I have had a cold for a little over a week.  I am still going to work and doing as much as I can, such is my personal value system.  Over the week I have noticed my personal tolerance filter is greatly reduced.

This is an interesting side effect of some illnesses that affects not only me but others as well.  It’s not uncommon to hear someone say, “He’s just irritable because he’s not feeling well” or something similar.

Behaviour Filters

Undoubtably, colds and fever can affect our behaviour.  I would suggest though this is not best described as irritable.  Rather, we don’t have the energy to filter our actions so in effect are just more direct.

The directness might translate to “bad sorts” resulting from poor health.  More accurately we are probably acting the way we would like to but usually don’t.  After all we are social animals and don’t want others to think badly about the way we behave.

Quick to Anger

Whether sick or not, our ability to practice anger management is a critical part of how others percieve us.

Certainly, some do it better than others but most definitely make some attempts to control their potentialy violent actions driven from anger as much as they can (i.e. things like; shouting, pouting or some physical outburst).

When you are sick, this self control becomes much more difficult and episodes of poor anger management are far more likely.

Make Sure Others Know How You Feel

It makes sense to me to ensure others are aware of it when you are feeling ill.  The gains some level of sympathy and is helpful in offsetting the bad impressions people get when you act out for no other reason than you feel crumby and don’t have the energy for your normal level of self control.