As someone that stutters curbing my anger has been a top priority for me. As much as getting angry is inevitable as in our everyday life we are prone to people or situations that might trigger us, I have come to really master the art of managing my anger.
So one time, I had a disagreement with my sister. I’ve forgotten what brought about the disagreement as it was a long time ago. In the course of the conflict my sister made mockery of me stuttering. In her words, she said “ you that always open your mouth for over 5-10minutes just to speak”, she went further to say “one day you’ll swallow fly just because you open your mouth for long”. That day I cried, I cried till I couldn’t cry no more. That tears was filled with pain, hurt and anger. Pain because she is my sister and she knew how hard it was for me to speak then;hurt because I have tried everything possible within my reach to make the stuttering go away; and anger because I couldn’t do anything. For the first time, I poured out my anger right there. I gave her a very stern warning never to repeat such again. I could recall pointing my finger directly to her face while dishing out the warnings even though I was struggling to actually speak . She stood there looking at me with so much shock, disbelief and a lot running through her mind. I could see through her mind from her eyes wondering where I got the effrontery to speak to her that way. Did I mention she was my older sister with seven years difference? That explained the shock. After I was calm, I regretted my actions but a part of me was In approval of it.
Anger is one of the things that I have really worked on and that’s because I don’t like it when I’m angry. When I’m really angry , I can’t speak and I get really frustrated and worked up. So the ways I’ve learned to manage my anger is firstly, I try not to react or talk at that point. Secondly, I take a walk to get some fresh air and lastly I cry if made really angry. And yes I’m a cry baby (laughs)