Episode 30 of The Living Life Well Show: Overcoming Anxiety, Part 1
===
[00:00:00] Welcome to the Living Life Well Show, the intersection of God's Word, today's science, and healthy living with common sense application, all based on the truth of the Word of God. I'm your host, Dr. Jon Skelton. Now let's get straight to the truth. Welcome back to the Living Life show. Today, I want to talk about something that I think is pretty timely. We're recording this, in July of 2024, just days after the attempted, assassination of Donald Trump while he was at one of his rallies in Pennsylvania while running for, the presidency the second time.
So, ~ ~Overcoming anxiety. That's what we're going to be, speaking about today. And, I hope, this will be, not only timely, but obviously beneficial, [00:01:00] for you. The times in which we live are uncertain. I see that, from my children to, myself, my family members, really everybody that I come in contact with.
You know, really doesn't know what all to make of the situation. It is a time of uncertainty, and uncertainty, can bring anxiety and anxiety has been heightened, for years and years now, but. specifically since really going into COVID. Anxiety in our current culture is difficult to manage, difficult to, eliminate.
I want to look, not only through scientific literature, but through the real truth, God's Word, as to how we can combat those daily, anxieties that we come up against, as well as the really chronic pervasiveness of anxiety in our culture today. [00:02:00] So as we kind of get into that, what I would like to share is a little bit of my own personal experience with anxiety.
, having gone through, life in general, just like anybody has, there's gonna be times that you experience anxiety. Anxiety is a normal, by product of living in a fallen world. So the first time we really, see or hear about, the word anxiety is actually in Deuteronomy 28. And Deuteronomy 28, if you're not familiar with that, basically to kind of set the scene, God has just given the Israelites, the Ten Commandments, the laws, the duties, the responsibilities, for how to follow Him or how to live in the fear of God.
And that is really what we're called to do. That's the only thing we're called to fear is God missing His will, His desire for us missing out [00:03:00] on his ways and thus his blessings. And so that's what Deuteronomy 28 is telling us about. It's the first part of the chapter, tells us all about his blessings.
It has some generalities as to how he's going to bless. And then, the last and , the longer part of the chapter actually deals with, the consequences. For not following in his ways, not, committing to the fear of God. And one of the areas that I really want to take a look at as we kind of set the scene for anxiety today and talk about, some statistics and those things is, really just the last couple of verses of Deuteronomy 28 there.
So the last four verses of the chapter really is what I want to take a look at verses 64 through 68. This is the NIV and it says, then the Lord will scatter you among all nations from one end of the earth to the other. There [00:04:00] you'll worship other gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your ancestors have known among those nations, you will find no repose no resting place for the sole of your foot.
There, the Lord will give you an anxious mind, eyes weary with longing and a despairing heart. You will live in constant suspense, filled with dread both night and day, never sure of your life. In the morning you will say, if only it were evening, and in the evening. If only it were morning. Because of the terror that will fill your hearts and the sights that your eyes will see, the Lord will send you back in ships to Egypt, on a journey I said you should never make again.
There you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you. So this is kind of a culmination of continuing on [00:05:00] in, a path that is obviously destructive, by not following, God's ways and God's commands. And so when we look at that word for anxiety that is there, when it talks about an anxious mind, it's, Rigaz, R A G A Z, and really when you look up the original Hebrew text it means to quake or to tremble, really enrage oneself even.
And it comes from, a root that refers to, your chest actually. And that's what's really pretty interesting because when somebody has an anxiety attack, I've actually experienced two of those in my life. One interestingly, the first one I experienced was, in my twenties, we were having a wedding shower actually and, I became so tremulous, I couldn't even open, presents.
So, just kind of really weird, just kind of seemingly came out of nowhere, but stemmed from, essentially a [00:06:00] social anxiety, the second time is, kind of funny. I was, in, it was our 20th wedding anniversary and I was, taking a scuba lesson and I was just in the pool. I was in about four feet of water and I, all of a sudden began to have this, panic attack, the severe anxiety reaction, if you will, and, This time I was really well versed in what anxiety was and identifying a panic attack because now I've been through medical school residency and lots of years of seeing this in the emergency department and so I was able to quickly identify as that was what this was and then talk through that.
But really all I had to do was just stand up, right? So, ~ ~That is kind of what I want to talk to you about today. Those acute episodes, but why do we have so much? acute episodic severe anxiety like this like it's [00:07:00] discussing here in Deuteronomy 28 where you are literally shaking and trembling as I was, and as many people I see that come into the emergency department in an acute situation, like this.
That stems from chronic anxiety, chronic elevation of that catecholamine that is chronic irritation and over stimulus of the nervous system. This leads to our chronic anxiety. There are also some underlying physical conditions and obviously experiences that we've had in life that create a background for anxiety.
And so, , if you have certain vitamin deficiencies or genetic issues with, processing, the nutrients that come into your body and not doing so in a way that is fully nourishing because of, your genetic components, that can, Lead to a little [00:08:00] low level underlying anxiety, Then things like, hyperthyroidism, where you have an overly stimulated thyroid, you're producing too much thyroid hormone.
That can create symptoms of anxiety, physical reactions. Obviously things that we take into our body, drugs or stimulus, can do that as well and create fear. physical reactions, physiologic reactions in our body. Then obviously for those people that have had, severe, traumas or longstanding stressful situations, that creates a mental load where there's a mental background, always there of some, anxiety.
And when you have any of these types of situations, it's going to, Rev up that nervous system, and it's going to allow you to trigger into one of these extreme episodes, more easily. And so, at the slightest little [00:09:00] thing, a loud noise, a car honk, whatever while driving, a slamming of a door, even, the air conditioning coming on might trigger you into that very anxious state, like we just described, or that was just described to us ~in ~Deuteronomy 28 there.
So that's really what I want to talk to you about today, because My experience, my professional experience in the emergency department, tells me that this is just getting worse. It is absolutely not getting better and it is at epidemic proportions. So when you look at the CDC's data, they will tell you that about 10 percent of all emergency visits are due to anxiety.
I'm telling you that data is wrong. In my experience, it is much, much higher, than that. And the reason that is because we are living in a chronic state. Most of us have an. revved up, catecholamine, system, [00:10:00] which in turn drives our nervous system and creates this anxiety. We then have some situation to where, something doesn't quite feel right physically.
And what do we do? So you've got some abdominal pain. You maybe have a arm that is hurting or not feeling right. So you go to Google, and you immediately look up the symptoms. Google is going to give you the whole gamut of symptoms. And when you are already in an anxious state, you already move over to the Worst case scenario, right?
So if somebody has abdominal pain, it's always going to be a surgical emergency. Somebody's having arm pain, it's always going to be a heart attack., and that is where our mind goes. Our mind is always going to go, to that worst case scenario.
And then leads to further fear and difficulty. So when we [00:11:00] live in this chronic state of elevated catecholamine release, and a irritated nervous system, we are predisposing ourselves, to having a panic attack or having, extreme reactions, if you will, to everyday situations. So that's not how we were intended to live.
Now, granted, Anxiety is a part of our life. We see that throughout the Bible in different situations, , namely one of those situations, , that we can see with an extreme case of anxiety, is right before, Jesus is, taken for crucifixion, and he's praying and asking God that.
that this could pass and he is literally sweating drops of blood. That is a sign of extreme anxiety. One that we, virtually never see. And so, be very similar to what, is kind of described, here in Deuteronomy [00:12:00] 28 centuries before, he came to earth. And then we also see that throughout, the Psalms really with David.
David was running from, Saul, , for his life. And it was many of the Psalms. He was just overwhelmed by this feeling of doom and dread because he was literally being pursued and, attempted to be, killed, we get some idea through both of these experiences, that we see in the Bible as to what we should do,
What's interesting is a lot of these biblical principles are now being brought forth in the scientific literature, really showing how you can, implement biblical principles and achieve results. These same, biblical principles, are present for even the non believer. And so, when a non believer institutes these principles, they will get benefit from it.
We see that scientifically. [00:13:00] But, Again, as a Christian believer, you get that special provision, that extra grace, that extra, peace, that extra hope, that extra, bit of joy when you are approaching it as one of God's children and in reverence to him. And so, What I would like to kind of go over today is, some of the things that you can do, to really renew your mind, because that's really what we're talking about today.
We're talking about, you know, Romans 12 and talking about renewing your mind because that ultimately is where anxiety is. Starting and that is where you can stop it as well The issues with regards to the physical aspects of things. These are gonna be short lived, right? Things that might suffer with if you have hyperthyroidism or if you have an untreated genetic issue such as ~like ~MTHFR [00:14:00] or COMT or MTRR, but what you think about and how you go about your day and approach your life, is only going to exacerbate any of those underlying physical factors that you might already have. Just like your experiences that you've had in life and how you even think about those experiences that you've had, they are going to, either be a benefit or a detriment to you, depending upon how you frame your thinking about that.
So number one thing is to renew our minds. So how do we overcome the extreme episode? And how do we overcome, the daily chronic episode? So it's, one in the same, thankfully. And so the first way we want to start with, overcoming, any type of episode of anxiety is, one start with breathing.
The reason we want to start with breathing, [00:15:00] and this is the number one thing that I have, patients do when they come into the emergency department, acute episode. anxiety is to slow down their breathing. As our respiratory rate increases, it decreases our carbon dioxide level, which subsequently gives us more symptoms, gives us a lot of symptoms related to our muscular and can cause contractions.
It can also cause numbness and tingling, and ultimately, it will start causing some chest pain as well. So hence, the ragaz that we talked about and that root, of the word being, In chest, because that's where we typically associate anxiety with is the first symptoms seem to be related to our organ systems, in the chest, the respiratory system first, cardiovascular system, very close behind that, and then out to the rest of the body. The number one [00:16:00] thing that we want to start doing when we're recognizing that. We're getting into an episode of anxiety, be it a severe anxiety, like a panic attack, or, you know, just any increased stress, we want to start breathing and we want to breathe correctly. And so what we want to do is we want to raise and order normalize those carbon dioxide levels before they start crashing and sending us into a higher fight or flight response with increasing.
Catecholamine surges. Causing that cortisol level to go up as well. So box breathing is a great way. To go about, decreasing that catecholamine surge increasing those CO2 levels. The way that typically works is you inhale slowly to a count of four. Hold it. For a count of four. [00:17:00] Exhale slowly to a count of four hold it for a count of four and repeat. And so what we want to do with this is we want to do this anytime we're noticing. That we are going into a stressful situation or we're feeling that respiratory rates start to creep up that heart rates start to creep up. We're feeling anxious. Overly tired. Angry. It works in all these situations, not just specifically a panic attack. Or anxiety. Now when we're in chronic stress and chronic levels of elevation of that, of catecholamine adrenaline, surge cortisol. Levels. This works as well.
And so we need to calm the nervous system overall. And so one of those ways to calm the nervous system is really to Institute this box breathing. There are a few different times that it really works well. So obviously, like I said, anytime, you know, you're going into a stressful [00:18:00] situation. Sometimes you just find yourself in a stressful situation and you find this happening.
So getting and doing this right away is going to be helpful. But the two best times that I know to do this on a schedule basis are right before you're going to sleep. And then right when you wake up before your feet even hit the floor, this automatically calms your nervous system.
As you are going to sleep to allow you to have better sleep, more restful sleep, deeper sleep. Same for when you're starting your day is going to calm the nervous system that may have already been triggered just by the sound of the alarm in the morning. And it is going to set the stage for the rest of the day.
So practicing these box breathing techniques, around of 10 or more, is going to be beneficial you. And then practicing them at any point [00:19:00] during the day. Now next time, we're going to talk, about a few more, things that, we see biblically, as well as in the scientific literature. That show us how to really achieve, help. In the moment and overall with decreasing our levels of anxiety, as we kind of move forward.
So I hope this has been beneficial, and I hope. You find it, as good information and thanks. And God bless. That's it for this episode of the Living Life Show. If you like what you've heard and want to learn more, or want to know how to put this into practice for yourself, go to livelifewellclinic.com. Until next time, this is Dr. Jon Skelton saying, go out and live the truth so you can live life well. The preceding is for entertainment and educational purposes only. It is not meant to be used to prevent, diagnose, treat, or cure any [00:20:00] condition. The information contained in this show does not substitute the need for a qualified medical professional, nor is it meant to provide medical advice or services.
If you feel information presented in this show may apply to you, we recommend you seek out the help of a qualified medical professional who can evaluate and treat your specific concerns.
