Anxiety and Playing God
The past twenty years or so have seen a massive rise in the levels of reported anxiety in America. In addition to more frequently reported levels of anxiety, our country has seen continued and steady increases in the percentages of adults diagnosed with anxiety related disorders such as Generalized Anxiety, PTSD, OCD and Panic Disorders. Studies have shown that approximately 3 million Americans every year are admitted to an emergency room for reported heart attacks, only to discover that what they are actually experiencing is in fact a panic attack. But what if the issue with anxiety is not about an increase in some kind of chemical imbalance in the brain or some form of disorder one is born with; what if instead the issue we face as a people is about the way we think and how we manage our perspective?
The truth is that anxiety is not inherently a bad thing. In fact all human beings experience anxiety and one might even say that anxiety serves an important purpose. What we often refers to as anxiety is in fact the same mechanism in the brain that we call our ‘Fight, Flight or Freeze’ response. You see, our brains were designed by a loving God with a built in alarm system designed to keep us safe in the face of danger. This system, fully functional at birth, is designed to react in the face of danger as a means of protecting us by elevating various functions in the body (heart rate, breathing and blood oxygen, and muscle tension to name a few) in order to better assist us with either running away or fighting back against a threat. This same system activates when I worry (evidence that our very thoughts have the ability to create anxiety!) about taking a test, preparing for an interview, public speaking, or performing in an upcoming athletic competition. In doing so, this system can actually assist us in being more focused and attentive to a particular task. The problem arises, however, when we experience anxiety in times that are unhelpful or otherwise unproductive.
But while anxiety can be triggered by past experiences (what we call triggers and things we associate with PTSD) the truth is often times anxiety is in fact being triggered by our own thinking. What is referred to as cortex based anxiety, our own thinking has the ability to trigger the very mechanism in the brain that then responds in anxiety. A way of thinking about this is to say that when we worry, and perhaps even worry excessively, our brains respond to these thoughts which are seemingly fixated on worry as if that worry is in fact a danger which then requires the alarm system to react. Simply put, our thoughts can trick our brains into responding in anxiety. With this in mind we need to then better understand and examine what those thoughts are, why we focus and fixate on them, and how might change our thinking and our very perspectives in order to reduce anxiety and develop healthier habits of thinking. In many cases, though certainly not all, cortex based anxiety all boils down to one little word which causes loops of anxious thinking that can lead all the way to panic attacks: Control.
Control is not a word we often think of or associate with anxiety, but in truth control is often the primary issue behind cortex based anxiety. Put another way, our struggles with control and attempts to maintain control over our reality often create increasing levels of anxiety that can eventually manifest in panic attacks. Many of the classic anxiety formulas for thinking such as what if thinking, worst case scenario thinking, and jumping to conclusion thinking, are all examples of our attempts as individuals to control unpredictable outcomes, circumstances, and even other people. When we engage in these types of thinking we are attempting to exert control over that which we simply cannot control; we are playing God. Consider the oft quoted serenity prayer:
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.
What if after all of this talk of anxiety, after decades of increases in diagnoses and reported ER visits for panic attacks, as widespread prescription use of anti-anxiety medication continues to rise, what if at the core of many such issues is actually a difficulty with control? What if the problem that often underlies the symptoms is that we as a people are struggling with playing God, to accept what we cannot change, and lacking true wisdom to know the difference? If your head is wrestling with these questions then please allow me to make two suggestions. James 1:5 reminds us that, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him.” So let us begin with prayer, with seeking God as the source of all truth and wisdom, to provide wisdom to us. Secondly, and I am aware of my own bias here, consider seeking counseling as a safe outlet to examine your thoughts, unravel your thought processes, and humbly submit to the one who is God and doesn’t have a need to play as God.
