Originally posted by den4
however, if a person cannot talk about a topic without getting all weirded out and bent out of shape, then I'm afraid the person has other issues that are in the background, perhaps in denial, that they need to deal with at some point in the future, or it will continue to be one of the main reasons they continue to get bent out of shape, unabated, whenever the subject is brought up....
I think so too. I like to feel I can talk about things without taking it too personal. Sometimes, I know I can take things personally, but I try my darndest not to do that. But in the case of my husband, he gets extremely bent out of shape and defensive. I tend to think he has some issues, but if I ever try to question him as to what they are, he...yes, gets very defensive.

Sometimes, I think the bottling up of emotions is not so good. I think, generally speaking, it does more harm than good to let stuff sit inside and fester. He has that problem, as do many other Japanese people(maybe Japanese people in general) I know do. Something is really eating away at him deep down, I believe, but it's not going to get out easily.

With me, it's like little tremors all the time, whereas with him, you get the huge mega earthquake.