A Prayer for When You’re Struggling with Health Anxiety
By: Jaime Hampton
Today's Bible Verse: We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. - 2 Corinthians 10:5 (NIV)
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About eight years ago, I found myself drowning in anxiety, unable to come up for air.
I think it began when our daughter was diagnosed with a nut allergy. One evening after she had recovered from an allergic reaction, I noticed my heart rate was extremely high, even while I was sitting at rest. I didn’t think too much of it, but in the following days I began noticing symptoms in myself that alarmed me. When I did some web searches, everything pointed to cancer.
I knew rationally that this was probably not the case; there were lots of other explanations for what I was experiencing. I had just been to the doctor and everything had looked fine. But I kept “researching” online, and the answers and anecdotes I found all pointed to the same thing.
I started to obsess about our daughter’s food allergy. I began noticing surges of adrenaline in my chest multiple times a day, and it would fill me with a restless energy I knew I needed to get out but didn’t know how.
I felt ashamed because I knew my thoughts were irrational, and I knew people with actual serious illnesses who were handling their lives with so much more grace and courage than I was. So I didn't share my struggle with anyone at first. I began having panic attacks that made me feel like I couldn’t breathe. I would get tingling in my hands and feet, and pain in my abdomen that had me doubled over at times, all of which reinforced my belief that something terrible was wrong.
The turning point for me came when I decided to stop obsessively “researching” my symptoms and let some people in. I asked my husband and a friend to pray for me. I made an appointment with my doctor and had some testing scheduled.
It took months to emerge from the fog of health anxiety, and for my mind and body to start feeling somewhat normal. Testing revealed my hormones were severely imbalanced and I was low on some key vitamins.
I am sharing my story because I know I’m not alone. If you are struggling with anxiety, you are not alone either. I still sense health anxiety lurking under the surface and struggle at times, but I have found some ways to keep it at bay. My advice for a starting point: stop the symptom research and downward spiral of unchecked thoughts and emotions, praise and thank God even when you don’t feel like it, and begin to wage war on your anxiety with truth:
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. - 2 Corinthians 10:5 (NIV)
The truth might end up being that you have an illness. But what I learned is that my anxiety was caused by worrying about a future that didn’t exist, and that imagined future was devoid of God. Satan works in isolation, through shame and feelings of unworthiness, and through lies. When we demolish the lies and open ourselves up to God’s truth through prayer and scripture, the prayers of other believers, through counselors or doctors and even medical intervention — we will put ourselves in the best possible position to receive healing of our bodies, minds and spirits.
Let’s Pray:
Loving Father, we praise you for being the God of Truth. We confess we far too often trade your truth for lies. We trade fellowship and light for isolation and darkness.
Today, we choose truth. We choose fellowship with other believers and support and prayer when we are weak. We pray for your light to expose darkness and all that is hidden in the cracks and crevices of our minds and spirits.
We demolish the picture our worry and fears create: a future that doesn’t even exist. A future devoid of your presence. Thank you for being a redeemer, for the hope that even if our worst case scenario were to come true, you would be there in it, working it all for our good. We embrace the truth that you are Jehovah Jireh, and no matter what the world throws at us, you will provide for every single one of our needs.
We pray for wisdom to know next steps when we find ourselves struggling with anxiety about our health. We pray for you to direct us to the people, counselors, and doctors who can minister to our deepest physical and spiritual needs. We pray for freedom from the crippling burden of anxiety that weighs us down and keeps us from the life of abundance you desire for us.
You are good no matter what — in the healing, and in the waiting. We will praise you even in the moments of uncertainty, not for what you will or will not do for us, but for who you are: a good and loving Father.
In Jesus’ name, amen.
Photo Credit: Unsplash/Joice Kelly
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