“Be careful for
nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving
let your requests be made known unto God.” Philippians 4:6
let your requests be made known unto God.” Philippians 4:6
Uncontrolled anxiety robs the health.
Individuals with generalized anxiety disorder tend to have elevated LDL-cholesterol
levels, elevated blood fats, and a decrease of the beneficial HDL, all of which
contribute to blood vessel disease. (1) Sustained or chronic anxiety is
associated with a significant increase in thickness of the innermost and middle
layers of the common carotid arteries arteries important in nourishing the
brain. (2) This thickening is usually caused by build up of
cholesterol-containing material. In fact, chronic high levels of anxiety could
accelerate the development of atherosclerosis in these important arteries.
Those with anxiety disorders have high pro-inflammatory markers. This is
important because inflammation fuels chronic diseases.
Anxiety pales the stomach mucosa (lining) by
causing the tiny blood vessels leading to the stomach to constrict. This
interferes with optimal function and can set the stage for ulcers. Stress slows
the emptying of the contents of the stomach. Studies on rodents suggest that
rats genetically predisposed to anxiety have hypersensitive abdominal organs,
especially the colon. (3) High levels of anxiety also reduce the efficiency of
the immune system. (4)
Dealing with Anxiety
By understanding
what contributes to anxiety, we can gain an upper hand in overcoming it.
1. Distorted
Thinking Patterns
In selective
filtering, an individual usually focuses so heavily on one or more negative
matters, that he/she cannot see the positive. My husband never really
communicates with me. Only rarely does he tell me he loves me. My marriage is
not a really good marriage. His spouse might overlook the fact that he has held
down a steady job for 20 years, faithfully pays the bills, changes the oil in
her car, takes an interest in the children s extracurricular activities,
attends church regularly with the family, and occasionally take her out on
holidays. Selective filtering leads to discontent and anger because our hurts
are taken out of context of the greater blessings.
Individuals with all-or-none thinking have unrealistic
goals because they tend to see everything in absolutes. There are no
in-betweens. Either red or blue. No pastels. No pinks or lilacs. They either
fail or succeed. I feel crummy. I didn t make my usual A . This B makes me feel
like I have failed. This mode of thinking discounts the fact that we learn from
our mistakes and failures. Since it strikes God s grace in the face, it can
lead us to become intolerant of others shortcomings and sink us into shame with
our own ineptness. Our can relationships deteriorate because we become either
impatient with others or absorbed in pursuing unrealistic perfection to the
neglect of significant relationships. Unrealistic goals cause intemperate
living. Intemperate living erodes our personal peace and the peace of our
families. In all-or-none thinking, all mistakes or conflicts are seen as
inherently evil, instead of means from which we learn. This can produce anxiety
whether we admit it or not.
Mind-reading
is another faulty thinking pattern which
produces anxiety. In mind-reading, a person is sure he knows what another
person thinks. She didn t smile at me. She must be mad at me although I don t
know why. This fails to realize other reasons for her actions. Jean was a
persevering middle-aged lady who had struggled with anxiety and depression for
many years. One day her boss approached her quite seriously. I want to see you
in my office tomorrow! No smile. Not his usual upbeat self. The week had gone
quite well for Jean. Suddenly she found herself spiraling down into a severe,
anxious depression. She prayed. The question came to her mind, What were you
thinking before you got depressed? What is the problem? There must be a problem
with me. Was the staff unhappy with my performance? The rug is going to be
pulled out from under my feet. Then she realized that she was mind-reading. She
really didn t know what her boss wanted. Perhaps he wants to tie up loose ends,
before going on a six-week business trip, she though. That ended up being
exactly the case.
Overgeneralization is
assuming that bad events will happen over and over or that things are always
going to follow a certain pattern. This will also produce anxiety. A person who
was fired from his job once can relive that trauma every time his boss wants to
see him. I lost my job once before. I will probably lose this one.
Should
thinking is setting arbitrary
requirements without considering consequences. I should be able to rear two
children alone, climb the corporate ladder, take continuing education classes,
work out at the Y three times a week, and keep a spotless home. Many single
workers have done this, so should I. Not considering the consequences of the
whirlwind of either physical or mental activity accrues anxiety and eventually
can leave us feeling bankrupt. Establishing realistic goals, and evaluating
costs and consequences of personal action makes us wiser and better able to
prevent or handle anxiety.
One of the pivotal steps in overcoming anxiety
is to recognize the faulty thinking patterns that contribute to it. (5) Many
professional or pastoral counselors can be of assistance. Since expression of
our anxiety can deepen its impression on the mind, it would be wise to voice
our anxiety only to those who know how to help us. The psalmist suggests that
it is always appropriate to convey our anxieties, fear, and anger to God. Many
times faith in a loving God can reduce the impact of stress.
2. Threat of Loss
Fear of loss
reinforces anxiety. In order to overcome anxiety, we need to admit its
underlying fears.
Conscious loss of a loved
one, a physical capability, or a job, often reinforces anxiety and underlying
depression. Fear of losing someone or something valuable to us can propel us
into the throes of a frenzied anxiety. When this happens to me, I find it
helpful to realize that in some ways I was happy before I even had the desired
relationship or object. Teaching, for example, is very dear to me. Sometimes I
have nightmares about losing my job or the capacity to teach. Objectively
however, I realize that I was just as happy, even somewhat more happy, when I
was working as a patient-care worker. I would be sad for a little while if I
didn t teach, but there are other jobs, just as meaningful, that I could do
that would give me a sense of satisfaction.
Sometimes we have suffered losses of which we
are unaware. We hadn t missed them until it came to our attention that they
were gone. These losses can drag us into shame and embarrassment, pushing us
off-balance into insecurity. Insecurity comes in so many garbs that it is not
always easy to discern. These may be especially painful when love and esteem
have finally been achieved and then we lose them to some degree. What can we do
when this happens?
It is truly humbling to write regarding these
experiences of pain. Perhaps you have suffered more than I have. I hope not.
But some readers of this article have. I discovered a helpful suggestion one
night when I was feeling especially anxious. I considered each of my major
losses, and to my amazement, for every loss I was able to realize a definite
gain.
There was the loss, from a cruel mental disease,
of my mother s loving care. After spending much time and money working through
issues related to this, I can see that I am much more sympathetic and
insightful than I would have been without this experience. Then there was my
indifferent dad. Years later, when he died, he left a small inheritance enough
to pay for a couple of years of much needed counseling. A speech impediment and
a form of audible dyslexia have limited me some, but I certainly have taught
foreigners how to read standard English. Their mistakes mirrored my mistakes
well. My speech therapy, it seemed, helped more people than just myself.
Fortunately, I work for an institution, which has given me room to grow
professionally. Bounced from a job, I got another job in a rural elementary
school in which I learned much that helped me in character development and
professional growth. Several years later, I lost a class I enjoyed teaching. I
was determined to make the best of it. I was given a more advanced class, and
the research I did for that class made me a much more persuasive teacher in the
classes I currently teach. The list of my gains by losses could continue for
another page.
We can confront the underlying fear of future
loss by taking time to review how God has transformed the past losses into some
kind of gain. If we can t see this in our own upheavals, we can listen to
people who have. We can read inspiring biographies of those who triumphed over losses.
Study the Scriptures that show how God turned defeat into victory.
I remember hearing newscaster Maria Shriver give
an inspirational graduation talk. She had taken a certain stand on an important
issue in one of the major news networks. She feared that it would cost her job.
It did. The experience has proved valuable to her, for she has known ever
since, that she made the right decision and she will never have to struggle
with that same kind of fear again. She learned that courage is not the absence
of fear, but the going on in spite of fear. Peace of mind doesn t necessarily
mean the absence of conflict or loss, but the consciousness of right doing and
the eventual triumph of good in the face of adversity.
Integrity Counts
Missing links in our integrity create anxiety.
Integrity to principle underlies all true development. (6) I like to define
integrity as the harmonious movement of the intellect, the will, and the
emotions, into the will and purposes of God. To the extent that this happens,
we have happiness and good mental health.
Character has a number of different aspects the
will, emotions, personal relationships, the intellect, and our physical being.
Usually, one or more of these lags behind the others, and this character
imbalance fosters anxiety. We know we should do differently, but somehow we don
t. The stunted area(s) in our lives produce anxiety. Sometimes it is sitting on
a fence in the valley of decision. At other times deeper, unresolved
psychological and spiritual issues confront the soul. Sometimes God allows
disturbing thoughts to come to us, to prompt us to deliberately choose to
eliminate contaminating influences that erode character and contribute so much
to anxiety. By acknowledging our weaknesses and working through
character-dwarfing pain, we can eventually learn to make decisions that are
true to our chosen values, and using our talents in harmony with them, we can
avoid anxiety-producing guilt. (7)
Anxiety can also come from our subconscious
past. A toddler is happily picking pink flowers. Suddenly, buzz, buzz, buzz. Welts appear all over her body, and she struggles
to gain her breath. Twenty years pass. She has been happily married. It is her
anniversary. She is looking forward to her husband s return. He usually brings
her such interesting gifts. But when she receives pink flowers she feels utterly disappointed. Her mind seems to
become vacant, then apprehensive. But sudden recognition and a flash of insight
no, these are not the same flowers as those of her previous encounter. Although
the shape is different, the color is the same and the size of the petals are
similar to those she picked when she was so severely stung as a youngster. She
can t seem to disassociate the insect stings of the past from the pink flowers
of her anniversary gift because her mind is working on an unconscious level.
It is helpful to
recognize the connections of past events to our current anxieties and to
realize that conditions are different. We aren t in the same environment. We
are more mature in taking care of our own needs, and making necessary provision
to protect ourselves. In the previous scenario, that would be keeping
self-injectable epinephrine handy to counteract anaphylactic shock when bees
and hornets are out.
Core Beliefs and Priorities that Contribute to Anxiety
Self-absorption is another
cause of anxiety. We must certainly attend to our needs. But when my job,
my health, and my goals threaten to engulf me, I need to escape this tunnel
vision. The remedy for this kind of anxiety is to become involved with meeting
the needs of other people and, with them, to develop a realization of the value
of ministry and a habitual attitude of
ministry.
Perhaps you are not well yourself. Even flashing
a smile, expressing genuine gratitude, or offering a sincere prayer makes this
world a better place for someone.
Sometimes having too many things to do triggers
apprehension and worry. What to do if this is the case? Check your motives.
Psychologists have identified three basic core beliefs or motivations that
produce anger, anxiety, or depression.
Conformity core beliefs lead
us to try to please others to the extent that we don t take enough time to
protect our health physical, mental, and spiritual. This conflict easily
creates anxiety.
With performance
core beliefs we think that perfection in every single little thing we do is
required. I was living in a small dorm with the dean and her family. Our dean
was a tough but loving lady. She had escaped Nazi Germany when she was only
three or four years old. She tells the story of how her foot was painfully
inflamed with osteomalacia which made it very difficult for her to walk. Her
mother had pointed to the corpses surrounding them and said, Do you want to be
like these? Don t walk then! You must walk to keep alive. Years later, happily
married with two young children, this enterprising dean would garden, can food,
keep an immaculate home and supervise her young ladies well. However, she would
end up with a migraine headache every Sabbath after working all day Friday
preparing a delicious Sabbath meal and laboring to make homemade wheat rolls.
Finally I said, Molly, you don t have to make the rolls every Friday. Take it
easy. Cook simply. But no, to her, rolls on Sabbath was a family tradition and
could not be broken. Eventually she did learn to relax and rest although it
took major set backs for her to learn this essential lesson.
We do want to do our work as carefully and
thoroughly as possible, but we fatigue ourselves too often by thinking the
niceties of life are absolutely essential. We let our work define us, and drain our strength, when, really, our character
and priorities should define our work and promote
health.
Or perhaps we are suspicious and competitive. If I don t take this
opportunity, I will lose it and Jim will get ahead of me. So we add an extra
load. Maybe we climb another rung in the corporate ladder at the expense of our
health, our relationships, and eventually our peace of mind. Such are the
results of controlling core attitudes. Our
distorted concepts of our mission can obstruct our interpretation of who we are.
Identify your major long-term roles, and then
from these goals, derive specific, immediate goals. If you are overwhelmed with
too many tasks or responsibilities, eliminate or delegate responsibility for
goals that do not contribute to healthful fulfillment of your mission. Remember
to re-evaluate periodically to maintain realistic goals.
Suggestions for Dealing with Anxiety
1. Physical
Lifestyle Habits
View only the positive, the true, and the noble
on television. Much of what is shown on TV stimulates the adrenal glands to
release stress hormones that aggravate and perpetuate anxiety. We deliberately
choose to lower our threshold to anxiety by watching violent programs or
movies, and living the action vicariously.
Eliminate caffeine. Caffeine magnifies the
effects of adrenal stress hormones and messes up an important brain chemical,
GABA (gamma-amino-butyric-acid). This chemical helps us to focus and remain
calm during stress. Caffeine can be a contributing factor in post-traumatic
stress syndrome. It lowers the threshold to anger and decreases the level of
contentment. Caffeine is bad news indeed for anxiety control.
Physical exercise helps. Twenty minutes of
continuous walking (done for 10 weeks) improves anxiety. (9) Physical exercise
is linked to good health. Physical fitness can buffer against the harmful
effects of mental stress. In the elderly, exercise improves the quality of
sleep, and the perception of personal control and self-efficacy. It helps
control an inherited tendency to anxiety and also increases contentment.
Physical problems like overactive thyroid
activity, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart failure, heart valve
prolapse, vitamin B12 deficiency, withdrawal of certain drugs, and
other problems could be the source of anxiety and should be ruled out by a
competent physician and appropriate testing.
2. Abiding Trust in
God
Trust in Divine Providence reduces anxiety.
Juanita was a dynamic, active church member and a mother of three active
teenagers. Many years ago she had been involved in a car accident and suffered
such serious headaches she feared she was losing her sanity. One doctor after
another could offer her no cure for such terrible pain. (This was in the
mid-20th century, before CAT scans were available.) She feared long-term
institutionalization. Who will take care of my precious children? My husband is
gone so often because of his job. I must do something or I will lose my mind.
As a Christian, she decided she must break down the pain in her life into
five-minute intervals. The end of each five minutes was punctuated by a short
prayer. She remembered that the highest mountain is conquered step by step.
This step-by-step approach,
reinforced by faith in God, accomplished what no other therapy had. Slowly she
improved until one day she realized she had no more headaches. Her experience
led her to venture out on a faith ministry that helped her reach some of the
unfortunate people in New York City. Many times there were no funds and
sometimes vehicles necessary for her ministry broke down, but she never
indulged in anxiety or complaining. God always in some unpredictable way
provided.
Anxiety can nullify the benefits of our faith,
but it doesn t necessarily. Anxiety signals something is wrong. Perhaps it
signals a physical disease, a distorted thought pattern, a misplaced priority,
or a psuedo-god. If anxiety is honestly acknowledged, its causes ascertained
and sufficiently recognized, we actually can become stronger in our faith. As
the psalmist, states What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee. Ps. 56:3
You, too, by understanding
some causes of anxiety, making the suggested changes in thinking and behavior
patterns, and instigating the positive measures we have discussed, can overcome
anxiety. And this can be done in a way that builds a balanced, trusting,
cheerful, helpful character and personality a whole, sound person spiritually,
socially, mentally, physically.
REFERENCES
1.
Sevincok, L. et
al., Serum lipid concentrations in patients with comorbid generalized anxiety
disorder and major depressive disorder. Can
J Psychiatry, 46(1):68-71, 2001, abs.
2.
Paterniti, S., et
al., Sustained anxiety and 4-year progression of carotid atherosclerosis. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol,
2191):136-41, 2001, abs.
3.
Gunter, W.D., et
al., Evidence for visceral hypersensitivity in high-anxiety rats. Physiol Behav, 69(3):379-82, 2000, abs.
4.
Hall, E.J., Want
to Bolster Your Immune System? Lifestyle Will Help! The Journal of Health & Healing, 23(3):19, 2001.
5.
McMinn, M.R., Cognitive Therapy Techniques in Christian
Counseling. Word Publishing, 1991.
6.
Chalmers, E.M., Healing the Broken Brain. Remnant
Publications, 1998, p. 77.
7.
Chalmers, E.M., Healing the Broken Brain. Remnant
Publications, 1998, pp. 78, 79.
8.
Spiller, G., Caffeine. CRC Press, New York, 1998, pp.
264-272.
9.
Nieman, D., The Exercise-Health Connection.
Appalachian State University, 1998, pp. 249-262
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of Lay Institute for Global Health Training www.lightingtheworld.org
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