I was thinking about dealing with anxiety today. If I tried to get therapy, then I would get tips and tricks and maybe even medication for dealing with anxiety. If I would go faith-based, I would get a lot of trust in God and if I just believed hard enough then God would make my life 100% better and my anxiety would go away. I realized that the reason I wanted to write about my own experience with anxiety is that my own experience isn’t either of those paths.
My experience is constantly evolving. I am learning all the time, but I know some things already. First, when I deal with my anxiety, I don’t want to get around it, medicate it, or trick it. I want to embrace the anxiety and really experience it. The anxiety is part of my unique life experience and I need to be thankful for it. I want to know it and know what it means to be alive. Second, God is my solution for dealing with anxiety, but He isn’t going to make it go away no matter how much I believe. God doesn’t make everything okay. That’s not how it works. Faith doesn’t take away the evil, bad days, and pain in the world. Faith does let me know that no matter what happens I don’t have to do any of it alone. I might feel anxiety, but I don’t ever need to be afraid because God is always going to be by my side.
My faith saved me. May God’s peace reside in all of our hearts.
