How do you get over the "mean reds"?

is that code for hemorrhoids? for nasty Republicans? Vicious crayons? What am I missing here?

With some cool blues.

@Likeradar I’m pretty sure the “mean reds” is the combination of those three.

@Likeradar I think she means these guys.

@jeffgoldblumsprivatefacilities Then I’d just hire a nice red and they could hug it out.

All I could think of is the episode of South Park with the Ginger Kids! I have no Idea what this thread is about, but I love it!

This my defintion of the mean reds: i observe this person run a stop sign. its just a normall routine traffic stop. i get out my police car and approache the driver. he suddently hits the gas pedal and takes off. i know nothing about this driver. i ask myself why he is running? we hit the interstate and reach speeds in excess of 100 mph. this driver is endagering the lives of other drivers and myself. he finally runs out of gas and stops his vehicle. he places both hands out the drivers window. my blood pressure has reached the moon and my mind and body is hyped. i want to take this driver and beat the holy crape out of him. i am just normal like everyone else. i see red. i sit in my car and count to 20 not 10, thats not enough to calm me down. i reach 20 and have gained my composure. my blood pressure is down and i approach the driver. he states he only ran because his drivers license had expired. i did see red, but i controlled my anger and thats a good thing.

Maybe it’s actually simply red. Or a simple red. This red might put you in a better mood.

Well… I always find killing someone eases the throbbing in my brain until I have to kill again. The hardest part of the process is the clean up. Talk about the blues!
I’ve tried Woolite, Tide and dry cleaning solution but nothing takes blood out of carpet. There has to be a better way.~

Or maybe just listen to Simply Red

I get those all the time, alternating with black depression ( I don’t know who came up with the color blue in association with depression). I like to destroy things when in that state. Loudly, with weapons.

To me the “mean reds” indicate when my frustration and sorrow become a rage targeted at anything in my path. It is irrational anger and for me is marked by a lack of impulse control- which is perhaps voluntary.

I tend to wonder if “mean reds” are responsible for many murder/suicides.

Great question.

@Dog that is exactly it for me! A combination of frustration and sorrow. It usually starts with the blues, then someone does something that frustrates or irritates me and I am off into the mean reds. No one is safe on those days.

I go out into nature if I can or if the weather allows (which it probably doesn’t today). I listen to music. Classical. Vivaldi.

May your meed get lighter and better.

@Marina Maybe if I have some mead my mood will lighten? :-)

@janbb I will have some mead with you! It seems like a good idea!

@Dog woot! woot!

@Marina Sibelius or Wagner goes well with the “mean reds”.

I make an effort to get out of myself (sometimes watching the movie). I’ll get out of the house, because if I let them build, they can ruin my whole week.

I listen to music as ferocious as my mood. The last thing I want is to be soothed, mollified, and cajoled. I don’t want someone to handle me. I want something that goes with me and carries me along, empathetically, and eventually (but not too soon) leads me out. My musical choices for those occasions are Carmina Burana and Wagner, especially “The Ride of the Valkyries,” but almost anything thunderous, with lots of brass and percussion and volume, will do. Anything classical, loud, and bombastic, the kind of thing you’d like to have booming on your car stereo when one of those guys with a throbbing, road-shaking bass pulls up next to you at the light.

By contrast, when I am just feeling downish, I want something that I see in Monet-waterlily colors, which would be Debussy’s La Mer or Erik Satie.

@Jeruba: Richard Strauss’ “Die Heldenleben” for bombast and Constance Demby’s “Novus Magnificat” for calming?

@janbb By all means, let us break out the mead! I could not think ofletting you drink alone.

@stranger_in_a_strange_land Yes, but the idea is not to get more stirred up, but less.

@stranger_in_a_strange_land, thanks—neither of those is in my regular repertoire, but the Strauss has possibilities. I am afraid I haven’t much of an appetite for New Age style.

@Marina, rare as it is for me to differ with you, in my case I am indeed looking for something that feels as agitated as I do in that state. Anything less seems inadequate to the situation and just vexes me more. Think of it like using explosions to put out the oil fire. Luckily I don’t have to do this very often.

@Marina I find that if I go “over the top” (in private of course) on things inanimate (weapons targets, punching bags, etc) the feeling will “burn out”, leaving me physically and emotionally exhausted but calmed. Then comes the Debussy, Vaughn Williams, or New Age stuff to “center” me again.

@Jeruba Chacun a son gout. At least no one said Mahler!

@Marina, and speaking of chacun a son gout, there’s plenty of opera music that does it for me, too. After all that cathartic full symphonic emoting, I usually feel as though my troubles were minor.

@Jeruba @Marina Parsifal says it all to me in that context, maybe Tristan und Isolde.

@Jeruba I could do opera.