How to Deal with Anxiety: Tips from a Professional Counselor

Anxiety can range from being a minor frustration to a completely debilitating condition. Milder symptoms may include feeling restless, having difficulty focusing, experiencing a knot in your stomach, worry, trouble falling asleep, and muscle tension. Often, we may not even notice these symptoms because we have grown accustomed to them.

However, when anxiety becomes more severe, it can lead to symptoms such as a racing heart, rapid and shallow breathing, excessive worry, chest pain, sudden sweating, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, irritability, anger outbursts, avoiding certain situations, difficulty leaving the house or being in crowds, and an inability to fall asleep or return to sleep if awakened during the night.

Some Christians may experience additional distress due to beliefs like “Christians shouldn’t feel anxious” or “I shouldn’t feel irritable.” It is important to recognize that while God made us in a way that makes us susceptible to worry and feeling anxious, he does not want us to be hindered or debilitated by anxiety. So, what can we do to manage our anxiety?

The Value of Anxiety

First, let’s acknowledge that a little anxiety is not always a negative thing or something that must be eliminated. For example, a bit of anxiety before an exam can motivate you to study and help you focus better. Anxiety can sharpen your problem-solving skills; physiological responses such as an increased heart rate can enhance your ability to think quickly and solve problems.

People who experience anxiety often become more sensitive to the feelings of others, which can improve relationships and communication. Anxiety is also a natural response to danger, helping keep you safe by encouraging cautious behavior. Those with anxiety are often good at detecting subtle changes in the atmosphere or mood of a room, and this can keep them safe. Anxiety only becomes a problem when it starts to interfere with your ability to function.

Identifying the Source of Anxiety

Before considering solutions, it is important to take time to reflect on the source of your anxiety. The causes of anxiety can be varied and may require different approaches to address them. Factors that can lead to anxiety include genetics and biological influences, the demands of life, and the beliefs and expectations we bring to those demands, and finally, past, or ongoing traumatic experiences can be a source of anxiety.

Genetics and Biology

I lump these two together because whether there is an inherited trait or a dysfunction that has developed, both have to do with something physiological that is contributing to anxiety. While I am not trained in neurobiology or biology, there are some commonly known biological contributors to anxiety.

For instance, science has learned that low levels of serotonin can contribute to increased anxiety. Serotonin helps regulate mood, sleep, and appetite. When it’s low, we can feel anxious, depressed, have trouble sleeping, and be prone to binge eating. Low levels of the neurotransmitter GABA can also affect anxiety levels as GABA has a calming effect on the brain.

Without enough of it, we can experience racing thoughts. Additionally, elevated levels of norepinephrine, which is a hormone and neurotransmitter, can increase adrenaline, leaving you feeling energetic or causing you to have a rapid heartbeat or to overheat. The functioning of our thyroid, our liver, and the health of our digestive tract can affect feelings of anxiety. Finally, science has discovered that genetics can play a part in higher levels of anxiety.

How can you know if biology or genetics play a role in your anxiety? For one, just look around at your family. Do your parents experience anxiety? How about grandparents, aunts, uncles, or siblings?

If you see anxiety in your family without family trauma or excessive yelling or stress, there’s a good chance your anxiety is genetically or biologically based. You can also look at your lifestyle. If you don’t eat a healthy diet or get any exercise (which releases endorphins that help reduce anxiety), then your body may be out of whack and prone to anxiety.

Stressors, Beliefs, and Values

Another source of anxiety can be the combination of stressors, personal beliefs and values, or expectations. If you have so much on your plate that you can’t get it all done, along with the belief that you must accomplish each task at a high level, you will likely have anxiety. This type of anxiety involves spending time in the future imagining that one thing or another will not work out as you hope it will, and how horrible that will be when it doesn’t.

How can you know if your anxiety is stress-induced or related to your beliefs and expectations? Really, it’s a matter of stopping and asking yourself, “Where are my thoughts most often and what do I believe the outcomes will be?”

If you find your thoughts are often on the future, instead of the present, and you believe that things are going to go badly, one way or another, then you have this type of anxiety. It can also be helpful to look at just how much you have taken on and ask yourself if it’s reasonable and healthy to expect that much of yourself. You might also ask yourself, “Why have I taken on all these things? What is it I value by doing so?”

Trauma

Finally, anxiety can be the result of trauma. When things happen to us that threaten our lives, our safety, or even our sense of being valued, our brains store those events in a way that is meant to keep us safe from future events that are similar or feel similar. It’s God’s design to help keep you alive.

A whole series of mental and hormonal events can take place when we are reminded of something from our past. This is trauma-induced anxiety. While this may lead to problems, it’s more about what has happened to you than it is about what’s wrong with you. It’s also about what you came to believe about yourself, others, or the world because of what happened to you.

How can you know if your anxiety is trauma-based? Ask yourself if you have experienced events that made you feel unsafe or that indeed were unsafe. Consider whether you react strongly to certain things, related to those events, with anger, a strong desire to get away, or a “freeze” or “fawn” response.

If so, your anxiety may be the result of what you went through. It’s like those traumatic events got stored in your body, and you easily return to those feelings you had when you were experiencing them.

So, what can you do about your anxiety?

Now that we’ve identified some sources of anxiety, let’s turn to the question of what to do about it.

If you’re sure your anxiety is the result of genetics or biology, you’ll want to focus on interventions that affect your body. These might include seeing a doctor or a naturopathic doctor. They can run tests for genetic contributors to anxiety and recommend medications or supplements that will reduce your anxiety.

You may want to see a nutritionist because anxiety can be amplified by what we eat or nutrients we lack. Finally, counseling focused on learning relaxation skills, increasing exercise, and building cognitive coping skills can help augment a focus on the body, as these skills help change our brain chemistry.

Often, the way we think about our anxiety can amplify the biological contributors to it. So, along with the professionals mentioned above, you may want to reach out to a therapist trained in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and other relaxation techniques.

If you’ve decided that you are overly busy or just can’t shut your mind off with figuring out how things are going to work out, a good Christian counselor and your pastor could be useful resources to help you.

A Christian therapist trained in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) can help you explore the thoughts, beliefs, and motivations behind your lifestyle and help you assess and adjust perspectives that are out of line with God’s word. Often, society feeds us messages and values that we can easily absorb, without even realizing it. These beliefs and values can lead to never-ending anxiousness.

For instance, “I need a bigger house,” or “I’ll be seen as a failure if I don’t get a better job,” or, “If only I had someone special in my life. Then I would be happy.” Our thoughts and beliefs, so easily absorbed from society, have an enormous impact on our behaviors and our feelings.

Learning to examine and manage those thoughts and beliefs and “bring all thoughts into subjection to Christ” (2 Cor 10:5) can help us reduce or eliminate our anxiety, even in the face of extensive stressors. (Phil 4:7)

Finally, what if you’ve been through some traumatic events – something you just can’t seem to get past? Trauma can lead to anxiety because our brain is designed to protect us and keep us alive. After trauma, it can become overactive and sense danger when there isn’t danger present.

You’re not crazy for reacting with fear when triggered. It means your brain is working well and doing its job. But how do you train your brain not to trigger stress hormones and a “fight-or-flight” response? Fortunately, psychology has figured out some clever ways to help retrain the brain, whether that be through CBT, exposure therapy, or my favorite, EMDR, which I’ve found to be almost miraculous in reducing or eliminating trauma-related anxiety.

So, if you’re struggling with anxiety, consider where it might come from and seek the help most appropriate for your anxiety. If seeing a professional counselor would help, give me or one of our trained counselors a call. There is nothing we here at Spokane Christian Counseling find more enjoyable than helping others realize the peace we can all have in our Lord Jesus.