in a variety of ways—don’t let it run your life. There are a lot of options for having an incredibly successful neurodiverse brain and an incredibly successful life.
Bye now.