Compassionate Love: Displaying compassion for those who struggle with mental illness   (c)2013 Nancy Virden

Yes, get angry! Be upset that someone treats you like an object. Be offended when your voice is not heard. If you are hit, sexually attacked, insulted, and taught you are worth nothing, then be mad!

If your family rejects you, doesn’t believe your story, or tries to control your behavior, be irritated. Squinch up your eyes, throw back your shoulders and scowl if significant persons lie to you.

Be livid when people use your looks as a basis for judgement. Fume when bigotry excludes you from the country club, the pool, or the church. If religious folk treat you like less-than, be incensed! If the world mocks you for your beliefs, economic status, or size, be furious!

There is nothing wrong with anger. What’s sad is when a person does not believe they have a right (or reason) to combat maltreatment.  Learn to recognize when wrong is done to you. Then think very hard about what to do next. 

Make sure that anger is pointed in the right direction. Do not allow anger to destroy you. Why go from one poison to another? Bitterness is the poison we drink hoping someone else will die (author unknown). No, be angry at the prejudice, intolerance, holier-than-thou attitudes that incite hatred. Stand up and be angry for justice, not only at injustice.

Allow your anger to forge a path for energy, but be sure to adopt assertiveness, not aggression.  Leave violence out of the picture. Harshness, controlling behavior, and abuse of yourself or anyone else do not belong in your repertoire.

You are unforgiving of ignorance, not the ignorant. You feel infuriated by how long you have allowed others to pin you back, but this fuels your desire to make tomorrow better. Rage may not quite describe the intensity of your reaction to abuse, but while you used to be a victim, now you can be the conqueror.

Be angry, and live your God-given life!

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NOTE: I am not a trained or licensed mental health professional. I am not a doctor. I speak only from my experiences with and observations of mental illness. In no way is this website intended to substitute for professional mental health care.

*photo from qualitystockphotos.com