How to deal with conflict and overcome it in the best way possible

In every place I’ve worked there has always been at least one person who I’ve clashed with. Conflict at work is really difficult, it can throw your whole world off-balance and un-hinge you. When I’ve had difficulty at work it has always clung to me and found its way home with me, like a bad smell! When you take it home with you it impacts the relationships around you too, maybe you’re snappy with your partner, rude to a neighbour, distant to a friend or shoot dirty looks at your cat from across the room. Poor cat, copping the stink-eye from a seething, angry, wound-up you! I’m not a confrontational person at all, I go out of my way to avoid it at ALL costs. But sometimes, no matter how hard you try, the conflict just finds you and keeps knocking at your door, louder and louder until you feel trapped and you can’t escape it. Each time this has happened to me I’ve looked at the person or people causing these problems and placed the blame squarely on them and left it at that. “They must be dysfunctional, a completely heartless psychopath with nothing better to do than start drama (...)