For those who struggle with anxiety...

I’ve struggled with anxiety my entire life, even as a little girl. When I was five years old, I had an irrational fear that a tornado was going to come to my home in Belva, West Virginia and destroy our house and all our belongings, and ultimately hurt me and my entire family. Every time the wind blew (and it did not matter how light or heavy the wind was), my first instinct was to be fearful, and I always ended up crying to my parents. I can vividly remember my Dad showing me the mountains behind our house and saying, “We can’t get tornadoes because we have the mountains to protect us!” And I want to say that that provided some reassurance, but it sadly did not. One day, I just grew out of this fear and thank goodness because it was very, very annoying and ridiculous.

After that, I still had anxiety about random things, but it wasn’t anything like a debilitating fear like the tornado stuff. It wasn’t until my junior year of high school when I started to develop bad anxiety. And this was the kind of anxiety that was keeping me from talking to certain people, hanging out with my friends, and just enjoying my life.

I had just got back from church camp so my soul was on fire for the Lord. I was definitely on a Jesus high and I knew I could move mountains after that week at camp. My friends were all annoyed with me because of my Jesus high, but I did not care because I was excited about God and what all He had done in my life that week. This was also the first time I had ever had an encounter like this with God, which added to my excitement. I actually can’t begin to explain how awesome it was.

About a month or so after I got back home, my mind attacked me and overnight, I developed bad anxiety. I tried to pray it away, but it didn’t help. After a few months of fervent prayer, I realized that my prayers had not been answered at all and I gave up on praying about it. So basically, after I gave up on prayer, I didn’t do anything at all to make the anxiety better. I just functioned on autopilot.

Months and months later, God delivered me from this anxiety, supernaturally. It was a gradual healing and there wasn’t really a specific moment where God was like ZAP YOU’RE HEALED. I still get anxiety to this day, but I now know how to handle it in a much better way.

I recently read a book about fear and anxiety, and it has completely changed the way I look at anxiety. Every word in this book was profound to me and I was constantly taking notes on what I was reading. And now I’m going to share what I’ve learned with you:

1.     God created everything in this world; therefore, God created fear. Fear was created to be a good thing, an act of worship. When sin entered the world, our view of fear became distorted. When you are fearful about something, let your fear be used as an act of worship. Turn that fear into praise to God. He will help you.

2.     Your body, mind, and soul are all connected. You cannot just pray away your anxiety alone and neglect your body and mind. The Bible says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind…” The Bible doesn’t say to only love God with your soul and heart. You can’t just take care of your spirit when you are going through anxiety and try to pray it away, you must take care of your body and mind too. When you’re anxious, pray to God so that you are taking care of your spirit, exercise and eat healthy to take care of your body, and seek out counseling to take care of your mind. I cannot stress how important it is to seek out counseling! Don’t give in to the stigma around mental health – therapy can and will help you.

3.     If you’re going through anxiety, do not say to yourself, “I’m the only one going through this,” or “I’m going crazy since I’m having so much anxiety and so many weird thoughts.” First of all, you are not alone and you are not the only one going through this. The enemy will put lies in your head to make you think you’re alone, when really you’re not. These harsh words that you say to yourself have such an impact on you, BUT imagine the impact that kind and encouraging words can have when you say them to yourself. These kinds of words can do wonders for your mental and emotional health.

4.     Desperation before reputation: this is how you receive deliverance from your anxiety and fear. First of all, you have to pray to God for deliverance. Secondly, you need people praying for you. You will not get through this alone. Don’t be ashamed and don’t let the enemy use the fear of man to keep you from deliverance. You need to be vulnerable with those you trust; you MUST be desperate for deliverance. Most importantly, take advantage of the fact that you have the upper hand in this battle. The Word of God is a flat-out spiritual assault on the enemy – this is spiritual warfare. The more you continue to declare and read aloud the Word of God and His promises, the more ground you are taking in your mind and soul. Lastly, don’t forget to praise God for the victories. Every inch is a victory, big or small. When we focus on these, we can see how far we have come, rather than how far we have to go.

If you’re going through anxiety or any spiritual warfare, I hope this post encourages you and gives you a glimmer of hope! If you need to talk about your anxiety or fears, please let me know! Submit a connect card at the bottom of the home page and we can chat :)

P.S. I’m in graduate school for mental health counseling so I want to hear you out and listen to what you have to say! I am here for you!