Coping with anxiety is a highly individual experience, which is why finding a proven method to relieve it can be so challenging. While I can only share my own perspective on how anxiety has affected me, it’s essential to recognize that emotional awareness is crucial when supporting someone dealing with anxiety.
Many individuals grapple with anxiety disorders but hesitate to open up about them due to fear or stigma. Personally, I often find it challenging to discuss my anxieties because of concerns that others might perceive me as “crazy” or view me as weak and fearful. Despite knowing that’s not the case, my mind can sometimes lead me to believe otherwise.
The Silence of Struggle:
The Mask of Strength
Coping with anxiety can feel like attempting to haul a 1,000-pound load up Mount Everest all alone—a monumental burden to carry solo. As much as I may want to shoulder that weight by myself, I recognize that it’s impossible. Anxiety is multifaceted for me. While I have my own set of anxieties, they differ from Amy’s, who has her unique fears, like riding on a busy interstate, which doesn’t bother me.
My anxieties center around the fear of solitude and the uncertainty of my heart condition. I worry that one day, my cardiologist will deliver grim news about my heart failure or, worse, that I’ll experience a sudden heart attack. The list of anxieties could go on indefinitely if I delve deeper.
When anxiety strikes, I have physical reactions like clenching my hands together so tightly that I sometimes leave bruises. I may also experience shortness of breath and occasional chest pains, which can be frightening. At times, I withdraw into silence, trying to process the swirling, racing thoughts in my head. There are strategies that help me when I’m in this state, but there are also things that can exacerbate my anxiety.
Faith, Surrender, and Resilience:
A Journey through Life’s Challenges
It’s not uncommon for anxiety to create a barrier between us and the sources of support and strength we have, including our faith and higher power. While you acknowledge that praying and seeking help from your higher power can provide relief from anxiety, you may find it challenging to do so consistently.
Your faith has understandably been tested by the various events you’ve encountered over the past five years. Nevertheless, recognizing the need to listen to God’s word and relinquish control is a significant step. Surrendering control is also an essential aspect of overcoming addiction, as it involves trusting in your higher power.
It’s heartening to hear that you find inspiration and guidance in addiction recovery stories. These stories often contain valuable principles and examples that can be applied to your own life, helping you navigate the challenges and uncertainties you face.
Recently, I was speaking to an older gentleman with many years of recovery experience. Currently, he’s battling cancer for the fourth or fifth time, and his remarkable attitude left a strong impression on me. I wish I possessed his emotional intelligence and awareness.
This man truly practices what he preaches. To protect his privacy, let’s call him John.
I asked John how he maintains a positive outlook while continuously fighting cancer, and he replied, “I stay out of God’s business. This cancer is God’s business, not mine.” He then shared a letter he had written, which he handed to his doctors when they inquired about his multiple cancer recoveries. The letter reads:
“Let me take the opportunity to explain myself as best I can as it relates to my present circumstance. The motivational speaker Zig Ziglar says that I should not pay too much for my problems. My present condition requires of me that I follow the medical protocol that has been outlined by a wonderful medical team that I trust completely. Therefore, this problem deserves my adherence to the plan of treatment that has been laid out for me.
The overpayment part is harder to explain. This cancer does not deserve my sobriety, my serenity, my sleep, my appetite, my attitude, my ability, my trust in the Lord, my relationships with my friends and family, my witness, my love for Sharron, or anything else that may be good and beautiful that God has continued to show me. Therefore, I will endeavor to not pay with those things.
My enemies are self-pity, self-indulgence, isolation, and that vast empty space between my ears. About the only weapons I have are confidence in God, that huge block of family and friends that pray for us and a sense of humor. I plan to use them to the fullest.
Therefore, as I experience these next few months, I will do my best to ignore what is happening inside and make the effort to make my focus outward. Having placed my confidence in the one who saved me and the medical team that He has provided, I plan to move forward one day at a time, doing what I can to live normal doing what I would normally do without regard for other issues. From what I have read, there will be plenty of time for side-effects so I will make the effort to not hasten their arrival by fiving them unearned influence. My prayer is that victory over this present trial will bear witness to the power and love of an almighty God.
Know that we love you and thank you for your concern and prayers. I have been taught that if we pray about something, we should not worry about it if we are going to worry about something, there is no need to pray. This is not bravado; this is confidence in Jesus who died that I might have life. When I consider from where He has brought us, it is antithetical to assume that He would abandon me now.”
- John
Embracing Divine Help to Overcome Anxieties:
Isn’t that amazing? I hope that one day, I’ll be able to say these words and live by them. Isn’t it awesome to know that there is a God who can help us? A God that can alleviate all our anxieties if we entrust them to Him? That’s the challenging part because that’s where I stumble; I struggle to let go of that control. It’s not that I don’t want to; I just don’t know how to. That’s another reason I often describe myself as a work in progress.
Philippians 4:6 (ESV) says, 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Today, let’s begin by praying that God will relieve us of our anxieties. Let’s cast all our worries onto Him and allow Him to manage them. It won’t occur overnight but will transpire in God’s time if we surrender it to Him.