TGME Round 1: A New Hope Vs. To Kill a Mocking Bird

[Tripe]

I love how the delightful comic creation "Isaac" just runs with the straw man.

Never seen a ...Movie in my life while he actually likes Norbit 

[Petey Wheatstraw]

Tripe, go fuck yourself. You are a worthless trash heap who serves no purpose to humanity.

You couldn't even come close to viewing the number of films I've seen, or even the diversity of the films I've seen.

Norbit is one of those movies that you watch once, but doesn't necessarily become a favorite or a film you'd view again soon. It's an average comedy. I doubt that half of the people who bashed it had even seen it.

Go suck a choad.

[Ortega]

You couldn't even come close to viewing the number of films I've seen, or even the diversity of the films I've seen.

You're 18.......so you're either lying, using a huge amount of hyperbole, or you've never seen the sun since you were 10.

[Petey Wheatstraw]

Ortega, you have no idea what you're talking about, do you?

[Ortega]

Ortega, you have no idea what you're talking about, do you?

I'm wondering the same thing about you.  In almost every thread, whenever someone voices any sort of displeasure against a movie or a director of which you like, you froth at the mouth, spewwing obscenities, claiming far and wide the cultural  ignorance of those that disagree with you.  And when someone calls you on your, well, let's be honest, bullshit, you act even more indignant, thereby making that much easier to taunt you.  I've resigned myself to the knowledge that for every movie i enjoy, there are certain number of people who don't, and a certain number the despise the movie in its entire being.  What i don't do is act like an unofficial, unpaid, street team for all my favorite movies and directors.  And unless you plan to pursue work in film, having viewed a large number of films is not something of an accolade. 

[Petey Wheatstraw]

But that's wrong. I don't do that. People treat me like that for stating any opinion that disagrees with their limited world view. While it's easy to sometimes take things out of context, you don't have to look far to see the truth about yourselves.

[Petey Wheatstraw]

Tripe, go fuck yourself. You are a worthless trash heap who serves no purpose to humanity.

You couldn't even come close to viewing the number of films I've seen, or even the diversity of the films I've seen.

Norbit is one of those movies that you watch once, but doesn't necessarily become a favorite or a film you'd view again soon. It's an average comedy. I doubt that half of the people who bashed it had even seen it.

Go suck a choad.

Um.  I don't think one sucks choads...well, maybe you try, but it's not really a "suckable" part.

And yeah, way to destroy your own credibility.  And I use that word, given that it's you, very lightly.

Bite me. I have more credibility than you will ever dream of having. And don't claim that a person "loves" movies when they never said any such thing. You can get your fucking teeth knocked in like that.

[bettertomorrowamy]

Q:  19 yr.old Round Table Forum Member. Movie Rage.  I've tried everything doc.
current meds
UNKNOWN
He continues to have 'out of the blue rages', rapid cycling ..mood swings. any suggestions
thank you from the bottom of my heart
bettertomorrowamy and Forum Members
________________________________________________________________________

Dear BTA, first, as you've surely considered yourselves, we want to look at why the anger episodes are happening; we want to do this really thoroughly so that we don't overlook some better solution than "treating the symptom". In other words, we're looking for some sort of root cause that we could treat, rather than treating the branches of the tree one at a time.  For example, if Ms. D' was actually having some sort of epilepsy, a seizure condition, in which she would have unprovoked rage episodes for no reason at all (it doesn't sound like this, because with great effort and some cost -- nausea -- you can control your behavior), we'd want to think in terms of treating seizures, not treating anger.  Or, for Shirley's daughter, we would want to make sure that she wasn't getting exposed to some uncontrollable stress outside the home then bringing her anger about that back home and unleashing it on mom (perhaps there is some unmanageable situation at school or her day-care arrangements).

Secondly, we'd want to make maximum use of non-medication approaches. "Anger management" is a well-developed form of psychotherapy (a variation of the well-known "cognitive-behavioral therapy", CBT) that might be very appropriate for one or both of your situations; you should both at least know what that therapy looks like in some detail, if not using it.  A simple way to work on anger is to use a book that's actually written by a Tibetan Buddhist but ends up reading more easily, in my experience, than some of the western CBT books on anger: "Working With Anger", by Pima Chodron. The first and last chapters are somewhat more about Buddhism, but the middle chapters, most of the book, are just about one technique after another for handling anger (your own, or someone else's). The bonus of Chodron's approach is that you get a kind of a spiritual context in which to use these techniques that I think makes them even easier to use than what you might find in the CBT approaches. But either way, you might do well to try to find a therapist who knows CBT techniques, if that's affordable and practical, to see if they could be applied in some way to your situation.

Then finally we come to medication approaches. This too is supposed to depend on the presumed basis of the symptoms (paragraph #1 above). In other words, we are supposed to be treating a condition that has anger as a symptom, not the anger itself. Presumably that will get us better results (going for the roots, not the branches). In the case of Shirley's daughter, the "bipolar-autism" might be that target. If so, we'd think of the medications for those two conditions. In the case of Ms. D', these rage episodes do not sound like "bipolar disorder" as such, but if they came along with a lot of other pretty classic bipolar symptoms (e.g. the rages always seemed to go along with phases of highly disturbed sleep and increased speed of thought and impulsive decision-making) then again, treating the bipolar disorder would be the target.  Or maybe they might correlate with something going on in personal relationships.

But, finally, to get to what you probably had in mind: are there specific "anti-anger medications"?  To my knowledge, the answer is no. One can see anti-anger effects from all five classes of psychiatric medications:

Antidepressants   Things that used to matter a lot don't seem to matter quite so much; can go too far and cause "indifference" or "apathy" as well
Antipsychotics   The old "big guns" -- the first-generation medications like Haldol (haloperidol) and Thorazine (chlorpromazine); and the newer "velvet hammers" -- second-generation medications like Zyprexa (olanzapine) and Seroquel (quetiapine), or Risperdal (risperidone) such as Shirley's daughter is taking
"Benzodiazepines", the Valium family   These are basically wet blankets, and they can all loose their "oomph" over time as the body gets used to them, but many psychiatrists think that one in particular, Klonopin (clonazepam) is different -- less likely to loose its benefit and more round-the-clock smooth coverage of symptoms (used a lot in PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder, for example).
Stimulants   Sometimes anger is a feature of ADHD, and when these medications work, that might diminish.
Mood stabilizers   Last but definitely not least:  especially if some bipolar disorder component is potentially driving the anger, these are the major candidates to consider. The full list can be seen on my website on the Mood Stabilizers page.
Though I saved the mood stabilizers for last, in a bipolar disorder context, they are probably first on this list. Depakote (valproate) and Tegretol or Carbatrol (carbamazepine), both antiseizure medications originally, are both candidates. Lamictal (lamotrigine) is one I like a lot for depression; it has not been described as having anti-anger properties but I have heard several practitioners describe cases where it seemed to do just that. Lithium is easy to try, especially at low doses, because it doesn't take long to find out if it's going to work. 

Pretty long answer that doesn't really say anything very specific, I know.  But I hope this framework might be of use to you all.

Dr. Phelps

[esoobaC .T bocaJ]

Q:  19 yr.old Round Table Forum Member. Movie Rage.  I've tried everything doc.
current meds
UNKNOWN
He continues to have 'out of the blue rages', rapid cycling ..mood swings. any suggestions
thank you from the bottom of my heart
bettertomorrowamy and Forum Members
________________________________________________________________________

Dear BTA, first, as you've surely considered yourselves, we want to look at why the anger episodes are happening; we want to do this really thoroughly so that we don't overlook some better solution than "treating the symptom". In other words, we're looking for some sort of root cause that we could treat, rather than treating the branches of the tree one at a time.  For example, if Ms. D' was actually having some sort of epilepsy, a seizure condition, in which she would have unprovoked rage episodes for no reason at all (it doesn't sound like this, because with great effort and some cost -- nausea -- you can control your behavior), we'd want to think in terms of treating seizures, not treating anger.  Or, for Shirley's daughter, we would want to make sure that she wasn't getting exposed to some uncontrollable stress outside the home then bringing her anger about that back home and unleashing it on mom (perhaps there is some unmanageable situation at school or her day-care arrangements).

Secondly, we'd want to make maximum use of non-medication approaches. "Anger management" is a well-developed form of psychotherapy (a variation of the well-known "cognitive-behavioral therapy", CBT) that might be very appropriate for one or both of your situations; you should both at least know what that therapy looks like in some detail, if not using it.  A simple way to work on anger is to use a book that's actually written by a Tibetan Buddhist but ends up reading more easily, in my experience, than some of the western CBT books on anger: "Working With Anger", by Pima Chodron. The first and last chapters are somewhat more about Buddhism, but the middle chapters, most of the book, are just about one technique after another for handling anger (your own, or someone else's). The bonus of Chodron's approach is that you get a kind of a spiritual context in which to use these techniques that I think makes them even easier to use than what you might find in the CBT approaches. But either way, you might do well to try to find a therapist who knows CBT techniques, if that's affordable and practical, to see if they could be applied in some way to your situation.

Then finally we come to medication approaches. This too is supposed to depend on the presumed basis of the symptoms (paragraph #1 above). In other words, we are supposed to be treating a condition that has anger as a symptom, not the anger itself. Presumably that will get us better results (going for the roots, not the branches). In the case of Shirley's daughter, the "bipolar-autism" might be that target. If so, we'd think of the medications for those two conditions. In the case of Ms. D', these rage episodes do not sound like "bipolar disorder" as such, but if they came along with a lot of other pretty classic bipolar symptoms (e.g. the rages always seemed to go along with phases of highly disturbed sleep and increased speed of thought and impulsive decision-making) then again, treating the bipolar disorder would be the target.  Or maybe they might correlate with something going on in personal relationships.

But, finally, to get to what you probably had in mind: are there specific "anti-anger medications"?  To my knowledge, the answer is no. One can see anti-anger effects from all five classes of psychiatric medications:

Antidepressants   Things that used to matter a lot don't seem to matter quite so much; can go too far and cause "indifference" or "apathy" as well
Antipsychotics   The old "big guns" -- the first-generation medications like Haldol (haloperidol) and Thorazine (chlorpromazine); and the newer "velvet hammers" -- second-generation medications like Zyprexa (olanzapine) and Seroquel (quetiapine), or Risperdal (risperidone) such as Shirley's daughter is taking
"Benzodiazepines", the Valium family   These are basically wet blankets, and they can all loose their "oomph" over time as the body gets used to them, but many psychiatrists think that one in particular, Klonopin (clonazepam) is different -- less likely to loose its benefit and more round-the-clock smooth coverage of symptoms (used a lot in PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder, for example).
Stimulants   Sometimes anger is a feature of ADHD, and when these medications work, that might diminish.
Mood stabilizers   Last but definitely not least:  especially if some bipolar disorder component is potentially driving the anger, these are the major candidates to consider. The full list can be seen on my website on the Mood Stabilizers page.
Though I saved the mood stabilizers for last, in a bipolar disorder context, they are probably first on this list. Depakote (valproate) and Tegretol or Carbatrol (carbamazepine), both antiseizure medications originally, are both candidates. Lamictal (lamotrigine) is one I like a lot for depression; it has not been described as having anti-anger properties but I have heard several practitioners describe cases where it seemed to do just that. Lithium is easy to try, especially at low doses, because it doesn't take long to find out if it's going to work. 

Pretty long answer that doesn't really say anything very specific, I know.  But I hope this framework might be of use to you all.

Dr. Phelps

wow, Fred's getting boring in his old age

[Petey Wheatstraw]

Thanks, but are you really qualified to treat Imrahil and TripeHoundRedux? After all, you got their ages wrong. Their combined age would be something like six, seven. Hell, I was more mature at four years old than these guys are in these threads.

[bettertomorrowamy]

Thanks, but are you really qualified to treat Imrahil and TripeHoundRedux? After all, you got their ages wrong. Their combined age would be something like six, seven. Hell, I was more mature at four years old than these guys are in these threads.

Weak.  Did someone steal your account?  Not one cuss word in that last post.  For shame!  (I don't count Hell)

[ImOscardotcom]

Thanks, but are you really fucking qualified to treat fucking Imrahil and fucking TripeHoundRedux? After all, you got their fucking ages wrong. Their combined fucking age would be something like six, fucking seven. Hell, I was more mature at four fucking years old than these fucking guys are in these fucking threads.

Weak.  Did someone steal your account?  Not one cuss word in that last post.  For shame!  (I don't count Hell)

Fixed. 

[esoobaC .T bocaJ]

fu............ get that

[Petey Wheatstraw]

I don't curse that much.

[ImOscardotcom]

I don't curse that much.

Fine. I apologize.