Anger

One of my triggering events for a drink is feeling anger at my husband, my boss, my teenagers (oh God, they can sure do a number on you:)) a situation, etc. Got this from the ABC's at Smart Recovery...

"A common example is the issue of someone else's behavior "making us angry".... A more accurate description of "someone making me angry" is to say that I feel angry about their behavior.... The responsibility for the anger is mine, not theirs. ....... it is generally irrational and self-defeating to get all worked up about someone else's behavior. ........ This is a very important element of the equation- reality. ......... It's like walking around with a big pushbutton on your forehead that says "Push here to aggravate". "

I'm going to think of that push button from now on. My goal is to make it smaller and smaller until it disappears and use these ABC's to help deal.

A. (Activating situation)
B. (Irrational Belief I have about A)
C. (Consequences of believing B)
D. (Dispute the Irrational Belief in B)
E. (Effective new thinking to replace B) I would prefer .........
realistic- that isn't very likely, is it- so when ............I don't need to ...........

Of course, not for nothing, I do believe the Serenity Prayer accomplishes the same thing and I have used that many times. So these are some tools to help me to distinguish between what I can change and what I can't. So now, whenever my husband annoys me I'm going to run to my blog and fill out my ABC's. Aren't you lucky????????

BTW: Today is Day 12. My son's leg is getting better though we came very close to a hospital admittance yesterday. My daughter is home from her trip to Germany. And its Friday. TGIF! All is good.