Feeling constantly irritated?. This toolkit will give you some general advice on how to stop being irritated, how to identify your triggers, and help you create coping techniques to help you get through this irritating moment. Discover practical tips and strategies to manage irritability and improve your overall well-being.
Why we get irritated
People have various levels of tolerance for different triggers. Some reasons we might get irritated are:
- Stress
- Lack of sleep
- Physical discomfort. Hunger, thirst, being too hot or too cold
- Frustration
- Inconsiderate behavior
- Loud or annoying noises
- Crowds
- Traffic jams
- Technological issues
- Repetitive tasks
- Uncertainty
- Negative people
- Physical pain
- Hormonal changes
- Personal issues
- Environmental factors
- Change and adaptation
Sometimes, we have no control over the reasons we get irritated. However, others, we do have control over it. We cannot change the things that are out of our control, but we can prepare ourselves and use different strategies and tips.
Some general advice
Before we start working on how to stop being irritated, let me give you some general advice:
- Do not make any important decisions when irritated, if possible.
- Try to not lash out on loved ones, or people who are not at fault. Try to communicate with them or tell that at the moment you are feeling irritated or unwell.
- Treat yourself as if you were a toddler, and you don’t know why the toddler is in a bad mood.
- Be patient with yourself. It is normal to feel irritated sometimes
Getting to know your triggers
- Step 1: Recognizing your triggers
When you are irritated, it is easy to lash out with your loved ones, or actually anyone else who might be in your way.
Some help to help you recognize your triggers:
- Identify specific situations, people.
- Keep a trigger journal.
- Get feedback from others. Probably the least pleasant answer, but if someone tells you you act more irritable after losing a competition.
- Step 2: Action plan
Once you have identified your triggers, you can make an action plan. Trial and error.
A) Actions to prevent being irritated. For example, if you know that after a long day you will be angry because you are tired and hungry, can you bring any snacks with you in order to help your sugar levels?
B) Coping strategies. If you come home and are still irritated because you are hungry, maybe plan to not scream at anyone, or plan activities that you know will make you happier.
With your self-feedback, you can adapt the actions to prevent being irritated as well as the coping strategies, in order to have better results. Your needs might also change over time.
Coping techniques
Here are some coping techniques that you can try:
Self-care
- Take a hot shower or hot immersion bath.
- Eat something you enjoy, or treat yourself to a takeaway.
- Drink a glass of water. Check out our ultimate guide on how to drink more water.
- Take a nap, or go to sleep early.
- Take a “time-out”, and be alone for a while.
- Do some exercise. It might help you to get distracted, or get your frustration out.
- Listen to music. You can check out the “world’s most relaxing song” (according to science).
- Play with or spend some time with your pet.
- Try deep breathing or meditating. You can try out this noting meditation for intrusive thoughts.
- Journal. Check out our journaling prompts for anxiety.
- Use some distraction techniques.
- Try some puzzles or games.
- Try stress balls or fidget toys.
- Watch some videos or memes that will make you laugh.
- Watch some ASMR videos.
- Color some coloring books.
- Engage in a hobby you like.
- Use noise cancelling earphones to block noise.
Irritation prevention & planning
- Carry snacks and a bottle of water with your to keep your energy levels for long days, and preventing your blood sugar to drop.
- Plan during the day some time for yourself to prevent you from getting overwhelmed.
- Buy noise cancelling earphones if noise makes you irritable
- Make sure you get enough sleep.
- Preparing tasks you can do in a traffic jam, such as listening to music, podcasts, etc.
How to Stop Being Irritated Toolkit PDF
Here you can have all the elements of the toolkit in PDF format, so you can take them with you anywhere. The toolkit includes help on identifying irritation triggers, as well as the different coping strategies we mentioned before.
Conclusion
So now you are better equipped to deal with your irritation. Feel free to leave a comment if you have any more ideas to deal on how to stop being irritated.
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