People who overreact to things and whom you have to walk on eggshells around

I have a person in my class which overreacts constantly, and gets easily angry when someone gives a diferent opinion than hers.
Also, she doesn't understand that things like rules, chain of command, etc can always be at her pleasure.
She can make participating in class a bit difficult.
About the reasons, I don't know her enough to know exactly, I think she sees herself as some kind of fighter going against what she thinks it's unfair.

Wisteria said:

Depends on how much they are overreacting. Do you mean someone who get's angry at you about things that are completely unnecessary and are paranoid about small things that you do? Or do you simply mean someone who is easily offended and passive aggressive?

Anyway yes, I've known people like that

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It's the former, they will often get paranoid about small things I do and read into every small actions of mine and then they will start to take all my actions personally and start to display overly huge reaction. I have no idea how to deal with them most of the time, as their reactions tend to be way out of proportion. I never know when certain actions of mine would cause them to explode. And it doesn't help that I have difficulty reading social cues most of the time, I often have no idea that I have upset someone unless people tell me about it in verbal words. So if I ever upset someone, it's usually unintentional and I'm often unaware of it myself.
But this person seemed to view all my actions as intentional, and they always assumed I have bad intentions behind all my actions, and then they would start to do a bunch of things toward me just to piss me off. I find myself constantly having to watch my actions around them all the time, and it gets really draining for me to constantly try to figure out which actions of mine will trigger them, and this is starting to trigger my own anxiety and I'm starting to get panic attacks just from being around them. I just wished I understand them better so that I can learn how to better deal with them in future.

Khaine said:

I have a person in my class which overreacts constantly, and gets easily angry when someone gives a diferent opinion than hers.
Also, she doesn't understand that things like rules, chain of command, etc can always be at her pleasure.
She can make participating in class a bit difficult.
About the reasons, I don't know her enough to know exactly, I think she sees herself as some kind of fighter going against what she thinks it's unfair.

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Hm, your classmate sounds like someone whom I'd clash with.

ponpiri said:

Yes. Both ladies I'm thinking of were diagnosed with personality disorders. Although, there are plenty of non-diagnosed people who live for drama just the same.

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Which personality disorders have they been diagnosed with? Just curious.

The person in my OP actually lacks empathy as well, something that I've always found strange about them. They can easily torture an insect without batting an eye. Whenever I'm around them, my "gift of fear" starts warning me about impending danger ahead, it's like I can't relax in this person's presence. Their anger isn't the same as normal people anger either, but their anger tends to be very intense and I can totally feel the "all-consuming hate" coming from them. Whenever they are mad at me, they start hating me. Their reaction toward situations also tends to be very strange, they seemed to take offense easily to situations that normal people wouldn't have taken offense to. And their reactions tend to be overly huge. I was reading about BPD and they happened to fit most of the symptoms, so I was just wondering if there is any possibility they could have it.

Schizoid said:

Have you ever encountered such people in your life? They will constantly overreact to everything you do, and you constantly find yourself having to walk on eggshells around them. They will often read too deeply into your actions, and they will often assume that you are out to get them, and then they start to get pissed off at you, and then instead of telling you that they are mad at you, they will start to do a bunch of things to you just to piss you off. They tend to have very huge reaction to little incidents, and you constantly find yourself walking on eggshells around them because you fear that you might trigger them.

Has anyone here ever dealt with these kind of people in your life before? What causes them to act this way?

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Uhmmm... Yes. Or actually not sure.
I think it would involve letting them know your not out to get them, to not read and analyze too much. Clearing things up every time. Probing for what they are mad at. Trying to let know that it is ok to mad, they can just tell, and I will of course be sorry (If it something I can help and find ok to say sorry about).

Actually this can be me in certain situations to a small extent, usually in relationship when things get really touchy and filled with tension. Things being not so direct and never talking out about things.

Person can behave this way because they don't feel safe about being mad.. or how to say.. you could say an inability to sort things out in more constructive ways. Let's use stupid example.. guy doesn't know hot to open bottle, so he smashes it instead.
Probably insecurities. Anxiety. Slightly paranoid you could say.. not nessarily about physical harm, but what others think and mean (Sometimes i believe this becomes better with age.. we care less and less about what other think)

If we get into the whole childhood thing.. maybe you could think that.. as a kid it wasn't really allowed to be mad, and then instead showed in other ways to get some attention and show.

I think many can have a tendency to.. for example.. if i am putting wheel on car, and things all going wrong.. I get mad... I don't kick the car.. but i throw a wrench across the room.
Or guy punches hole in door instead of his girlfriend.. Good thing. .. Thought, punching the door can also just spiral into being more upset.


I would like to point out that this can also happen with people who behave almost exactly the oppesite way. A person whom is very withdrawn, pulling away, etc. You can feel on eggshells with, if your scared of loosing that person.

My sister was like this a couple of years ago. Eversince she got work and a few friends extra, she became more emotionally stable. She still sometimes has an outburst but its not that often anymore. I barely talk to her due to this. I'm scared I might say something that would make her explode in emotions.. its really sad that it has become like this.

Yeah, I know a couple people like that, two pretty closely. One has NPD and the other is just really really sensitive to negativity. I wouldn't always attribute it to a personality disorder, just an internal discomfort and/or paranoia or distrust. Sometimes past events can make people really distrustful and paranoid as well, which I've seen in a couple people.

Within personality disorders, it's fairly common among cluster B disorders generally as far as I know.

My guess is that this OP has fairly strong Cluster B PD traits, though it’s hard to diagnose on the internet and there could be many other mental health issues that mimick these.

For example, a friend close to me has Body Dysmorphia, and combined with INFP they can be very sensitive. It doesn’t sound as bad, but you do have to be mindful of triggering.

Is this person diagnosed borderline personality disorder? If so they have malfunctioning lymbic system in their brain and possible their amygdala that senses fear, feels compassion and empathy. Borderlines need a specific type of therapy that helps them calm down called DBT. They get adegiatated easily is due to emotion regulation problems in the lymbic system. Or are they more like it’s my way or the highway type? In that scenario, it’s ego invalidation which is associated with narcisstic personality disorder.