Taming the Anxiety Beast

I have struggled with anxiety for several years now. I probably struggled with it before that but simply didn’t label it as such. Sometimes it just seems to be the normal way of things. I’ll get anxious about serious things and stupid things. It manifests itself as daydreams of horrible things happening to myself or my loved ones, or a sudden panic that I’ve forgotten something or made some terrible mistake that will have awful ramifications. Other times it’s just the physical feeling of tightness in my belly and shoulders and a general feeling of unease and stress - over nothing in particular.

As I’ve fought this beast, I’ve learned some things that have really helped. It still comes and goes but generally has gotten better. I’m not a doctor (so I have to tell you, this is not medical advice), nor do I claim to have all the answers, but I’m happy to share some of the things that I’ve learned and that work for me, in the hopes that they might work for you, too. Anxiety is a HUGE topic that would take several books to address. I certainly won’t cover all there is to cover here!

Managing anxiety takes work

There is no easy solution or 3 simple steps to a anxiety free life. It will take work. I believe anxiety is frequently the result of years of inadvertently training your brain the wrong way. Sometimes our brains have been trained wrongly through our own decisions or decisions that were outside of our control. Regardless of the origin, it took time to create those wrong patterns and it will take time and effort to retrain your brain.

Anxiety is a spiritual, emotional, mental and physical issue

Our western culture tends to separate those areas of our lives into neat, distinct boxes. It doesn’t work that way. What we eat affects how we feel and think and how we feel affects our actions. What we believe about God affects how we feel and what we do and how we think and it’s all mixed together into one sloppy mess. You can’t address one aspect of life without dealing with the others. We are whole people, not segmented into neat little boxes. So when we address anxiety, we need to do so from all those angles.

Anxiety isn’t necessarily bad

It can be an alarm bell telling us that there’s something wrong in our lives. Similar to our pain receptors that get our attention that there’s an injury or illness, being anxious might be a sign that there’s a problem that needs to be solved. Don’t rush to get rid of the symptom until you understand more of what it’s telling you. It may be far more important that you deal with the underlying issue.

So what are some ways to tame the anxiety beast? I think this is the best place to start:

Become a student of yourself

When do you feel anxious? What do you feel anxious about? Is it about anything in particular? What have you been eating? What have you been watching on TV? Have you just spent hours and hours on social media and haven’t moved from the couch? Are you so busy that you can’t keep track of everything going on? What are you thinking about? Do conversations with certain people end up making you feel anxious? When was the last time you got by yourself with God, took a deep breath and surrendered yourself to Him?

Journal

One of the best tools I have found for understanding myself better is to journal. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy or formal - just a way to get my thoughts out of my head and onto paper. It’s an opportunity for the more logic, clear thinking side of me to talk to the irrational, emotional, anxious side and get down to the bottom of things. Ask yourself questions and then answer them. Even better - answer them with God’s Word. Make a list of what you’re anxious about. Many times I can feel really anxious about something but once I put it on paper and talk it through with myself, I walk away thinking, “Well, that was silly! Why was I upset about that?” We get so trapped in our heads, but journaling is a great way to get those thoughts out and process them. For more thoughts on this, download my free “Spiritual Growth Journaling” guide.

You can also use a journal to track when you feel most anxious. Is it a certain time of day? A certain day of the week? Before or after certain events or conversations with certain people? After eating something in particular? (Think caffeine, sugar, chocolate…) Ladies, is it worse during a particular time of the month?

If you’re artsy, you can try a creative type of tracking system. Go to pinterest and search for habit trackers or symptom trackers and you’ll find more ideas than you could ever use. Otherwise, just use a spiral notebook and start keeping track of when you feel most anxious and what the circumstances are surrounding it. You could use a simple 1-5 scale of how anxious you are by day or hour. The simple act of paying attention to yourself will get you a long way in figuring out what’s going on.

Always remember to ask God to give you insight because He understands you completely.

What makes you most anxious? What are your biggest questions about anxiety?