I'm curious, does anyone's child have major problems relating to the child's perceived idea of fairness/rules and perfectionism? My son has been having a lot of trouble with throwing tantrums/having fits at school, and in nearly every single case the root cause is something was, in his eyes, unfair - someone cut in line, someone touched his stuff, etc - or perfectionism/fear of failure - he's not going to finish his work or start on time, thus he's going to get a zero and fail second grade!
This sounds somewhat like my internal emotional world. Some of it, for me, is standard issue moral anger (improper violation of the ideal absolutist moral order):
"Joan's always fighting for a cause. Whatever it is, she's certain she's on the side of justice. She gets furious with people who disagree with her. She feels she has a right to be angry when someone has broken a rule. She feels outraged and wants to punish.
She suffers from black-and-white thinking, and refuses to understand people who are different from her. She has rigid ways of thinking when compromise and understanding would work better."
Random anger link:
http://www.invisiblecows.com/Download27.htmlOf course, as an adult, I generally don't throw tantrums, being that they are frowned upon by polite society. I merely choke down the anger until it goes away.
It also depends on how much sleep I am getting. More sleep seems to equal less emotional storm.
I also talk myself out of vigalantism as an avocation. Yeah, it would be fun and I would feel really, really good about it, but I don't think the result would be pretty.
