“Keep in mind that people will tend to leak out more of their true feelings, and certainly hostile ones, when they are drunk, sleepy, frustrated, angry, or under stress.”

The Laws of Human Nature, Chapter 3, The Law of Role-Playing

Given our naturally compassionate tendencies, many of us are inclined to forgive the emotional outbursts we witness in others.

We often dismiss such moments—intense displays of anger, jealousy, or irritation—as rare lapses in judgement, brought on by the pressure of extraordinary circumstances.

And sometimes, that assessment is fair.

People do at times grow overwhelmed and, in a moment of strain, behave in ways uncharacteristic of their usual selves.

We can often recognise such incidents by their infrequency and the situational factors that surround them.

If someone is clearly under immense pressure—facing difficulties that would test anyone’s patience—and they express themselves harshly in a way we have never seen before, we might rightly interpret this as a temporary loss of composure.

In these cases, forgiveness is reasonable, acknowledging that this person was not truly themselves in that moment, and such behaviour is unlikely to recur.

However, more frequently than we care to admit, these outbursts are not anomalies, but rather glimpses into something far more telling.