Living in fear by choice or design? Part one.

Everyone worries, its a fact of life! Some people (like myself) worry more then others.  But to handle an anxiety disorder you have to know what it is. What qualifies as an anxiety disorder? According to the Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental health, fourth addition ( also known as the DSM IV) a generalized  anxiety disorder is excessive anxiety and worry occurring for more than six months regarding a number of events or activities. Some symptoms includes sleep disturbance like having issues falling and staying asleep or being restless while sleeping and or becoming easily irritable and tired with some muscle tension. (Click on the link to get the symptom list and more detailed information.)  
Now that we know about generalized anxiety disorder let's take a minute and get to know our wonderful brain that God designed so perfectly. Our brain is made up of three main parts known as
the forebrain, midbrain, and hindbrain. The forebrain is made up of the cerebrum, thalamus, and hypothalamus which is all part of the limbic system. (we will be focusing on these for the most part.) The midbrain consists of the tectum and tegmentum. The hindbrain is made of the cerebellum, pons and medulla. Our brainstem is made up from the midbrain, pons, and medulla.(There is your fun fact for the day!) Before we go any further lets look at the cerebrum in more detail. The cerebellum or cortex is the largest part of our brain and is associated with higher brain function since we use that to think and process most of the time. The cerebral cortex is divided by four sections, called "lobes".  You have the frontal lobe, parietal lobe, occipital lobe, and temporal lobe. Each lobe has a job and they work perfectly together supporting each other and that points to an intelligent creator! The  frontal lobe is associated with reasoning, planning, parts of speech, movement, emotions, and problem solving. The Parietal Lobe is associated with movement, orientation, recognition and perception of stimuli. The Occipital Lobe is associated with visual processing! Last but not least is the temperal lobe which is associated with perception and recognition of auditory stimuli, memory, and speech. What you may not know is that the cerebral cortex is wrinkled. But what does this look like and mean? Grab a piece of paper and crunch it into a ball, do you see all the creases and wrinkled areas? The wrinkles make the brain more efficient since it typically increase the surface area and that increase the amount of neurons within it. This is not even scratching the surface of how amazing our brain is. All of the tiny, complex peaces of our brain working perfectly together always points to how amazing we are created! How amazing and genius God, the creator of us and everything in us really is! No piece of technology can come close to doing what our brains do every second! It is constantly working together with different parts of your body sending nerve messages to wherever you need, like your fingers so you can scroll down to finish reading this post! We truely are fearfully and wonderfully made! "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." Psalms 139:14 When we understand that we are made to glorify God, that we weren't made by chance as Psalms 139:13 says "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb!" When we appericate how much he loves us and understand  he wants the best for us, that is when being controlled by our fears and worries becomes unacceptable. God made our brains to help not hinder us by being controlled with anxiety. God willingly provides comfort to help and give us hope everyday. What it comes down to is are we willing to take his help? Will we take the step of faith to serve him or will we hid in fear? Will we make worrying an exceptable thing for our everyday life by making anxiety your master? Our brain is made to work together in our best interests, not against us! We aren't defined by our anxiety, we are defined by God. Because of God we are free to embrace life and live fearlessly! The questions is will we?

Now that we know how wonderfully made we are we can't settle for just getting through the day and living with fear. Since we know God offers freedom and love in his arms we can't keep living in fear! God gives us the ability to live with abandon in a relationship with him! Living in fear is a choice so what will we choose to do?  Its time to choose to stop living in fear and time to embrace God and his perfect plain for us!

Your heart is beating faster and faster while the room starts to spin. You are starting to turn pale, it feels as if someone has walked up to you and punched as hard as they could taking the breath right out of you! You try to keep breathing  but with each breath you take it is harder then the last. The walls start to close in and your line of sight starts to go dark with the feeling that your world is falling apart. You know this feeling oh so well, you have dealt with it most of your life. Instead of making Anxiety your enemy you have welcomed him into your life, getting used to the damage and thinking you have to always live with it. Instead of fighting him you offered him coffee and a front row seat to your life. You have made him your best friend, letting him control your every thought and action.  He is always there to ruin your day, to take over and rule your world.  If you suffer from anxiety you know the feelings I just described all to well. You think he has to control you but he doesn't. 

I have suffered from anxiety for all of my life. Some days are better then others but even on good days he is still there in the back of my mind telling me things I should or shouldn't be worrying about. Something I have learned over many years is that my freedom lies in God.  I can try to find help in medication (which can still be helpful) or food. I could even try to find freedom in an earthly someone. But that will never work. The sooner I understand and realize that I can't control anything in my life and that the God who made everything is protecting and looking out for me the closer I get to realizing my freedom is in Christ. The more I understand that whatever happens to me from sickness to bad grades first must come through Gods hands before it gets to mine. He loves me more then I can begin to fathom and he will always do things for me that is for my best interests even if it hurts and doesn't make since.

 I invite you to go on this journey with me! Please join me while I find my freedom from anxiety in Jesus. Let us together break the grip of anxiety and show him who is in charge!! Feel free to share this blog and even post things of your own. We are going to be on this journey together and the more support the better!

Psalms 23 1-4 "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me your rod and your staff, they comfort me."