Did you have injury to a frontal lobe?

Displaced feelings of aggression and violence are a hallmark of frontal TBI. Raw, primitive emotions are generated by the brain's limbic system, located in and about the more protected areas of the mid-brain. Executive functions such as impulse control are normally mediated in the frontal cortices. When this function is compromised, there is no way to check those primitive feelings.

I am actually working on some theories on this specific problem, and some possible remedial techniques. When these raw emotions come up for me, I use a rather unexpected mental technique, and am having success. The natural reaction is for a normal, civilized person to fight such morally repugnant thoughts. Instead, I do the opposite- I mentally validate the feelings. I tell myself that violent thoughts are a natural component of the brain's more primitive areas, and evolved as survival tools for the species. I must not jugde myself for thinking this way (as horrible as some of these thoughts get). Then secondly, I consciously try to create positive thoughts to balance the negative feelings.

I have found that trying to fight negative emotions serves only to strengthen them. It's like fanning a flame- instead of putting the fire out, it makes the fire worse. Sounds like you have found this to be true as well. But countering them with positive thoughts allows you to achieve balance- and this is what turns down the heat. You can even imagine creating positive feelings that are stronger than the negative ones. Instead of fighting the anger, envelope it.

I have been playing around with this method for over a year now, and must say my anger sessions are much more contained and short-lived. Perhaps someone else can give this a try and provide some feedback.