Take responsibility for your feelings

Dear Carolyn: I am in a relationship, the problems of which have been blamed almost exclusively on my “anger issues.” After months of accepting this and working on myself (going to therapy, etc.), I now feel my angry responses never would have occurred if my partner had even been the least bit friendly, loving, kind or interested in me.

At what point should we start calling others on their behavior and stop telling ourselves to “be responsible” for every reaction we may have, even when that reaction is perfectly justified? – Angry Girl

You describe a situation in which you were plainly mistreated, and you responded with understandable anger. That, to me, is a pretty precise picture of what happens when people do what you suggest, and call others on their bad behavior.

Were your partner a better person, s/he might have responded to your anger by feeling contrite and working to be kinder. But as is common with people who mistreat others, your partner responded by blaming you and apparently gaslighting you off to therapy.

That outcome does not speak well of the method that got you there.

By comparison, look at what happens when you take responsibility for your own feelings. By that I mean, when you respond to unwelcome feelings – anger, yes, and also frustration, sadness, resentment, boredom, helplessness, deprivation, the whole Dagwood sandwich of suffering – not by pinning them on Partner, but by examining your own choices.

In this case, the big one is your choice to stay with someone who doesn’t treat you well. What if, instead of expressing your anger to no avail, you took a moment to recognize the provocation continued no matter how right you were or how angry you got? And what if you calmed yourself, then spelled out for Partner that when s/he did X, you felt Y, and that kindness was important to you – with the full, unspoken intention of giving Partner one clear chance to turn things around, and of breaking up if that failed?