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hi ken In a message dated 1998/10/25 09:19:34, you write: >Janet, this guy must be "smokin' funny cigarettes"!!! >"Stop CREATING ANGER" he says! Does this mean >if I am pushed off a tall building, and I am hurtling toward >the concrete below, I should "stop creating FEAR?" of course not! but if you are hurtling toward the concrete with no safety net in sight and if you are aware of those circumstances your cognitions your awareness your thoughts tell you to be afraid and in fact in a situation as extreme as that the instinctive 'fight or flight' adrenalin rush would have kicked in even before your thought processes created yes created your fear but what if the circumstances weren't different but your understanding of the circumstances was different [distorted]? e.g what if you fully believed and expected that there was a safety net in place but there wasn't one in reality you would not feel fear your thoughts would not have created fear the circumstances in each case are the same and the end result would be the same e.g. becker pizza [!] but in the first you felt fear and in the second you did not this is an extreme example but i think it shows david burns' premise well our thought processes are complex and complicated but burns' theories have been proven again and again in clinical studies most of my postings on my web-site deal with the subject of cognitive distortions [which don't necessarily indicate clinical depression; however, clinical depression is generally always caused by cognitive distortions] this is simply an extension of the 'half empty' or 'half full' glass perception paradox we carry our background experiences with us and they may or may not get in the way of our dealing with 'reality' e.g. you might laugh at getting an injection; i will faint with terror the reality is the same i.e. the fact of the injection but our 'cognition' and our 'framing' of the event is totally different however, if i 'worked' on my 'cognition' and 'framing' using burns' guidelines i might very well be able to make a significant change in my perception of the same event another extreme example, i admit but if you want more and subtler details, go read the books ! in the meantime, here's another excerpt: "Anger can be adaptive and productive in certain situations. So the real question is not 'Should I or should I not feel anger?' but rather 'Where will I draw the line?' it's not as simple as black or white nothing is and one more: "Anger is legally permitted in the United States. The critical issue is - is it to your advantage to feel angry? Will you or the world really benefit from your rage?" the understanding that i have a choice in how i feel was incredibly empowering and enlightening and still is >My personal feeling is to try to control and redirect anger. >Keep busy, and remember the famous line in "Network" : >"I am Mad As Hell and I'm Not Going To Take It Anymore" >Then pull some nasty weeds, make a phone call to complain >about an injustice to anyone who can help, write letters to >newspapers or TV or radio stations, or magazines. Think of >anger as wasted energy. Why burn yourself or loved ones with >the heat of anger, when you can focus it toward a useful purpose? maybe we're wallowing in semantics here burns mentions 'transcending' the anger [and maybe even not creating it in the first place] but that does not imply 'forgetting' about the injust event! not at all! but we can choose to replace the anger [irrational rage] with something else e.g. determination and persistence [rational activity] we, as humans, have the choice of how and when to react to anything one of the prophets in our world advised 'turning the other cheek' in response to a perceived 'wrong' why? not because it was a 'cowardly' course of action but because it was the wisest course of action when we learn to control and even transcend the hurly burly of our reactions to perceived wrongs and injustices we grow in maturity and wisdom and inner peace janet janet paterson - 51 now / 41 dx / 37 onset - almonte/ontario/canada http://www.newcountry.nu/pd/members/janet/ [log in to unmask]