Anxiety Attacks

He didn’t turn up for work. They said he was suffering from the day before and so it was expected that he wouldn’t turn up. He had been expressing his concerns about how viable the workplace was. It had not been thought out clearly and goalposts seemed to change on an almost daily basis. What had not changed was the numbers and they continued not to add up. With no clear direction from management uncertainty increased and the pressures were getting on top of him. How would he cope? Where would he find another job in this climate? He may not have been the only one with concerns, but he appeared to be the only one expressing them. It was getting too much. It would only be a matter of time until this happened.

Meanwhile she was nervous again. Here she was in a new setting. Would it be like before? Would people be hostile to her because she was different, because she was plump, because she wasn’t as gorgeous as her friends? Would she be ridiculed? How would she react if she was asked to do something she didn’t feel confident at? Would this cause a problem again? Beset by these worries, she decided again to find solace by just withdrawing into herself again and not really engaging until she felt safe. If she could ever feel safe.

These are real life events with people I know and care for. Issues that destabilise and inhibit people, preventing them from ever feeling they can ever be free – free to enjoy life. In a time where medication seems to be on the increase, it seems to be increasingly psychological issues that call for our help. Yet the best meditation exercises and therapeutic techniques don’t seem to give the answers. For all the material comforts, there remains that concern, that fear, that very real manifestation of the more subtle form of the anxiety attack.

So what do we as followers of Jesus have to offer? Peace. Perfect peace. If we would but to embrace and experience it ourselves, we have contact with the One who causes peace even in times of great uncertainty. Not because the story will have a happy turn for us allthe time, but because he is the happy ending, whilst also being the joyful middle and the sublime beginning. In Him there is rest where others would be upset. Sharing that is more about example, then rocking with the verses. Those verses, though are excellent to meditate on as we know that as long as our minds are stayed on Him, He gives us the cure to those anxiety attacks.

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

dmcd