I think also that DBH used to bottle things up a lot more than he does now. If he started off being disagreeable, it was usually because something was worrying him elsewhere and he really can't think about two things at once. So if i said something like 'Look, I've asked you three times now to move your pile of out of my way' and sounded irritated, and he had had a nasty bank statement or someone at work had been fired, he would be off, but I wouldn't find out until much later what had been worrying him. Plus he suffers from SAD. So now I try to put myself in his shoes more than I used to, and try to find out if something is wrong before I get cross, which makes me more tolerant I suppose.