An Angry Person is Never Right: How to Deal with Them

When interacting with an angry person, it is possible to maintain our value and integrity without being harmed. It's important to understand that when a person is angry, their intellect is offline, and their emotions are driving them. Our task is to observe the situation critically, like a doctor examining a patient, or like someone watching a debate they aren’t involved in. An outside view allows us to notice the problem without getting emotionally involved. Anger is a behavioral flaw, and remaining silent and waiting for calm is the best way to help a person in this state. 

There are two types of silence. One is negative — when staying quiet means you’re just agreeing to something without question. The other is positive — when you stay quiet simply because it’s not your business or doesn’t affect you personally.

Undoubtedly, properly dealing with controlling people protects your peace. And yet, if the criticism is constant, it may eventually wear us down because afterall, we are human. In such instances, we must turn to Hashem (who is always with us and credits us for every effort), and ourselves (for self-acceptance, and the knowledge that we were created in His image).

Accept the situation. Until we begin to see positive change in the controlling person (which may take a long time), we must accept reality as it is. All humans must deal with difficult people or situations, and Hashem has placed us in our current circumstance.

Strive to appear happy. The most effective weapon against dominant individuals around us is to always be happy. By truly being happy we can succeed in weakening the resolve of those who seek to negatively interfere in our lives.