Stress

[Tuvy]

As a Christian I’ve had seasons of heavy anxiety. It wasn’t a lack of faith, prayer and Scripture grounded me, but I still needed counseling, better sleep, and boundaries. Owning it, breath prayers when panic hit, and seeing a therapist helped me recover without guilt.

[JohnH]

As a Christian I’ve had seasons of heavy anxiety. It wasn’t a lack of faith, prayer and Scripture grounded me, but I still needed counseling, better sleep, and boundaries. Owning it, breath prayers when panic hit, and seeing a therapist helped me recover without guilt.

Thank you for saying this. Sometimes, a Christian is praying plenty, reading their Bible, trusting God, and attending church.

We live in a fallen world with bodies and brain cells that are affected by the fall and sin and don’t always work 100% to original design.
And it’s okay to still find one is anxious, stressed, or otherwise and need to find help dealing with that.

I sometimes think of it like my car. I trust God to take care of me. Sometimes I even pray over my car. (I have one with severe rust in the back end so it doesn’t have many miles left to go - so I take it on short trips.) But even if I’m in a spiritually great place… my car may break down and need repairs. It doesn’t fully function like it was originally designed to. It’s not quite 100%. And nobody would feel bad like they’re not pleasing God because their car rusts out, and needs major work, or even might need to be scrapped. It’s just a reality of living in the world we do, where “moth and rust destroy”.

Do I need to make wholesome decisions to not become destroyed by anxiety or poor health? Absolutely.

[Tuvy]

I track my supplements and stress patterns in an iPhone app that syncs with Apple Health and adjusts monthly. This is the one I’ve been using: (link removed) and the simple daily planner keeps me consistent, which has eased my day-to-day stress.

[Grace]

I was diagnosed some years back with type-2 bipolar. I also struggle with PTSD. That is kept undiagnosed intentionally. The bipolar thing I was born with and started to raise its head when I was a teenager. When I was in my 20's and 30's the doctor did put me on meds for depression, but being in the conservative groups, I learned to keep my mouth shut about it... the hard way. I didn't stick with the meds as they had some side effects I wasn't comfortable with.

Later, when I was out of those circles, our pastor recommended I see a mental health professional. And that's where I got properly diagnosed. The PTSD was caused by some crazy stuff that I cannot talk about in polite company.

Today, I manage both with diet and exercise, some supplementation, and I learned to keep some people at arm's length.

To much info, I know

I am sorry Steve and wish you the best. We live in a fallen world and unfortunately stress, and depression are part of that world. Just as physical disease is part of the fallen world. The best thing to do is to treat it the best we can with the Lord's help and the help of loving compassionate people and professionals.

Over the years you learned to keep your mouth shut, and it is sad that you had to do that. But I can understand why. I have seen a young teen age girl who struggled with severe depression and possibly being bi-polar. One overzealous, pompous and prominent leader boldly made the claim that she might be demon-possessed. That mark was put on her for a long time. If she truly had been demon possessed (she wasn't) it should have been dealt with quietly with caring, compassionate people.