In the hustle and bustle of our fast-paced lives, anxiety often finds a way to creep in, casting a shadow of worry and unease. I understand the heavy burden that anxiety can cause you to carry, and I'm here to offer a solution to help you get rid of your anxiety once and for all.
Together, we will explore effective strategies to manage and overcome any mental health problems, guiding you toward a calmer and more serene mindset. Remember, it's perfectly okay to seek help, and it's a journey you don't have to and shouldn't have to undertake alone.
What Is Generalized Anxiety Disorder?
Anxiety, in its essence, is a very complex emotion that intertwines feelings of fear, distress, apprehension and guilt. It's like a sudden, uninvited guest knocking at the door of your house trying to rob you of your peace, oftentimes casting a shadow over your daily life.
Most of us, including myself, have experienced this feeling at some point in our lives. But we were never meant to live with it. But how do you know if what you're struggling with is anxiety, let's look into the different ways anxiety presents itself.
Anxiety Symptoms and Signs
It's essential to understand the signs and symptoms of anxiety, as recognizing them can be a crucial step in managing it, it also helps determine if it's chronic anxiety or not. Common indicators of anxiety include feelings of restlessness, rapid heart rate, difficulty concentrating, rapid breathing, chest pain, trouble getting enough sleep, out-of-control anxious thoughts, etc.
If you find yourself struggling with multiple of the symptoms I just listed, keep reading to find out how to calm anxiety.
Ways Anxiety Presents Itself
We just looked at the early signs and symptoms of what anxiety disorders look like. But what exactly happens when having anxiety, is it just a passing feeling, a long-lasting feeling, what goes on?
Anxiety is not a singular, uniform experience; it can present itself in myriad ways that often differ from person to person. It's the chameleon of emotions, changing its colors according to the situation at hand. Its manifestations can range from subtle, hard-to-notice signs to more overt and disruptive symptoms.
Anxiety is more than just feeling anxious.
Panic Disorder
A panic disorder, also known as a panic attack is one of the ways anxiety can manifest, characterized by its sudden onset and intense physical and psychological symptoms.
It can often feel like a sudden rush of overwhelming fear and anxious feelings, accompanied by a host of distressing symptoms like a racing heartbeat, shortness of breath, dizziness, and a feeling of impending doom.
Despite its alarming nature, a panic attack in itself is not life-threatening. However, its resemblance to the symptoms of heart-related issues can often cause an individual to fear for their life, thus creating a vicious cycle of anxiety.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, or OCD, is a type of anxiety disorder characterized by recurring and unwanted thoughts or obsessions, that lead to behaviors or compulsions an individual feels compelled to perform.
It's like a broken record that's stuck on replay, with the mind trapped in a loop of intrusive thoughts and repetitive behaviors.
OCD can manifest itself in various ways, with common obsessions including a fear of germs or contamination, unwanted thoughts and having things symmetrical or in a perfect order.
These obsessions often lead to compulsive behaviors such as excessive cleaning and handwashing due to fear of germs, arranging things in a precise way, repeatedly checking on things, such as repeatedly checking to see if the door is locked or that the oven is off, and compulsive counting.
These obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors cause significant anxiety symptoms and distress, often interfering with daily activities and social interactions.
It's like being in a boxing ring with your mind, with the constant cycle of obsessions and compulsions serving as a never-ending bout of mental tug-of-war.
Depression
Depression is a common and serious mood disorder, characterized by persistent feelings of sadness, hopelessness, and a lack of interest or pleasure in activities. It's not just a bout of the blues or a sign of weakness; it's a condition that can affect every aspect of your life, from how you think and behave to how you feel and handle daily activities, such as sleeping, eating, or working.
Depression and anxiety are often intertwined, with many people experiencing symptoms of both. The worrying and thoughts of impending doom that come with anxiety can lead to depression and vice versa. It's not uncommon for someone with anxiety disorders to also suffer from depression or vice versa.
Nearly one-half of those diagnosed by a mental health professional with depression are also diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. The link between the two may be due to all kinds of factors. It's important to remember that help is always available.
The Key To Getting Rid of Anxiety
Most of the time you won't ever hear of getting rid of anxiety, only how to reduce anxiety and ease anxiety, but I assure you what I am about to share with you is the only cure to completely getting rid of your anxiety.
I think I've made you wait long enough, so the key to getting rid of anxiety is Jesus Christ the Son of God. I can testify to this 100% being the only way out of this game of cat and mouse in your head.
Now before I go on and lose you, I just have one question to ask before you go on and try to find something else in an attempt to help you with your problems. What do you have to lose? No, seriously, what do you have to lose? Cause I've been there, looking up the ways to relieve anxiety, those methods don't work, and I'm going, to be honest, if you're here on this blog, I have a feeling you've already tried and done everything. So, I ask you again what do you have to lose?
For me, I was at rock bottom and the only way up was through Him. When I was at my worst with anxiety Jesus changed my life completely and He can do the same for you if you just ask Him to come into your heart and believe that He is your Lord and Savior.
I know that this isn't exactly a typical solution to anxiety but it's the only solution, your only solution. I can give you all the coping methods in the world, but if you don't have Him at your side nothing will truly work and so I encourage you to put your trust and faith in Jesus Christ and watch as He leads you out of that dark place.
Maybe this all sounds too good to be true. Let me share a little about my own experience of how I tried and failed to deal with my anxiety on my own until I gave it all to a man named Jesus.
The Struggle
As I mentioned before anxiety is like a sudden, uninvited guest knocking at the door of your house trying to rob you of your peace. The door of my house was knocked open and the thief whose original intent was to steal from me, well he decided to move in.
"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full" John 10:10.
The thief very clearly being the devil had found it very comfortable to invade my mind with thoughts of anxiety. The way anxiety decided to manifest itself in my life was very heavily through OCD and panic attacks. The two of these would go hand in hand wreaking havoc over my mind, causing me to isolate myself from others and making me feel like I was completely losing myself.
This battle raged on for quite some time, on and off and on and off again, I never felt completely free. At this point in my life, I knew who Jesus was and I loved Him, but what I didn't do was turn to Him with this problem. Because the whole world was talking about mental health and saying it's normal to have anxiety and deal with this.
It isn't normal, or at least it isn't supposed to be, we aren't meant to live with anxiety, depression or anything else of the matter, Jesus already went on the cross and took all those things upon Himself so we wouldn't have to struggle with it ourselves.
Because I didn't know this at the time I continued to struggle. Finding no peace, I tried to do anything to relieve the anxiety but nothing worked. I felt alone, I felt like no one could ever relate to me, that these thoughts I was having, these feelings I was having, no one could understand.
This was all false of course because even according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S., affecting approximately one in every five people in the United States. So I quite literally was not alone, so many others struggled with this. But even if no one else struggled with it, I wasn't ever alone, because Jesus stood by my side through it all.
I think one of the biggest eye-opening moments that my anxiety was starting to get out of hand was a moment I now laugh at because of how ridiculous it was, but in that moment I felt like I was dying. It was someday in the spring and I had been deep cleaning all day, the day had all passed and it was now around 1 am, and I was still awake, cleaning, more specifically doing laundry. I was exhausted, but some part of my brain told me I had to finish before I go to bed.
Right now I can't exactly remember what disaster my brain came up with that would happen if I didn't finish, usually, it was either my entire family would pass away in the night or some other disaster would occur if I didn't finish whatever task was put in front of me. But as a result, this is where my OCD came into play because I couldn't just clean, it had to be done a very specific way, in a very specific order.
All of a sudden my dad comes downstairs and was not expecting to see me awake. He for one was very confused about why I was awake but even more confused about why I was doing laundry at this time. He tells me to go to bed and takes the laundry basket away from me. I then start having a panic attack because he wouldn't let me finish.
This is not my dad's fault of course he didn't know any better. After I eventually calm down and deal with myself and the absolute train wreck I was. I realized I needed to get a grip and figure out a way to fix this. My only answer was Jesus, I prayed and I wish it could say it got better overnight, but for me it didn't. It took hard work but not the kind you'd think.
The Hard Work
First and foremost I came and gave it all to Jesus, I came and showed him what a mess I had become and asked Him to help me. Being so gracious and loving He was more than happy to, and even so He was ecstatic that I had finally come and asked Him for help.
He brought me so much comfort and peace, He led me to open up about my struggles to a close community around me, and He helped me fix my mental health issues, and any of the parts of my life that would worsen anxiety that I had.
For example, He helped me keep a calm and clean environment around me, helped me with my sleep schedule, and which was a big one that needed fixing, I was struggling with insomnia for years and I can tell you it didn't help my anxiety.
So no, it didn't happen overnight, but it took hard work, it took me looking into parts of my life and realizing I was a mess, but that was okay because I know someone who could clean up the mess.
Why Jesus?
At this point, you might be thinking, "Why Jesus, you did that on your own, you just fixed some bad parts of your life", but no it wasn't like that. I stayed in the word daily, I prayed, I worshipped, and yes did all those other things but it wasn't by my strength, only by His strength.
"I can do all things through Him who gives me strength" Philippians 4:13.
He was there by my side, every step of the way, in every moment of weakness I felt His strength and it encouraged me to keep going. Every time I felt like giving up He would give me this peace that surpassed all understanding and that's when I knew I was gonna be okay. He teaches us in His word that if we put our hope and trust into Him, He will never leave us nor forsake us.
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your understanding." Proverbs 3:5
Practical Steps
I do however also want to leave you with some practical steps and lifestyle changes to help you with your mental health and well-being
- Open up to a family member
- Deep breathing exercise techniques
- Exercise to help with physical health
- Support groups
- Relaxation techniques
- Walks for fresh air
Concluding Thoughts
Are there moments now where I sometimes struggle with my mental health, yes, but the only difference is I know that when those moments where I feel anxious happen, it's I'm lacking Him in my life. I'm lacking Him by not spending time with Him. Thankfully those moments keep getting fewer and fewer. Especially after I attended Kingdom Domain College. I was taught about my identity and how to live a kingdom lifestyle. If it wasn't for KDC I don't know who or where I would be. The 9 months I spent here are ones I will never forget and never regret. I urge you, if you feel even the tiniest bit to come, do it, your life will forever be changed. You come in one person and out another, I watched myself and my friends come in broken and come out redeemed.
