what is the appropriate way in which to vent anger?

heh! if i was building up anger over important stuff, perhaps. but what about anger over trivial stuff? every (pretty harmless) snappy comment will prey on my mind, and i'll just end up going mental over nothing! how does one clear it out of the system, but avoid aggression or confrontation?

Maybe find a physical outlet for it. Goto the batting cages or ride it out of your system on a mountain bike or something. There are ways of venting that don't involve confrontation with others.

Well, it generally is, isn't it? I lost it with my best friend a few weeks back, told him told him to just shut the fuck up and precisely because I am the sort of person who rarely loses their temper in public then the shockwaves were even more profound - which I found rather annoying.

this is my circumstances in a nutshell! a lot of puzzlement tonight, but i need to vent just like everyone else does. some of the puzzled folks are extremely aggressive, so i don't know why the whole thing shocked them so much. it got on my nerves too, but i just had to calm down and shut up, so there it is.

I have to do this a lot because my boss is a patronising tosser, and I am unable to slap him down, because I'd go too far and end up slapping his arrogant smug little face.

badger, I used to do that, but got threatened with discplinary action for spending too much of my working day in the toilet. Can you see where the frustration and anger came from? (I quit eventually rather than continue to bottle up anger and resentment to the point where it was making me ill)

When I waited tables, I went into the freezer and kicked boxes, ordered myself a shot or had a cigarette.

Anger is an energy!

As a concept I like this. But it assumes that there's a solution available, to which this energy can be applied, and right now I don't see a solution short of becoming openly hostile, and burning bridges. (My current anger flashpoints all have to do with other people needing to make decisions in my favor, and there's NO indication they'll be so obliging as to do that.)

Any recommendations on what to do? (Drinking to excess appeals right now, even as I acknowledge that that doesn't solve and often creates more problems.)