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| TWICE AS MANY WOMEN SUFFER ANXIETY THAN MEN! |
CONQUER ANXIETY, CONQUER FEAR!
Witnessing Anxiety Attacks close up, with a loved one, is
very nerve-racking. It is not only an occasion for all parties involved to
panic, but an occasion for self-diagnosis…and if there ever was a time when
people are not only wound up tight but completely stressed out – it is now!
I like how the British Broadcasting Service defines Anxiety and
then distinguishes it from what Panic and Phobias are. The BBC says “Anxiety is the feeling of fear we all experience when faced with
threatening or difficult situations. It helps us to avoid dangerous situations,
makes us alert and motivates us to deal with problems”. In my opinion, this may be classified as the “good” kind
of anxiety –This is actually more profound in word independence than say,
Anticipation.
The good part of anxiety shows up when we
eagerly await the birth of an infant, while pacing the hospital floor….or the
posting of the Graduation List on the College website, to see if you’re
graduating or not!
But there is the bad type of anxiety. It is the one causing stress, heartburn and
sleepless nights to many in our current circumstance.
TYPES OF ANXIETY
There are several types of anxiety and they all are
capable of causing serious damage.
The most common one is Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). This affects almost 7 million
American adults according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Twice as
many women than men suffer from GAD.
GAD is the product of incessant worry…worry
about gas prices…worry about food prices…worry about cost of a college
education for little James…worry about getting passed over for promotion for
someone younger and less committed…worry about declining health…worry about
parents growing old and needing more attention…worry about layoff, the bad
economy and even worse politicians!
Then there is the OCD or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder where a person cannot make it through
a day without a daily ritual of hand washing; certain kinds of thoughts and
actions and anything that reoccurs.
Other types of Anxiety Disorders are Panic
Disorders; Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Social Anxiety Disorder
(or SAD).
The
Panic Disorder is the next
common one. Having witnessed a couple, I vouch for the following symptoms –
stomach upheaval; nausea; chest pain, heart palpitations, shortness of
breath and dizziness.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) has become
increasingly problematic to U.S. servicemen and women returning from the Combat
Zones if Iraq and Afghanistan. The NIMH gives the official definition a
disorder developed due to “exposure to a
terrifying event or ordeal in which grave physical harm occurred or was
threatened. Traumatic events that may trigger PTSD include violent personal
assaults, natural or human-caused disasters, accidents, or military combat”.
Our
dear soldiers are under so much stress these days with long tours of duty in an
unending war on Terrorism and broken families back at the base that the incidences
of suicides and divorce have skyrocketed. Drug abuse has also increased.
Finally
Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) is a
sort of fear of having to perform – public speaking or singing – to the point
of developing into a phobia!
ARE
THERE CURES?
Medication
All of these five
disorders have to be diagnosed and treated individually and with a different
approach, in the natural realm. America
and the western world have attempted to limit the resulting behavior of these
disorders by prescribing medication.
t
one point in the past years, Prozac was the most purchased drug in America! Xanax
and other anti-depressants abound. Beta-blockers are serious heart condition
drugs (like Inderal). Yet some doctors administer this to those suffering with
SAD, who may have a problem with public speaking for their job or something
similar!
Psychotherapy
Even
the above drugs can never treat an Anxiety Disorder. There is no treatment for
this but something called Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is increasingly
used to attempt to combat Anxiety.
Some
surface success can be had by hours or up to 12 weeks of CBT with patients from
any of the five anxiety disorders. This can range from Group Therapy for social
phobias to intensive counseling facing up to flashbacks from the combat zone.
The
problem with every single man-made cure here: from medication to psychotherapy;
is this – they all address the wrong
symptom!
LACK
OF FAITH?
Every
single Anxiety disorder comes from an uneasy soul….a spirit which does not live
in rest or which does not abide in the Lord. For us believers, it will be those
who are not walking in the Light of Christ!
It
is my contention that Worry and Fear stems from a lack of Faith…even if the
person says they believe and trust in the Lord.
The
great Mark Twain once said
"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of
fear, not absence of fear". Therefore, does it mean that Fear is a lack of
courage? Believe it or not, Jesus thought and said
so in Mark 4:40 (NASB) "And He said to them, "Why are
you afraid? Do you still have no faith?"
To
grasp this fully, let's look at the two original Greek
words Jesus used:
"AFRAID" (Delios) means to
be timid, even cowardly! It is the negative kind of fear...not the positive way
we are supposed to "FEAR THE
LORD"! Then Jesus said His disciples had no FAITH (Pistis).
This is not just faith or Trust but also a lack of confidence!
It recalls when Moses sent out a spy
party of 12 men to scout the Promised Land - Canaan. Sure enough, they came
back with proof of the Faithfulness of God and even called
it "A land flowing with milk and honey".....but then 10 of them
wimped out about they fear they had of the size of the giants occupying that
territory.
God
had promised them that Land. He allowed them safe passage in to get the fruit
and take it back as evidence to Moses and Aaron. But they grew timid and lost
their trust and confidence in the Promises of God.
Have YOU
lost that same total confidence you had in Him?
Have YOU let Human Reasoning replace the Loving
Trust and opened shiny-faced trust you had in Him before?
Have YOU allowed Fear, of so many well...fearful
things...in today's world...so overtake you, that it ROBS you of the POWER Christ gave you....to
DEFEAT THAT SAME FEAR???!!!
This
is the kind of humanistic thinking and surrendering to the flesh which brings
on these mind disorders.
FEAR
NO EVIL
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| WORSHIP YOUR WAY OUT OF A CRISIS, IT WORKS |
On the surface,
modern life appears more like vaulting through the valley of despair than the
standing on the Peaks of Possibility! In fact, sometimes it seems that every time
we have a "mountain top" experience, where we really connect with God
and Christ and our Faith, the very next day - something really stupid happens!
But in this life,
it is a given that we spend most our lives down in the valley. Like Moses, the
mountain is where we receive Encouragement, Exhortation and the Examples to
live by, from God. Also like Moses, we then have to come down from the top of
the Mountain of God and live among the people.....and the thing about down here
folks is - down here we have hate, greed, poverty, crime, pornography, vile
acts, drugs, devastation, destruction and despair!
The laws of God -
His Moral Laws - are written on our very consciousness. We have a
spiritual heart which MUST connect with our Creator in order to live the Life
He call us to. His Life is laid out for us in a Plan. He said so in Jeremiah
29:11 (MOFFATT) " “For I keep in mind my purpose for you, a purpose of
weal (prosperity or happiness), not of woe, to let you have hope for the
future…”
However, we can
choose to deviate from this God Ordained Plan and make things harder on
ourselves if we so wish! And we do this all the time. It is now time to return
to the Blueprint! Sure we can LIVE in the Valley while on earth, because we
have no choice. But we do not have to participate in its filth and darkness.
It is now
HIGH TIME to realize that while we were once part of the Dominion of Darkness,
now we are co-inheritants of the Kingdom of Christ.
Now is the time
to realize that the Valley of the Shadow of a disgusting DYING world is just a
training ground.
Now is the time
to realize we have nothing to fear but fear itself.
Now is the time
to realize - FEAR NO EVIL for He is with you and I - He promised it! Now -
FEAR NO EVIL BECAUSE AS THE NEW LIVING TRANSLATION SAID - WE LET HIM, HE
WILL BE RIGHT BESIDE US...TWO SETS OF FOOTSTEPS...NOW, ISN'T THAT A COMFORTING
THOUGHT?!!
Think of all the phobias and panic
attacks we can do away with, if we just trust and obey His Word!
(Images by Google Images)
