Combating Anxiety
Do you struggle with anxiety? According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, over 40 million adults in the US have an anxiety disorder. How many more deal with it during different seasons of their lives that no one knows about?
I’m not a counselor or a professional. If you struggle a lot with anxiety, seeing a Christian counselor who is grounded in God’s Word can be a great option. In this post, I’m speaking from my own experience and what I’ve learned and am learning on this topic.
The Bible tells us not to be anxious about anything, but many times we may feel powerless to change the way we feel. How do I simply not be anxious? Philippians 4:6 talks about praying instead of being anxious. OK, I’ve prayed and yet I’m still anxious. What am I missing?
I’m not a Greek scholar, but when I look up the word for “anxious” that is found in Philippians 4:6, it means “divided or drawn into opposite directions; distracted” (Strong’s Word Studies). Interesting… I’ve definitely been distracted and divided due to anxiety. Sometimes it seems to take over my mind and push aside everything else.
In my own experience, there’s rational anxiety and irrational anxiety. Some stress and anxiety is a God-given indicator that we should pay attention or take action. If you have a legitimate health concern, it’s wise to have it looked into in case you need treatment of some kind. If there are threats to you or your family’s safety, our anxiety over that should lead us to appropriate action.
The problem arises when our anxiety is out of proportion to the actual threat, or when we have done everything reasonable in our power to address the issue, yet we’re still anxious. And then there’s irrational anxiety when there is no threat or problem.
I’ve wrestled with all these scenarios and I’m realizing that anxiety is a very complicated issue. Again, I’m not a professional, just a fellow struggler.
If it’s rational anxiety about something I should be taking action on, then the logical thing is to pursue a solution. Make the doctor’s appointment, have the conversation with the teen or your spouse, look for a new job, etc.
But when it’s irrational or out of proportion to the legitimate concern, it gets complicated.
For me, so many factors can play into it…
- Have I eaten too much sugar and drank too much coffee?
- Am I too busy and haven’t taken time to rest and recharge?
- Are my hormones out of whack?
- Is there a lie that I’m believing about myself, God, or others that contributes to my anxiety? Something from my past that is resurfacing and causing this?
Just as I’m not a counselor, I’m also not a doctor. I only know that sometimes too much sugar and coffee seem to make me really stressed out. And other times having some caffeine actually relaxes me. I have no idea why. But in general, I know I need to be aware of those things.
I have also found that as I’ve gotten older, my hormone cycles have changed and sometimes my irrational anxiety seems to perfectly coincide with those changes. Then it magically disappears once my hormones shift again. That can’t be a coincidence.
I mention those possible triggers as things you can research on your own and start paying attention to.
Aside from those considerations, or in addition to them, how can we combat anxiety that causes us to be “divided or drawn in opposite directions”? I find that I can get into cycles of anxiety where horrible situations play in head in vivid clarity on repeat.
Here are some things I’ve done to combat that:
Of course, pray about it. Ask God to show you the root of your anxiety. Ask Him for peace and a calm trust that He will provide and care for you. Lay the situation in His hands. Taking a “pause” during your day to lay your cares at His feet can help to refocus your mind on Him and not on your worries.
Change my physical situation, when possible. Take a walk. Get out of bed. Do something different. It’s like my brain gets stuck on an anxiety loop, but physically moving and refocusing my attention elsewhere helps to interrupt that loop.
Give my brain something else to think about. Take on a cleaning project. Plan a trip. Find something productive to focus my mind on, other than its runaway anxious scenarios.
Memorize Scripture. This goes along with the previous suggestion. Focusing on memorizing Bible verses, whether it’s those that relate to my anxiety or not, gives my mind something else to think about. It’s not enough to just memorize the words. We need to think about what they mean. Mull them over in our minds. That’s what meditation is in a Biblical sense. Doing that changes the “inputs” that feed our anxious emotions.
Journal about it. Write down what exactly you’re anxious about. What are the scenarios that stress you out that are playing over and over in your mind? Why are you anxious about that? Is there something underneath that anxiety? A lie you’re believing that’s feeding it?
The BUILD method can help you work through uncovering lies that could be fueling your anxiety.
What makes you most anxious and how do you deal with it?