3 Signs You Are Turning Into A Bitter Person and What You Can Do About It

If youโ€™ve landed up on this page, it is likely that youโ€™re curious about your consistent state of discontent or youโ€™re someone willing to dig deep, modify and acknowledge it. Read on to know the signs that you have become a bitter person and what you can do about it.

Bitterness, and mind you I say this as a person whoโ€™s been there, is as experiential as it can get. It doesnโ€™t really matter how much you possess in life or how much you have lost. This context isnโ€™t very dissimilar from happiness.

Ever heard of the saying โ€œhappiness is an inside jobโ€?

Well, bitterness too is a bit like that and by saying this, I, in no way mean that they arenโ€™t valid feelings.

When I fell into the grasps of โ€œitโ€ a few years ago, not knowing my lifeโ€™s purpose, feeling like i was changing more rapidly than I could keep up with.

The first time I was able to overtly articulate, I described โ€œitโ€ as something like this: an entourage of heavy clouds rising from the pit of my stomach, spreading inside of my body and soul, poisoning every inch of my being. Soon enough, I was feeling vexed and frustrated all the time, at everybody and at everything.

Happiness is your nature.

It took me a while to realise that this onset had been an insidious process. Perhaps a slow coming out of and a slow-growing into something else. Initially, I didnโ€™t track it for weeks, as it spread through me, dripping ever so slowly into my consciousness that I could easily pass it off as another bad day.

Read The Key To Rediscovering Inner Happiness Based On Your Zodiac Sign

However, you can imagine what happens when the bad days add up. Even when you are backed up with compassionate and genuine friends, an inherently enriching work, understanding and satisfying interpersonal relationships or talents that can get you places- none of these things matter anymore when bitterness begins to grasp you.

Now the question is,

How do you know youโ€™re becoming bitter?

I didnโ€™t know or even attempt to stop and look for almost two or three months, as it was happening.

What signs should you then look out for?

Here are signs you are turning into a bitter person

1. The grudges keep building

Bitterness has a lingering feel to it. You want to enjoy a drink with your coworkers but all you can think of is how one of them shortchanged you in a petty political game at a recent meeting.

Youโ€™re with your mother over the weekend watching a film after ages, but all your thoughts are directed to the one time she should have apologized the way youโ€™d expected it.

The instances that I just cited are in no way uncommon. Coworkers can act as backstabbers and mothers become the imperfect figures we donโ€™t want them to be, but hereโ€™s the fact : you get over these instances either by talking about them or by reassessing what can or canโ€™t happen or even by thrashing it out with your therapist.

With bitterness setting in, thatโ€™s not how it works. Youโ€™ll mull over it and sit on it, without perhaps even lifting a finger and doing something about it.

Read 30 Things to Stop Doing to Yourself

At times it also feels like home; you refuse to give it up at any cost.

2. The anger wonโ€™t subside

Another master sign you are turning into a bitter person. I remember that time when one day my partner had passingly mentioned how heโ€™s not able to find his favorite mug in the kitchen. This was right in the middle of my bitter phase and the mention of something so innocuous had my hair standing.

Always use your anger wisely.

I remember having experienced an inordinate amount of anger and the trail of thoughts was never-ending, โ€œheโ€™s actually telling me I am at faultโ€, โ€œheโ€™s always giving these subtle hintsโ€, โ€œwhat have I gotten myself into?โ€ โ€œDecision toย be with such a person is my own stupidityโ€, โ€œDamn, I canโ€™t even do one thing properly.โ€

Itโ€™ll probably not take much for you to see where this is heading. It is a guilt trip, an accusation trip, a bile trip, all of it, all at once. In a different state, you might be able to look at the situation at hand and say, โ€œOk, letโ€™s see what to do about thisโ€

With bitterness setting in, you feel far from that place.

3. The conversations wonโ€™t happen

As a bitter person, youโ€™ll find it earth-shatteringly difficult to talk about whatโ€™s happening. Even with the people you know really well. Especially with the people you know really well.

Intentionally or unintentionally, they may say or do something that doesnโ€™t sit with you, but youโ€™ll not call any of it out. If youโ€™re reading this piece, you might already know that bitterness can be a lump in the throat. You canโ€™t get rid of it and you canโ€™t gulp it in. It sits there, tight and unrelenting.

You sit with it, sulking, angry, complaining, even though you know talking about it might ease at least part of the weight.

So youย might now see how each point resonates, but then whatย after it?

Is there a way to meet bitterness head on?

Read 12 Truths About Defensive Behavior

4 Ways To Handle Your Bitterness

Personally, after the initial phase, I began to cultivate the patience of taking care of my bitterness. This involved doing a number of things that Iโ€™ll now talk about.

1. Go into a dialogue with yourself

As someone whoโ€™s been bitter and seen bitter people, I know one thing โ€“ the basic answers almost always lie within ourselves.

The burning bile I experienced during those days of unending bitterness suggested to me that I could at least talk to myself, if not anybody else,that I could contemplate about what possibly is causing the misery.

In my own experience as well as that of witnessing others who have been through similar experiences, one emerging insight is โ€“ anything unresolved could potentially become the cause of bitterness.

2. Take responsibility

Take responsibility for your own betterment

Every time I have experienced myself as a bitter person, I have held someone else responsible for it. It has been family, neighbors, the political state of the country.

In that state, I have often and successfully so, projected all internal disharmony on to other people. As a corollary again, Iโ€™d say itโ€™s not like people are not to blame. Rather, it is an opportunity to see what you can possibly change about yourself.

Instead of holding on to the bitterness you must try to spit it out. By doing this, you can take back the power for yourself.

3. Express it in โ€œsafeโ€ ways

At the peak of purposelessness, the bitterness I felt took extreme shapes.

I wanted to hit out, lash out, do anything but to feel that way. When I found a way to work with my bitter feelings, I saw the need for โ€œsafeโ€ expression.

And so began the crazy drawings, the incessant use of black and other heavy colors, the scratching and scrawling with the pen, using words exactly as I wanted in my private journal. I found words to describe my state and this led me to also open up conversations with other people.

This was a initial phase of self expression which helped me loosen up and be open to other possibilities of expressing my bitterness like talking it out.

Read 100+ Eckhart Tolleโ€™s Quotes To Help You Power Through Life

4. Work it out with your therapist

If youโ€™re already seeing someone who can hold a mirror for you, you have the support you need. I donโ€™t have to tell you that this is perhaps one of the safest ways to work through your bitterness.

As someone who practices expressive arts therapy and someone who has perhaps seen the entire gamut of bitter feelings, I am surprised by how this subject is often handled. There is harshness, critical judgment and a lot of distancing and retrospection of what could really be causing bitterness.

If youโ€™re reading this, please know that owning it and acknowledging it is perhaps the first steps to ultimate relief. You can always find a way to come out of the vicious cycle of bitterness.

3 Signs You Maybe Turning Into A Bitter Person
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