First, I wish I could tell you all the resources I have used to form the understandings that I have about anger; but much of it has come through reading psychology books, reading the Bible with a focus on getting a more thorough and accurate understanding of what the Bible really tells us about anger, Christian radio broadcasts that focus on the topic of anger, and numerous counseling sessions with different counselors over the past few decades, as well as conversations with friends and family members through the years. It would be an impossible endeavor to try to sort out what specific understandings I got from any particular source. What I am reporting here is a conglomeration and condensation of what I now understand about anger and about my personal history. It has taken a huge amount of effort over a long period of time to sort out the false or misunderstandings from the currently arrived at understandings which are more accurate as affirmed by counselors and other resources.

There is a powerful paradox of emotions that result from the misunderstandings I got from my upbringing. I have felt extreme shame for feeling angry about injustices done to others as well as to us. Some of those injustices include incest and other forms of blatant abuse and manipulation that occurred throughout my lifetime. Many of the relationships which were abusive were with close family members, so I didn’t feel I had the freedom to extricate myself from the relationships that were destructive.