A Prescription for Anxiety

Anxiety can not be avoided. At least not in these days when three dollar gas sounds like a bargain and your not sure how to make ends meet. But even without those issues we have concerns for family members and health and on and on.

I want to share something of how anxiety works and why. Then I’ll demonstrate a biblical alternative to unproductive worry and needless anxiety. By doing it this way, you will see how the answer God gives through His Word is an effective treatment for your anxiety.

Anxiety means the presence of apprehension, fear, worry or nervousness. These are natural and healthy. God gave us anxiety to protect us. When a rattlesnake rattles its tail, you look down and see the lethal threat of a strike. The feeling that floods your body is a built in response to get you moving in a way that will save your life.

The physical reactions that go along with anxiety are things heart palpitations, shortness of breath, a head and stomach ache and even nausea or chest pains. These don’t seem like a gift from God at first, but we know that the body is preparing for a threat and so blood pressure, heart rate, blood flow to your major muscle groups are all jacked up to higher levels while your digestive system slows down.

All of these physical responses are preparing you for fight or flight mode to deal with a threat. Anxiety is a coping mechanism hard wired into us by our creator who created a protective mechanism to protect us.

Scientists have used Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (or fMRI) and PET (Positron Emission Tomography) scans to see which parts of the brain are active in times of anxiety. The part of the brain that is involved in anxiety is the amygdala. This is the lower part of the brain and it lights up with neural activity on an fMRI and shows increased blood flow in a PET scan. The amygdala is a primitive part of our brain that deals with emotional processing and memory. It is the amygdala that also prompts releases of adrenaline. This part of our brain takes over when we go into survival mode. 

Anxiety can also be a problem, especially when unmoored from a specific threat. Anxiety can interfere one’s ability to sleep or to function anywhere near one’s best. Anxiety can be way out of proportion to the real threat or can even occur without a threat. I experienced this myself when a few years ago I was having generalized anxiety with no real cause I could discern. It turns out that it was an under functioning thyroid causing the problem. Your problems similarly could be chemical and need a medical solution.

But let’s assume for the moment that it’s not a chemical problem. Once you know it is not a fight or flight circumstance, it is time to take back over your own brain and let some higher thinking get going. You do have control over this, but it is not easy. Take for example being anxious about finances. You don’t want your amygdala, your primitive brain, to make decisions about what to do about money. But if you don’t overcome your anxiety, you will make bad decisions as the stress you feel will limit your response. You won’t see creative solutions, just more threats needing a quick response.

The Apostle Peter wrote, “Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.” Peter was teaching the Christians in his church who were facing persecution for their faith what Jesus taught when he asked his disciples, “which of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life's span?” Jesus answered his own question saying, “If then you cannot do even a very little thing, why do you worry about other matters?” (Luke 12:25-26). 

Peter tells it as, “Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.” The word for casting that Peter uses is the word used to describe throwing a blanket on an animal you want to ride. It is “to throw upon.” And the word for anxiety is “merimna,” which literally means “being drawn different directions.” So a more literal translation would be “Throw all the things pulling you different directions on God because he cares about the things that concern you.”

Anxiety is God given and a life-saving help to us. So God is not going to turn off your anxiety for good, no matter how much faith you have. Peter points to something else as important and I think it may be the true opposite of anxiety—humility. 

Peter wrote just before the part about casting anxiety on God that, “All of you must clothe yourselves with humility in your dealings with one another, for ‘God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time.” Then he went on to say, “Cast all your anxiety on him, for he cares for you.”

So the context for throwing your anxiety onto God’s broad shoulders is humility. Once we admit that we don’t have the answers to our most vexing problems, we are able to cast those cares on God.

Why spend the night tossing and turning worrying about stuff? God is going to be awake anyway. Turn your cares, your anxieties, your fears over to God. Really truly admit that you don’t know what to do with the things that are pulling you in different directions.

If you cast your anxiety on God, you can let the amygdala stop running on overdrive. That tape loop you have been playing in your head about all those fear and worries can stop long enough for the rest of your brain to kick into gear. Then God can deal with that higher brain self he created to deal more creatively with the real problems of your life instead of all that stuff you’ve been worrying about.

The point you want to reach is of being a non-anxious presence in anxious times. If you can cast your anxiety on him and get your lower brain to listen long enough, then you can become the non-anxious presence you need in your own life and that you husband or wife needs in your marriage, that your kids need in your house and your boss wants on the job. A non-anxious person is not one with no anxiety, but is someone who has conquered the worst effects of the anxiety and can be present in anxious times without sharing or cranking up everyone else’s fears. 

Give your fear to God, be humble enough to admit that you don’t have the answers, and cast all your anxiety on our loving God, because he cares for you.

(The Rev. Frank Logue is pastor of King of Peace Episcopal Church in Kingsland.)