“Take my yoke upon you and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:29–30).
When you do a search on either Google, Bing, other search engines about "anxiety" or how cure anxiety, or how to treat anxiety you run into an array of endless advice, a plethora of quick fix YouTube or TikTok fox it alls. And you cannot forget the many advertisements about doctors, clinics, therapist... and so and so on. But is anxiety really treated with a click of a button, or popping a pill?
I may not be an expert, but I have been there, done that, got the ugly T-shirt, and the hospital bills to show it.
Anxiety is real, no one who has ever dealt with it, or is going through it can deny it. If you know someone who deals with it, do not use phrases like "it'll be ok" "Don't worry, I am here for you" "It is all in your head, and you are stronger than that." As good as those intentions may be, they do not work, it actually often times makes it worse. It is not that we do not love or care about you and the willingless to help. But unless you are in it yourself, there are no words to describe what we feel at the very moment.
The first time I personally knew I was dealing with anxiety was Spring of 1998, as I had a panic attack while simply washing the car in the front yard. Next thing I know I am being picked up from under my car by a stranger who happened to be passing by and saw the incident unfold and came to help. Fast forward to Fall of 2023, there is no "Happily ever after" story ending; however I have learned many things to prevent and deal with it when it is about to and when it is happening. Just know "Anxiety is not a disease", you are not sick my friend, you are not broken.We live in a fallen world and because of it, we have the consequences of the many affects it has on our bodies and minds.
If you are a Christian believer and people have told you, "You just gotta have enough faith and if you pray hard enough, it'll go away." No it won't, not because you don't have enough faith or aren't praying hard enough, no! There are many factors when it comes to what triggers the anxiety. It could be caused by all the stress of life. It could be the medical issues do to poor health lifestyle. It could be the enviromental.
Anxiety is an alarm sytem going off, telling you, screaming at you, warning you that there is something wrong with one of your body organs, or one of your body's sytems. An alarm is what sounds off when something is happening that is not supposed to be happening. Imagine you're making pancake breakfast on Saturday morning. You've got the bacon sizzling on the skillet, while you got the coffee already brewing on the coffee maker, you are almost done with over-medium eggs, and about to flip the last pancake - when all of a sudden the smoke alarms in the house start going off. You're annoyed by it so you take the battery off from the closest alarm to you, that way it reduces the noise. All of a sudden the house begins to be filled with smoke but it isn't coming from the kitchen, so you open the windows to the livingroom and the kitchen; yet the alarms in the backgroud keep going. You about had it, when suddenly the sprinkler system kicks in and your neighbor comes frantically knocking down your front door and telling you to get out!!!
You see the the anxiety os not the problem, anxiety is only an alarm our bodies were created with to warn us of the danger lurking ahead or in our body. Our bodies were not created to live in an over-media-stimulated world, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, SnapChat, and so on. Then you have all the news networks screaming at you saying it is left or the right's fault. It is the war, the debt ceiling, the southern border, riots --- all this at once, while getting that email from the boss who says you are performing poorly!!! AHHHHH!!! You just want crawl into your bed, close the door, turn off the light, and wake up with the boogy man gone.
My personal journey has taken me more than 25 years, several Dr visits, multiple attempts at medicine, and a few suicide failures. But what I learned is, that even though we all are different and have different triggers for the anxiety. Anxiety is not the problem, what causes it is. Medication (s) are not always the answer, nor the only answer, while they may help - it does not solve the problem. May I suggest to you whether you are a homeschooling parent, a sole income earner, a single mom/dad, young adult, or anywhere in between, get first plugged to a solid Bible teaching church (not a church that teaches from or about the bible). Build community within your loved ones, your neighbors, your church. Seek 2nd opinions from medical professionals. Avoid social media DYI/fix it alls. Learn what this means "Be still, and know that I am God;" Psalm 46:10
You are not alone! You are not broken! There is help!
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