Rational and irrational fears

[Mariaonsea]

Dear John,

In a therapy group about anxiety that has been recently held at my Health Center, the psycologist said that concerning irrational fears we should look for distraction since they are not real fears, and that we should only pay attention and work with the rational fears.

To give you an exemple relating to my case: seeing that my neighbours are out in their garden, cleaning, watering, etc. makes me feel afraid because of many problems I had with them in the past, I feel as afraid as if they were going to hit me. Those are the irrational fears the psy was refering to.

I am a little bit confused because all my "irrational" fears come from years of being bullyed by this people, they have even climbed over my fence and destroyed many things in my garden, that is why I feel afraid to any mouvement of them, even when they don't do anything bad to me. I am alert all the time. Just thinking that they could do something bad to me makes me feel afraid, even if they are not at home. I feel afraid thinking that they will come back soon.
For me those are real fears, but for the psy they are irrational because my neighbours are not there and have not done anything wrong to me and that moment.

I work with my emotions following your method as much as I can, but now I have this doubt.

Could you please tell me if there is really any difference between irrational and rational fears when it comes to working with them, processing them?

Thank you so much.

[John Ruskan]

So sorry about the long delay in replying. There was a glitch with the forum that I did not notice and I have not been getting notices about postings. It’s fixed now.

Honestly, your story tends to infuriate me - that a ‘psychologist’ could be handing out such ignorant, harmful, stupid advice. This is a good example of cognitive psychology and how completely out of touch it is with the emotional / feeling aspects of true humanistic, holistic healing. It’s really pathetic, and just confirms my radical condemnation of cognitive psych that I have spoken about in my books.

OF COURSE your feelings are real. As I amply explain in my books, feelings, such as fear, are lodged in the subconscious from previous times and get PROJECTED involuntarily on suitable targets. It doesn’t matter if the neighbors are a real or imagined threat – your feelings are real and must be validated and then handled with the EC Process. Trying to judge rational or irrational is mental – it takes you into the left-brain and obscures right-brain processing that is the basis of our work.

[Mariaonsea]

Thank you so much for clarifying it and for giving the same importance, care, and attention to every kind of feeling.
It seems we still live in a world of darkness, that’s why your work is so essential and necessary. I feel greatful and fortunate to have discovered it.
Thank you so much for your explanations.