I’ve
always considered myself to be a person who handles stress pretty well.
I like to be busy. I enjoy taking risks. I never thought anxiety was my
problem.
Then, a little less than a year ago, I hit a wall. I could never seem
to get enough sleep. Small tasks I had normally done with little
thought or stress were suddenly accompanied with an almost crippling
anxiety.
One day as I was driving, it suddenly felt as though my heart was
malfunctioning. That was my first panic attack. It was also the moment I
realized I could no longer ignore the stress and anxiety that was
slowly taking over my life.
Something had to change.
After that day, I began seeking counsel. I saw a doctor. I began
making changes. By God’s grace, I am now no longer on any medication,
the panic attacks are gone and my anxiety is at an all-time low. I still
have days that are harder than others, but those days are increasingly
few and far between.
I continue to meet many people who find themselves in a similar place
to where I was just a year ago. Those conversations have confirmed that
we the Church have a long way to go when it comes to addressing issues
of mental health. Many aren’t sure how to understand or respond to their
struggle as Christians.
Taking care of our bodies is a spiritual endeavor.
So to those who find themselves in that place right now, here are seven ways to deal with anxiety and stress:
1. Admit There's a Problem
Those familiar with programs like AA will tell you the first step to
recovery is owning up to the fact that a problem exists. And they are
right.
This requires a lot of humility. Anxiety in particular can be hard to
own up to because it makes us feel weak in an area where so many others
appear to be strong. The temptation is to keep pushing and hope the
anxiety goes away on its own.
As I learned the hard way, however, pushing through without
addressing the problem can lead to an inevitable and ugly crash. I was
dealing with anxiety for a very long time before I would acknowledge it.
It wasn’t until I started having debilitating panic attacks that I
finally admitted there was a problem.
Had I owned up to the problem sooner, I could have spared both myself and my family a lot of pain.
2. Stop Self-Medicating
Many who struggle with stress and anxiety develop their own ways of
coping along the way. Some respond to stress by snacking constantly on
junk food. Some drink to take the edge off. Others camp out in front of
the television for hours on end.
None of these are healthy ways of dealing with stress and anxiety.
Most of us intrinsically know this. What we don’t often realize,
however, is that responding to stress in these ways can actually work
against our body’s ability to fight back and get healthy, not to mention
what it can do to our soul.
In other words, unhealthy coping mechanisms often make it worse, creating an endless cycle of stress and self-medication.
3. Take Care of Yourself Physically
In his
letter to the Corinthians,
the Apostle Paul encourages believers to remember that our body is a
living temple, one that has been bought at a great price, and therefore
we ought to glorify God with it. Taking care of our bodies, therefore,
is a spiritual endeavor.
This is particularly important for those who struggle with stress and
anxiety as our physical health is connected to our mental health.
Regular exercise, for example, has been shown to significantly reduce
symptoms of anxiety and depression.
One study in particular
showed that those who regularly exercise were 25 percent less likely to
develop depression or an anxiety disorder over the next five years.
One of my favorite anxiety moments in the Bible is found in
1 Kings 19
when Elijah is so overwhelmed by his circumstances that he wants to end
his life. In that moment, God didn’t give him a pep talk or shame him
for his lack of faith. Instead, He gave him a meal and let him go to
sleep. Twice.
Learning to rest is an important part of taking care of the body God
has entrusted us with. Sometimes the most spiritual thing we can do is
take a nap.
There are some things about God that can only be learned through suffering.
4. Be Intensional About What Goes into Your Mind
Philippians 4:8 says this: “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever
is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure,
whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or
praiseworthy—think about such things.”
Paul is pointing to the fact that what we fill our minds with has a
profound effect on us. We see this truth at work whenever the Scriptures
speak of meditation. Hebrew meditation isn’t just about emptying one’s
mind of wrong things, it’s about filling one’s mind with the right
things.
5. Don’t Neglect the Spiritual
You and I are spiritual beings, which means there is always more going on than meets the eye.
We must never forget that we live in a world at war. And while God
desires for us to flourish, there is another who would love nothing
else than to see to see us suffer. When you are overwhelmed with grief
and anxiety, he will whisper in your ear lies about your identity, your
self-worth, your status before God, your past, your future, your hope.
It is important that you recognize these for what they are.
You must make a habit of utilizing the power of prayer, the gift of
the Scriptures and the support of Christian community who can help you
discern the lies you are tempted to believe and who will remind you of
who you truly are in Christ.
6. Consider Seeing a Doctor
Personally, I believe medicine is not a rejection of God’s power, but
rather a provision of his grace. Sometimes it’s exactly what we need.
That said, medicine is not the cure-all when it comes to treating
anxiety (or any mental health struggle). It can include side-effects and
it often takes multiple tries to find the right one. But it can help
tremendously. Don’t be afraid to see a doctor and ask about
treatments—just like you would with a physical ailment.
7. Embrace the Blessing of Brokenness
When I was in the worst of my depression and anxiety, there were days
when getting out of bed was difficult work. Hardly a moment went by
when I was not painfully aware of my shortcomings as a man, as a
husband, as a dad, as a leader. It was awful. But it also created in me a
dependency like I’d never previously experienced.
I held onto Jesus with white knuckles as I prayed during panic
attacks. I desperately felt my need for prayer every single day. Words
like those of Psalm 23 weren’t just nice words to casually read or
embroider on a throw blanket. They were my life.
There are some things about God that can only be learned through
suffering. Sometimes I wonder if this is why God refused to take away
Paul’s thorn in the flesh. Because a broken and dependent Paul was a
Paul through whom God could change the world. He was the kind of Paul
that could write and mean words like this:
“Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take this suffering away from
me. But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is
made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly
about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why,
for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships,
in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong”
(2 Corinthians 12:8-10).
If you are walking through the valley of anxiety right now, there is a
way out, and I pray you find it. But in the meantime, don’t miss what
God may have for you right where you are.
This article was originally published on aarongloy.com. Used with permission.
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