by Lucy | Jul 20, 2021 | biblical counseling |
When panic attacks occur, the sufferer hopes that the terror will stop instantly and never return. This is a certain truth about panic attacks: no one wants them, ever.
Panic attacks are brief episodes of intense dread accompanied by physical symptoms like an irregular or rapid heartbeat and sweaty palms. When you’re in the middle of one, they seem anything but brief.
Let’s uncover the five lies of panic attacks that you need to know, whether you or a loved one has this common condition.[i]
P.S. On Thursday, July 22, at noon CT, I’ll be leading a free live webinar on Victory Over Panic Attacks, and you are invited!
If you cannot make that date, no worries; You can get the replay along with helpful handouts including action plans! But to get them, you must register for the webinar. The spots are filling up, so act now.
REGISTER FOR THE FREE WEBINAR
Lie #1: If God loved me, He would take this away.
TRUTH: God loves you despite your fear.
Knowing the link between fear and panic attacks helps us to gain an accurate view of our anxiety, and to rest in the truth that God loves His children, especially those of us who fight fear (1 Thess. 5:14).
Fear isn’t all bad. It is a God-given emotion that alerts us to danger, real or perceived. Anxiety is what we feel when our body is responding to the emotion of fear.[ii] It is the mind and body’s reaction to stressful situations.
When you or I face a danger (real or perceived), our body releases adrenaline and other chemicals into the bloodstream, setting off a series of physical responses to ready us to act.
For various reasons, some people are more likely to develop panic attacks.[iii] Women are more prone to developing panic attacks than men.
Also, there is a strong genetic link. For instance, people with a close biological family member with panic disorder are up to eight times more likely to develop this condition.
No one wants to be anxious, of course. Yet when we get to the heart of anxiety, we learn what we truly value.
Remember that “you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father’” (Romans 8:15).
This can be incredibly empowering. In Christ, you have been set free (Gal. 5:1) and made a child of God, even though you may feel like a slave to the fear of panic attacks.
Lie #2: Only medication can help me, OR if I were a stronger Christian, I wouldn’t need meds.
TRUTH: A balanced approach to medication is wise.
As many more Americans have turned to anxiety prescription medication since the coronavirus crisis to calm their nerves,[iv] we may wonder about their role in easing panic attacks.
- Is medication the best option to address panic?
- Should we avoid medication altogether?
- Does using medication mean I’m a weak Christian?
First, no medication cures panic attacks. Rather, medicine can work to change the way that the body responds to fear, usually by slowing a normal biological process that is responding to a perceived danger.
Second, no medication can change our thinking. Only counseling can do that, whether from a friend or a biblical counselor or through self-counsel.
Medication can address these responses sometimes, but it does not deal with the heart. As a top article at Biblical Counseling Center’s websites puts it:
Medicine can change the way anxiety feels, but it can’t address the object of your fear. One of the things we all must realize is that the Creator God designed our bodies to feel fear and for our bodies to respond with energy to put us into motion. Simply muting the intensity of those bodily reactions and feelings by medically suppressing the natural chemical reactions in otherwise healthy bodies doesn’t solve one’s anxious thought patterns.[v]
The counselors at Biblical Counseling Center believe that the decision of whether or not to take anxiety medication is a personal one that is best made in consultation with your physician. Contrary to the popular myth, Biblical Counselors are not opposed to all psychiatric medicine use.
Whether you use medication or have decided against it, or if your loved ones have struggled over your decision, please know that you are never alone. You might remind yourself of this verse when you battle fear:
“The Lord is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid?” (Psalm 27:1)
Lie #3: Panic attacks are mostly a physical problem.
TRUTH: The body and mind are intertwined.
The bodily responses to panic are well known: your heart beats double-time, you may be shaky, maybe even lightheaded, and it may feel like a bear is sitting on your chest, metaphorically (or you’d really have something to worry about, right?).
You might also have chills, numbness in the fingers and toes, sweaty palms, and other panic symptoms that sometimes seem to come out of the blue.
Since panic symptoms are physical, this means panic attacks are mostly a physical problem, right? The truth is, while anxiety is entwined with our bodies, it originates in anxious thinking.
“For as [a man] thinks in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7, NKJV).
What we think, believe, and desire in our hearts is what we do. The heart is the immaterial part of us. It consists of our thoughts, emotions, and will. So, if we imagine that we are in danger, we may run and hide, and have a rapid heartbeat and other bodily responses to fear.
So scary are these symptoms that we may seek emergency medical help. Each year millions of Americans with anxiety-induced panic attacks visit a hospital emergency department complaining of chest pain, trouble breathing, and dizziness, fearing a heart attack.
A researcher found that “anxiety contributed to chest pain experienced by 30 to 40 percent of low-risk patients seen in hospital emergency departments.” [vi] Of course, it is wise that someone showing symptoms indicating a life-threatening disorder would seek emergency care.
As we address our fear, we can learn to slow our anxious thoughts that feed panic attacks.
Lie #4: I just need to do better to avoid my triggers.
TRUTH: Avoiding the situations you fear deepens your fear, so don’t do that.
Let’s start with a definition of a trigger. A trigger is a situation, location, or person that reminds someone of a past or current difficulty,[vii] even a panic attack.
This lie suggests that if we stay away from a feared situation – flying, heights, spiders, driving, and so on – then we will be happier and have more peace because we’ll be panic-free.
But the problem is not the trigger per se. It is our heart response to it. What we fear controls us. Andrea Lee explains it this way:
When we label someone or something a “trigger,” we shift the place of emotional control from our own heart to an external object. The connection between an event and emotion can mistakenly lead us to think the trigger is a cause. Actually, we have developed habits of thoughts in response to pain that continues to lead to these predictable emotional conditions.[vii]
The more we avoid our fears, the stronger they may become. In fact, a panic attack is a one-step-removed problem. When we focus on our physical responses to fear, it is easy to lose sight of our real problem; that is, a habit of anxious thinking.
When we repeatedly think about fearful events that may happen, we unintentionally train our thoughts toward hypervigilance and nervousness. When this habit is formed, it doesn’t take much to have another panic attack.
Scripture informs us to “take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5). This means we need to unlearn our fear habit and rely on God to provide everything we need for victory.
To accomplish this, we can develop action plans that help us before, during, and after a panic attack. In the coming weeks, we’ll tell you more about these action plans that can help you break free from fear.
Lie #5: Counseling can’t help me, it’s a lost cause.
TRUTH: The right counseling that is based on love and truth brings freedom.
No one is beyond hope. While we’ve all had seasons when we feel like giving up, God’s grace is sufficient for us to believe the Gospel and to put our faith into action.
Biblical counseling points us to the timeless and trustworthy truths of God’s Word.
At BCC, we often say, “faith is believing the Word of God and acting upon it, no matter how I feel, knowing that God promises a good result.”
When we face our fear of having a panic attack, we need to make a choice to believe God and his care for us even in the event of another panic attack.
Basically, we need to practice biblical truth, especially Phil. 4:4-9. This passage tells us to rejoice, pray, give thanks, guard our hearts and minds, think about the good things of God, and practice the joyful attitude and living that that apostle Paul had shown believers.
And it ends with this promise: “the God of peace will be with you.”
As we face our fear God’s way, His truth replaces the lies of panic attacks, and we learn the true way of peace:
“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you” (Isaiah 26:3).
[i] Every year, up to 11% of Americans experience a panic attack. Approximately 2% to 3% of them go on to develop panic disorder. (Cleveland Clinic, “Panic Disorder”)
[ii] Tim Allchin, “How Jesus Addressed Fear, Worry, and Anxiety,” October 1, 2019
[iii] Katherine Star, PhD, “Panic Disorder Risk Factors,” December 4, 2020
[iv] Bruce Golding, “More Americans Turning to Anxiety Medication amid Coronavirus Pandemic,” May 25, 2020
[v] Tim Allchin, “Should Christians Use Anti-Anxiety Medication?” October 15, 2019
[vi] Indiana University, “Heart Attack or Panic Attack?” April 15, 2019
[vii] Andrea Lee, “Troubled by Triggers,” March 20, 2018
by Lucy | Apr 24, 2021 | biblical counseling, relationships |
Who do you aim to please? Your boss, your husband, your reputation, your bank account, your dog … yourself?
Anything or anyone placed ahead of God can become an idol. These may include things like,
- approval
- love
- comfort
- security
- significance
These seem innocuous, but they can ensnare us. They keep wanting more and more. Feeding an idol is a horrible, exhausting way to live.
In this article, we’ll first get a picture of what idol-worship may look like. It may be more common than you think. Then we’ll discover its antidote: growing in the fear of the Lord.
Meet an idol-worshiper.
Linda (name and some details have been changed) deeply desires that her Christian husband stop binge-drinking. His problem is obvious, but what’s hers?
She thinks that if she acts sweet (by picking up the kids’ toys before he returns home from work and by making nice dinners, for example), then he’d quit drinking and she’d get what she wants.
But no matter how sweet she is or how often she pleads with him to stop drinking, he continues to buy a 12 pack of beer and guzzle all of the beers when he comes home after work. Not every night … but often enough to cause her concern and fill her with fear.
There is nothing wrong with wanting a husband who makes wise choices. But when a desire becomes a demand, we have begun to make it an idol.
What’s her idol? Security. She says to herself, “I must have a godly and sober husband who cares for me and the kids, or I cannot be happy.”
You worship what you fear.
How do we tell if we are pleasing someone or something instead of God? Elyse Fitzpatrick nails it:
If she is willing to sin to obtain her goal or if she sins when she doesn’t get what she wants, then her desire has taken God’s place and she is functioning as an idolater.
Look back to the example of Linda. When her husband disappears into the garage with his 12-pack, she pouts and pleads, worries, and falls into self-pity. Her actions are understandable. Yet they are sins that she needs confess. This may not seem fair. We often sin in response to being sinned against.
A husband yells at his wife, the wife screams at the kid, the kid kicks the dog.
This dynamic may play out in your life too. It does in mine. When a friend failed to get back to me, and I feel ignored, I may sulk. When my husband seems more interested in TV than me, I may snap at him.
Choose better … please God only.
In her book Holy Fear, Christina Fox helps us to trade lesser fears for the fear of the Lord. Here are three ways she highlights.
1. Study God’s word.
To grow in the fear of the Lord, we must know him, and the very best way is to study God’s word. When we read scripture, we can ask ourselves, “What does this teach me about God?” The more we learn about who God is, the more we grow in our fear of him.
2. Remember God’s works.
As we recall that God rescued the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, the prophet Jonah from the belly of the great fish, the apostle Paul from death time and time again, we grow in the fear of the Lord and desire to please him only. Great ways to remember God’s works today: worship with other believers on the Lord’s Day, sing praises to him, and share at the communion table.
3. Pray for greater fear.
Prayer helps us to depend on God more and ourselves less. “We find our hearts reshaped to want what God wants more than what we want,” Fox says. “We grow to want his glory and fame spread throughout the world and not our own. Indeed, prayer not only feeds and nourishes us, it transforms us.“
So who do you now aim to please?
God is jealous for our love. He hates your giving it to anyone or anything but him.
You shall have no other gods before me. (Exodus 20:3)
As we grow in the fear of the Lord, we will aim to please him, not a person or a thing like money, approval, security, or any lesser fear. When Linda came to realize that she wanted security above all things, even God, she agreed with the Lord that her desire was misdirected. She poured out her heart to the Lord, asking him to help her love him most of all.
Her husband still drinks sometimes, but less than before. Most importantly, she has a new attitude that God will provide her everything she really needs. The Lord is her safe place.
by Lucy | Apr 16, 2021 | biblical counseling, emotions
Is it possible to live anxiety-free and in peace? To be “anxious for nothing,” as the apostle Paul mandated us believers (Phil. 4:6, NKJV)?
In his book Anxiety: Knowing God’s Peace (P&R Publishing, 2019), Paul Tautges defines anxiety as a distracting care – “to have our minds and our hearts in two worlds.” This distracting care diverts our attention from the eternal Lord to temporal, earthly concerns. Anxiety not only divides our minds, but also weighs us down.
This article appeared first here on the Biblical Counseling Center (BCC) website. I’ve counseled through BCC since 2014 (now exclusively through Telehealth online video), and I specialize in helping women and families overcome fear, worry, and panic.
We can also describe anxiety as the emotion of uncertainty. Sometimes, it reveals itself as a conglomeration of nagging worries. Nothing horrible or deadly, more like a swarm of mosquitoes than an agitated rattlesnake.
At other times, anxiety is a debilitating panic. It can feel like a knife stabbing you in the chest with every breath, or like a lump in the throat, or sweaty palms, or wobbly Jell-O knees, or any number of uncomfortable, unwanted body sensations experienced when we’re highly stressed. It can also show itself as fear of man or any number of other expressions of anxiety.
Whether nagging worries, or debilitating panic, or any other expression of it, anxiety has powerful and negative effects on the body. We’ve all experienced it personally.
Peace through understanding anxiety’s effects
A pressure is first evaluated in the mind. “Do I have enough money in the bank to cover the $200 water bill?” If we check our account and it has several thousands in it, we relax. But if there is only a measly $20, our pulse may quicken and our thoughts may scurry like mice, looking for an answer to our financial conundrum.
When anxiety persists (and often it does in today’s chaotic times), it can have negative effects on the body: muscular tension, headaches, gastro-intestinal problems, and so forth. When left unresolved, anxiety may lead to depression and other negative emotions as well as phobias, panic attacks, and compulsive behaviors. (Since some of these problems may have an organic, physical cause, it is always wise to consult a health practitioner.)
When I’m mildly anxious, my upper shoulder muscles often become tight and a tension headache may ensue. If I ruminate on whatever is bothering me into the evening, insomnia is my probable bed companion. Sometimes I stress-eat chocolate.
If my anxiety goes way beyond nagging worries and has catapulted into panic, a horribly frightful and often recurring experience I’ve described in Help: I Get Panic Attacks(Shepherd Press, 2019) and in this blog article, “The Truth of a Panic Attack,” then my bodily sensations may include a racing heart, perspiration, numbness of fingers and toes, feeling faint, and a sense of doom.
With anxiety, we’ve each lived it, hated it, and wished it gone, yet it hangs like chains around our hearts.
In Psalm 31, David describes the interconnectedness of the body and the mind, and he nails the solution; that is, turning to God: “But as for me, I trust in You, Lord, I say, ‘You are my God.’” I encourage you to invest a few minutes in reading it and meditating on its truths.
Peace through the renewing of the mind
A mind renewed by the truth of God as revealed in Scripture is the only lasting antidote for anxiety and other negative emotions. Tautges counsels, “Ultimately, security and peace come from the Lord—from knowing and trusting the character and love of God. So don’t let your anxiety lead you away from God. Run to Him today.”
Indeed, a right view of God will replace anxiety with peace.
Lisa came to counseling for anxiety. As I heard her story, I learned that she had been an excellent student and a rule follower. It was important to her to please her parents and her teachers. Now married, she desired to please her husband too. When she received his approval (or at least not his disapproval), she felt good. When she feared that he wasn’t pleased, her anxiety ruined her day. She became extremely introspective and also irritable, trying to figure out how to get her husband’s favor.
As you probably gathered, the root problem of her anxiety was the fear of man, specifically her husband. She wasn’t afraid of him in the sense that she thought he might hit her. Rather, she feared his disapproval.
Proverbs 29:25 says, “The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is safe.”
In counseling, she learned to be resolute in doing what was right in the eyes of God, not in the opinion of her husband. This also required some uncomfortable conversations with her husband. Ephesians 4:15 calls us to speak the truth in love. As Scripture renewed her mind, she determined to take a leap of obedience and to trust and obey God. She took to heart 2 Timothy 1:7— “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and discipline.”
Peace through an actionable plan to overcome anxiety
The Bible urges us to renew our minds (Rom. 12:2, Eph. 4:23). But how does this happen, this renewing of the mind? This is a common question among anxiety-plagued Christians who are seeking a biblical solution. Let us consider these four parts.
First, right belief.
Overcoming anxiety begins with the right belief about the goodness and greatness of God, and our relation to Him. He is the Creator, we are the created. He is the Potter, we are the clay. Consider studying the attributes of God. A good study Bible would be helpful in this endeavor, so are books on this topic by A.W. Tozer, Arthur W. Pink, and (more recently) Jen Wilkins.
Second, right thoughts and desires.
What we believe is the foundation for our thinking. “As a man thinks, so he is” (Prov. 23:7). Our thoughts are a reflection of who we really are.
Third, do right.
Our actions flow from our beliefs and our thoughts. Even though it is difficult, we must not let our emotions rule us. God calls us to live by faith, not our feelings.
Fourth, feel right.
When we “do right,” that is to trust and obey God as His beloved children whom His Spirit guides and empowers, we will feel right. We have the peace that comes from a renewed mind.
Example: When the shepherd boy David brought lunch to his older brothers who were part of the Israelite army cowering in fear (1 Sam. 17), he took stock of the scene. He viewed the giant Goliath as a tiny, annoying gnat in comparison to the almighty God whom he served. In the presence of all gathered, he declared to Goliath, “You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a saber, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of armies, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will hand you over to me. (17:45-46a, NASB).
We all know the rest of this story. David killed that giant with a sling and a stone, and the victory belonged to God.
David displayed right belief > right thinking/desire > right action > right feeling. How can you and I do the same? Recall Paul’s admonition in Phil. 4:9: “As for the things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”
Closing reflection
I hope this description of anxiety and God’s solution to it have given you more insight into how to respond biblically when nagging worries, debilitating panic, the fear of man, or another expression of fear assails you or a loved one.
We can gain more empathy for those who have anxiety. We can remember that God gives us His solution for overcoming it and finding peace. What is a practical and Godward action step that you can take today?