Participants: Jennifer Jill Schwirzer (Host), David Guerrero, Nicole Parker, Paul Coneff, Shelley Wiggins
Series Code: MOC
Program Code: MOC000017A
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00:26 We are sharing tools to fix the tough stuff here
00:30 at the Multitude of Counselors today 00:32 and we're so glad you could tune in to our Program. 00:34 The title of our Program today is: Getting Past Panic. 00:37 Let me talk to you a little bit about Panic Disorder. 00:41 It's an Anxiety Disorder characterized by recurrent 00:44 unexpected panic attacks. 00:47 They may include such symptoms as heart palpitations, 00:51 sweating, shaking, shortness of breath, 00:54 numbness, and a feeling of impending disaster. 00:57 Our guest is nodding as I'm saying these things 01:00 because she has experienced this, 01:02 the prevalence for panic disorder 01:04 ranges from two percent to six percent in the United States. 01:08 Panic Disorder often coexists with other disorders 01:12 such as a mood disorder 01:13 which often onsets after the panic disorder 01:16 so the person starts having these panic episodes 01:18 and they think, "My life is falling apart" 01:19 and then they get depressed about it... or whatever... 01:21 so things can build upon one another. 01:24 The cause is pretty much a confluence of factors, 01:28 there's a high degree of genetic heritability 01:32 with all of the anxiety disorders 01:34 so you can blame your family for it, 01:35 there's also congenital factors, 01:38 when the mother is carrying the baby, 01:40 the baby is going to feel the mother's anxiety 01:42 so that can influence you. 01:44 Often, "Home of Origin" factors... 01:46 the behaviors and attitudes you see demonstrated 01:49 by family members... you learn those behaviors 01:52 and we often acquire panic or anxiety because of those things 01:56 and then also, anxiety disorders are very strongly correlated 02:00 with poor bonding in the home of origin... 02:03 I'm not saying all these things are true of our guest... 02:05 it may not be true at all 02:07 but we find that the mother and the father of the child 02:10 really do a lot to build that child's nervous system 02:14 so it's good to remember those things 02:16 when you're raising children 02:17 and also lifestyle choices such as 02:20 using drugs, using alcohol using nicotine and caffeine... 02:24 anything that upsets 02:26 the delicate balance of neurotransmitters 02:29 can trigger or worsen anxiety problems, 02:31 so we want to take care of our brains 02:34 because those neurotransmitters are very delicately balanced 02:37 by the Creator and we need to respect that. 02:39 Well, the good news is that 02:41 even if you do have an anxiety disorder, 02:43 perfect love can ultimately cast out fear 02:45 and we're going to be hearing about that today 02:47 but, often when people go to a physician or to their counselor 02:51 or to a psychiatrist to get treatment 02:53 for an anxiety disorder, 02:55 what we will find is that they will give them either 02:57 antidepressants... which can also help with managing anxiety 03:01 or drugs called: Benzodiazepines 03:03 those are very commonly prescribed. 03:05 My concern with "Benzos" as I call them 03:07 is that they're highly addictive... 03:09 within two weeks, you'll start to experience desensitization, 03:12 have to take higher doses to get the same effect 03:14 so I really prefer... if people are going to use Benzodiazepines 03:17 that they use them only episodically 03:19 and not consistently. 03:21 one of the most important things we can share 03:24 with those that have anxiety disorders 03:26 is how to breath properly, 03:27 we need to learn how to breath properly. 03:30 Ellen White said that students should be taught to breath 03:34 and that implies that we don't know how to breath 03:37 and so, what we do... 03:38 and I think all of us as therapists 03:39 teach people how to breath deep and slow 03:42 which activates the cerebral cortex 03:44 because you're choosing to slow your breathing down 03:46 and when you activate the cerebral... 03:48 frontal lobe of the cerebral cortex, 03:49 it helps to calm your limbic system, 03:51 kind of the way a mother calms a child. 03:53 A simple healthy lifestyle can contribute, 03:56 cognitive behavioral therapy 03:58 where you sort through your "thought life" 04:00 and you receive healthy and balanced thinking 04:03 from the Lord Jesus 04:04 can often help set us on a straight path 04:07 and so we want to introduce our guest and our counselors today 04:11 and get into this... this issue because 04:13 so many people have anxiety disorders... 04:15 almost 20 percent of the US population 04:18 will be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder 04:20 at some point in their lifetime 04:22 so you're in good company, having experienced it 04:24 and we're looking forward to hearing from you. 04:26 This is Kessia Reyne Bennett, she is a doctoral student, 04:32 she goes to... what school do you go to? 04:34 Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. 04:36 Jennifer: In Chicago where she lives with her husband 04:38 and her beautiful child, Nika 04:41 because I see her on Instagram all the time. 04:43 Kessia: Yes. 04:44 Jennifer: Yeah and she's beautiful, 04:46 we're so glad you're here today to be honest with us 04:48 about a patch in your life... and it was quite a long patch 04:51 where you wrestled with a pretty serious disorder 04:54 and, by the grace of God, you found some things 04:57 that have helped you and you're able to talk about it 04:59 so, praise God for that and I'm so glad you're here. 05:02 We also have professional Counselor, Shelly Wiggins 05:04 from Michigan, 05:06 she has a private practice in Michigan, 05:07 we have the illustrious, MFT, Paul Coneff from Texas 05:12 and we have professional Counselor, Christina Cecotto 05:17 from Georgia. 05:19 I always think Tennessee... she's right on the border... 05:21 so glad you guys are here 05:23 let's talk about your story, Kessia, 05:27 when did this start and how did it start? 05:30 Yeah, well, I was a convert as a teenager 05:34 and a couple of years into my faith-walk with Jesus, 05:38 I went through a spiritual crisis... 05:40 with a little period of rebellion... 05:42 and that caused some spiritual disruption in my life 05:45 and some spiritual anxiety, 05:47 coming out on the other side of that, 05:49 I started experiencing these 05:51 episodes of just intense anxiety... 05:55 like very strong dis-ease that would move into... 05:58 such an intense place, 06:00 I had a hard time getting out of it. 06:02 I wouldn't have known to call that 06:03 any kind of a panic attack or anything like that 06:06 but I had this overwhelming sense of danger 06:10 and dis-ease and fear 06:12 so that progressed through my teen years... 06:16 I went to college and university, 06:18 I got married and so on 06:21 so that carried me all the way through 06:22 until I was in my mid-twenties 06:25 when the Lord gave me a deliverance 06:28 I couldn't have dreamt of. 06:30 Wow! well that's a very sweeping overview, 06:33 can you unpack a little bit, 06:35 tell us what happened to you 06:37 on a cognitive level and a spiritual level, 06:39 you said you were rebelling so to speak, 06:42 and then this onset occurred so did you connect the dots 06:46 or think that that was because of rebellion 06:48 or what would happen to you? 06:49 Yeah, definitely, I mean, so... 06:52 so, I had misrepresented myself, I'd told a lie 06:55 and I didn't want to go back and un-tell it, you know... 06:58 I didn't want to be embarrassed and face up to that and... 07:01 so I was avoiding it 07:02 and in avoiding it, I just kind of slid right into 07:06 a whole set of behaviors that no one would say is good 07:11 and while I was there, the Lord rescued me 07:14 like a little brand from the burning... 07:16 and set me back on a path to be closer to Jesus 07:20 but I still had this leftover. 07:21 Jennifer: Can you tell us about the behaviors 07:23 or would you rather keep that to yourself, 07:24 it's totally up to you. 07:26 Kessia: I think I'll keep that quiet but the... 07:30 they left this residue with me, right, 07:34 and on the other side of that, 07:36 I felt... although I had made the right... wrong, 07:39 and I had gone through... 07:40 Jennifer: Oh you did go through... 07:42 Kessia: I did, finally... 07:43 Jennifer: That was embarrassing. 07:44 Kessia: Yeah, right, it was. 07:46 Jennifer: But it was worth it. 07:47 Kessia: Yeah, totally worth it, totally worth it, 07:48 of course, on the other side you're always thinking, 07:50 "Why didn't you do that sooner?" 07:52 But on the other side of that, 07:53 even though I had righted the wrong the best way I knew how, 07:56 the anxiety remained so I just kept thinking, 08:00 "Oh, there's something else, there's more I have to do... " 08:02 and so I would, 08:03 I tried every angle to try to kind of purge myself 08:06 from that sin and to right the wrong 08:08 even after it had been righted again and again 08:11 so I couldn't be free from the sense of anxiety 08:13 and I attributed it to, 08:14 "Oh, the Lord's communicating to me that 08:17 that hasn't been taken care of yet. 08:19 Jennifer: Well, what wrongs did you right, I mean, 08:21 you'd already righted the wrong 08:23 so you said, you kept righting the wrong. 08:25 Kessia: Yeah, so I kept thinking, 08:26 "Oh what about these other people? 08:28 That one public presentation, 08:30 and it was to a whole group of people 08:32 and I... can I... 08:33 if I see one of those people on the street, 08:35 do I run up to them or tell them or do I seek them out?" 08:39 Jennifer: You were speaking in public 08:41 so you felt you had to track down everybody that was there? 08:43 Kessia: Yeah and just... "Did I mislead that person? 08:46 Did I say that to that person? 08:48 And I'm kind of searching my mind 08:50 and... in a kind of obsessive way and then I start, 08:53 "Okay, I'm going to re-confess this... " 08:55 I think every Christian's gone through something like that, 08:59 "Oh, I'd better re-confess it 09:00 and really, really repent of it this time" 09:02 so I was just... "I need extra confession... 09:05 extra repentance... extra amends... " 09:07 just trying to keep that anxiety at bay. 09:09 Shelly: It's almost a hyper spirituality 09:12 that was probably bringing the anxiety even further... 09:15 to an elevated level. 09:16 Kessia: Yeah, definitely, I'm one of those people 09:19 who naturally has people-pleasing tendencies, 09:22 I'm conscientious and so to people like me 09:25 commandments and rules and exhortations hit very hard 09:29 so "Oh... " and you know, 09:31 God had used a sense of dis-ease to communicate with me 09:34 that things are not right and they needed to be righted... 09:37 but I was unable to see whether I had turned pathological 09:40 and I had misinterpreted it. 09:42 Did you experience some relief 09:43 when you originally confessed the wrong? 09:45 Okay, so then you thought, "Well, if I keep confessing, 09:48 maybe I'll get more relief" right? 09:49 Yeah, yeah and actually, wonderfully, God, at that time, 09:53 just at that juncture, after I'd righted those wrongs 09:57 and I did experience quite a freedom, 09:59 He introduced me in a deeper way 10:01 to the experience of righteousness by faith 10:03 and gave me the gospel in a deeper way 10:07 and then the panic came, so how do I... 10:11 Were you aware of any of the negative thoughts you had 10:13 behind the panic? 10:14 Panic is a strong feeling, were you aware of any of that, 10:16 what the thoughts were about yourself? 10:20 Oh, about myself... It was more... 10:22 I just felt like I was in spiritual danger... 10:25 I just felt kind of a danger 10:26 so almost like a "spiritual oppression" 10:28 is maybe how I would have characterized it, 10:31 so early on... 10:32 Jennifer: Did you keep thinking, "I'm lost?" 10:33 Kessia: Early on... no... early on it was 10:35 "Okay, I need to pray for spiritual protection 10:39 because I had righted those wrongs 10:41 and I was kind of counting on the grace of the Lord Jesus 10:44 but as they persisted, 10:45 then, that confidence began to wear away 10:48 and then after a while... the most intense season... 10:52 it turned into... not just "lost" in some vague sense 10:56 but like, "I'm trying to sleep 10:58 and I'm overcome with this panic experience, 11:01 I'm falling into the abyss of God's absence... " 11:04 and then later... God's non-existence... 11:07 Christina: Yeah, sounds like you were relying upon your feelings 11:09 to tell you whether you were okay with God. 11:11 Kessia: Hmmm... hmmm... yeah and I had all of this theology 11:15 to correct me, right, 11:17 so I would move from here to there 11:20 and here to there and so... 11:21 Jennifer: What's the here and there? 11:23 Kessia: From my feelings to my theological convictions, 11:26 and my feelings and my... 11:28 so my feelings were definitely saying, "Doom... " 11:30 my theological convictions... "Well, let's see... 11:33 from what I know, I... this is what's right 11:36 and I did that... and this is what's right... 11:38 and I did that... and God is like this... 11:39 and I depend on Him for that and... " 11:41 Jennifer: Righteousness by works... 11:42 so, there was a conflict between what you believed 11:46 and what you felt? 11:48 Kessia: Definitely, until... 11:49 you know, and in that conflict one of them is going to give 11:53 and my theology started to give... on a personal level, 11:57 I could have easily counseled Shelly 12:00 about God's goodness and grace toward her 12:02 and how righteousness by faith works 12:03 but in my own heart, I thought, "But I... 12:07 God is communicating to me that I am doomed 12:11 and I just cannot figure out what to do to get around it... " 12:14 so I started just avoiding God 12:17 in all the ways that were private. 12:19 I'm still praying publicly, I'm preaching, 12:21 I'm a theology student, I'm giving Bible Studies, 12:24 I'm counseling people in that... in that way lay people do 12:28 and... but in my own private life, 12:31 there was just disaster. 12:34 Jennifer: There were crickets between you and God. 12:36 Kessia: Well, it was more like peals of ominous thunder. 12:40 Jennifer: Okay... 12:42 Christina: Looking back, do you... 12:43 do you still see it as God was speaking to you 12:46 and telling you that you were doomed? 12:47 Kessia: No, no, no, I mean... 12:49 Shelly: You corrected the source of that message? 12:52 Kessia: Yeah, one of the things I didn't realize till later 12:55 was... I had an underlying physical situation happening too 12:58 with my blood sugar, 12:59 so I have a kind of a hypoglycemia 13:01 where it doesn't even immediately get better 13:05 after I eat... it gets worse and then it gets better 13:08 so every time my blood sugar dipped or spiked... 13:11 I would have this physical reaction, right, 13:14 I had a physiological experience but those began to be 13:18 so associated in my mind that once I was on the ramp, 13:22 I just flew down the freeway at panic. 13:25 It's so much, emotional reasoning... 13:27 what we call "emotional reasoning" 13:29 where you look at your feelings and you see them as a source 13:33 of evidence of what's going on 13:34 and then you believe them and then the feelings escalate 13:38 and then you got even more evidence that something's wrong 13:41 and it can snowball so badly 13:44 and this is where someone who understands 13:46 the mind and how these things happen... can get in... 13:49 and... did you reach out to anyone or...? 13:51 Was there nobody that understood or...? 13:54 Kessia: Sad to say, the few times I had made 13:57 overtures to reach out, they just were rebuffed... so... 14:01 a professor of mine that I really trusted 14:06 asked me how I was doing, 14:07 I opened up my heart a little bit to him 14:09 and he said, in essence, "I'm so sorry to hear that, 14:12 imagine how hard it would be for someone 14:14 who's not as close to Jesus as you are... " 14:16 and I thought, 14:18 "Okay, I'll try to imagine that, thanks so much... " 14:21 So it just... 14:22 Paul: Missed the mark by a mile. 14:24 Kessia: Yeah, yeah, it was... it was really hard for me, 14:27 you know, 'cause I'm getting up courage 14:29 to open up and tell someone, "Yeah, my life is unravelling... 14:33 I'm not sleeping or eating or speaking... correctly... 14:38 my relationships are a mess, 14:41 my internal life is in complete disarray, 14:43 I'm failing my classes from straight 'A' student to 'F'" 14:46 I mean, I was on the verge of dropping out of college, 14:49 breaking up with my... now husband, 14:52 I mean, leaving the Faith, maybe, 14:54 because I just... 14:55 Shelly: So it was serious affecting your ability 14:57 to function on a daily basis. 14:58 Kessia: Yes, absolutely... work, school, relationships, 15:03 physical health, I mean... the main thing was, 15:06 I couldn't sleep because at night, 15:08 that's when... I mean, as I lay in the dark... 15:11 I would stay up as late as I could... 15:14 just... I would stay up till 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning 15:17 and people would be like, 15:18 "What are you... why are you doing that?" 15:20 And I'd be like, "Well, I have so much to do, 15:21 I'm a double major and... I work these hours... and... " 15:24 Shelly: You were probably pushing yourself 15:26 to the point of exhaustion so you could sleep. 15:28 Kessia: Exactly... that's exactly it 15:29 because I didn't want to be awake for five seconds 15:32 when I entered that dark place. 15:33 Jennifer: And then sleep is so essential 15:35 to restoring the nervous system, so you're not getting any sleep 15:38 so your nervous system is even more raw 15:39 and you've totally spiritualized the problem 15:41 to where you think it's about you and God and really it's... 15:44 it's more about what's happening in your body 15:48 with the hypoglycemia and a very common disorder, 15:52 "nervous system fluke" that a lot of people suffer from 15:54 did you eventually find out about Panic Disorder? 15:57 Kessia: Yes and it was such a relief. 15:59 Shelly: Where did you find the definition? 16:01 Kessia: Well, I think it was Teen Vogue. 16:03 Shelly: It wasn't on Google? 16:05 Kessia: Yeah, it wasn't on Google, 16:06 this was... I was working as a receptionist 16:09 and they had a whole stack of magazines... 16:11 there was nothing happening in the lobby 16:13 so I picked one up, so I was looking through it 16:15 and there was... I can still picture the page 16:19 just very brief vignettes from three young women 16:21 who had experiences with different mental illnesses 16:24 and one woman... in two paragraphs... 16:28 described my life and I thought, "What?" 16:31 that was... yeah, that was a game changer 16:34 then I started reading about panic attacks and panic disorder 16:38 I talked with my family about that... 16:40 saw... "Oh, this relative and that relative... " 16:43 then these people in my nuclear family. 16:44 Jennifer: You had it all over your family tree. 16:46 Kessia: Yes and then I... so having that named was so... 16:51 because now, I have permission to say, 16:53 "Oh, you're not telling me the true feelings... 16:55 I'm just experiencing this. " 16:57 Jennifer: Exactly, now you can sort of re-identify... 16:59 this isn't who you are, this is something you have. 17:02 Paul: It seems you have more choices now. 17:04 Shelly: Facts and feelings... "Who's going to run the show? 17:08 Or can we find that middle ground and begin to decipher 17:12 and integrate that whole process... " 17:14 because God an speak to us through our emotions, 17:17 He can prompt us and say, "This isn't right... " 17:19 you pay attention to that feeling... for a reason 17:23 but don't want it to drive the entire being... 17:26 Kessia: Yeah, just separating fact and feeling... 17:30 that was the first helpful step and as Paul was saying, 17:32 having choices now, 17:34 "Oh, is this experience because of A or B or C or D?" 17:38 And now I've got more tools to be able to say, 17:40 "This isn't the voice of God speaking doom to my soul 17:43 and letting me in on the spiritual realities... 17:45 this is something else that needs to be addressed. " 17:48 Was that the beginning of your turnaround... 17:50 when you were able to define it, give it a name... 17:52 and sort of separate yourself from it a little bit? 17:55 That was a huge help, definitely a turnaround... 17:59 my coping strategies became coping strategies 18:02 instead of just survival strategies, 18:04 now I'm able to do things like the breathing regulation 18:08 that you mentioned at the start, 18:10 I'm able to... to have activities 18:13 that I can kind of go into default mode... 18:15 so, something for me... I would walk and count my steps 18:18 just trying to get my brain out of that... that loop... that... 18:21 Jennifer: Could you break that down a little more? 18:23 So you'd do something to distract yourself. 18:25 Kessia: Yes, distraction was really crucial for me... 18:28 just to take me out of that downward spiral... 18:32 just step out of it... so I would go on long walks... 18:35 I would count and breathe so maybe I'll count up to five 18:39 and then hold it and then count down to five 18:41 or I'll just count my steps to 800 18:44 or I'd read a really boring tax book I had at my house, 18:48 just trying to convince me of that. 18:50 Christina: Bringing yourself back to reality... 18:52 Shelly: Going for those long walks... 18:53 I don't know if anyone ever explained it to you 18:56 but you actually activated three different levels of coping. 18:58 Kessia: Tell me. 19:00 Shelly: Okay, by walking... just the right and left process 19:05 you're triggering the right and left brain 19:06 so sort of like, taking an issue and shifting it back and forth 19:10 reason... feelings... your thoughts... feelings... 19:13 until it kind of shifts out... 19:16 Jennifer: You're bilateralizing your brain... 19:17 Shelly: Processing while walking... 19:19 talking with a friend... praying and walking... 19:21 very therapeutic... 19:23 so you tapped into something you didn't even know you were doing. 19:26 Kessia: That explains why walking 19:28 is still my favorite therapy, I love that, thank you. 19:30 Jennifer: It's super therapeutic... 19:31 super therapeutic... that's how I feel. 19:33 Kessia: Yeah, so, that... that was super helpful for me, 19:35 now I could start coping in these kinds of ways. 19:37 Jennifer: But... so you're saying that you're... 19:39 the spiritualization of the problem caused you to lead 19:44 in order to sort of decompress from the problem 19:47 you needed to un-spiritualize, 19:50 so you needed to ground yourself which is physical reality... 19:53 and whether it be a boring tax book or a walk... 19:55 just get into normalcy mode... 19:58 but I'm really interested in the spirituality aspect of this 20:03 because we know that everything's connected, right, 20:05 but sometimes those connections go bad... 20:07 we're really into the spirituality of mental health 20:09 but sometimes things go awry with that process 20:13 and we can get overly spiritual, in a way, about things 20:16 isn't that kind of what was going on with you? 20:19 Kessia: Yeah, definitely, 20:20 one of the ways I think about it for myself was... 20:24 God's move in my life... and I think all of our lives 20:27 is to get us into better and better touch with reality 20:31 and so, I had to make a distance for myself, 20:34 when I was in the panic attack, from spiritual things... 20:37 because I couldn't receive them in a real way... 20:41 I couldn't understand them truly... as they truly are... 20:44 so, to pray, for instance... 20:46 would intensify my sense of panic 20:48 so prayer... instead of being a refuge... 20:50 is now an unsafe place, 20:53 so I do have to pray and read Scripture 20:55 when I'm not in a panic mode 20:57 but because of the way that my mind was thinking, 21:00 I had to say, "You know what? 21:02 Scripture tells me God is like this... 21:04 righteousness is like this... the gospel is like this... 21:07 so, I need to take... just trust that... 21:11 put that over here... " and then, as you said Jennifer, 21:14 ground myself in the physical... 21:15 to keep myself from misunderstanding 21:17 and misapplying... 21:19 Christina: It sounds like... not that she was being 21:26 overly spiritual but that 21:27 you were misunderstanding spirituality... 21:29 that kind of sounds like that's what was going on. 21:34 Jennifer: But it's amazing how many church members go through, 21:36 people that were involved in religion... left... you know. 21:39 Paul: It's like, the Holy Spirit does bring conviction 21:41 along with encouragement... blessings... 21:43 but it sounds to me like 21:44 it moved from conviction to condemnation... 21:46 so that's not from God... that's from the enemy... 21:50 and so, to me, you're learning how to separate out... 21:53 like you said, "Okay, this isn't true about God... 21:57 and now as I realize that... this isn't about God... 22:00 this is about distorted thinking coming from the enemy... " 22:03 and then, you can go for a walk and help in... 22:06 and get more grounded in who God is 22:08 and a personal relationship with Him... 22:10 because that move from conviction to condemnation 22:13 really gets a lot of people 22:14 and then, the natural progression is 22:16 "If God's condemned me, that's not a good feeling... 22:20 so now, I got to move farther away from that 22:22 which moves me farther away from God. " 22:24 Kessia: Yeah, and I think that distorted thinking is that 22:28 a perfect description of it, 22:29 so, having just to, kind of, cast my faith on... 22:33 "Okay, whoever comes to me, 22:34 I will never... for any reason cast away" 22:37 or something like that, "Okay, that's sure and certain, 22:40 now I'm going for a walk... I'm going to read a tax book 22:44 or I'm... " whatever... 22:45 to kind of disentangle myself from that. 22:48 You know what you're doing as well 22:50 which is really interesting is you were moving the... 22:52 from EQ to IQ... 22:55 when you read a tax book, for example, 22:57 or when you go outside... 22:58 so that emotional level was lessening 23:01 because you were bringing in the intellectual side 23:04 and so, that's one of the things 23:06 that seemed to be able to help you to come back to reality... 23:09 you'd be able to reason through what was going on 23:10 and understand it. 23:12 Plus just the calming effect of adrenal glands 23:18 and what's going on inside the brain... 23:20 we see something in the grass 23:23 and we assume it's a snake and flail arms going... 23:27 we're flooded with adrenalin and then we go, 23:30 "Oh it's just the hose... " 23:31 well, the adrenalin is still in your body... 23:34 you have to flush that out somehow 23:36 so again, by walking, 23:38 you gave yourself the best therapy 23:40 that you could have ever done 23:42 and that probably was just God prompting you... 23:43 you didn't even know it. 23:44 Christina: And literally, the Cortisol comes out 23:47 through our sweat glands, 23:48 I mean, that's what's so incredible 23:50 the new studies have found that the sweat... 23:52 literally the Cortisol hormone... 23:54 the stress hormone can come out through our sweat. 23:55 Jennifer: So when you exercise, it helps manage stress. 23:58 Christina: Right, and same with tears 23:59 but imagine... maybe we can just exercise a little bit more 24:01 and then we won't have to have those breakdowns and... 24:03 Jennifer: But the breakdowns are good for you. 24:05 Christina: Right, sometimes they are good, 24:07 sometimes they can be really bad. 24:08 Paul: And that Cortisol keeps us up at night 24:10 that's why we physically can't sleep. 24:12 Jennifer: Oh... so, working out during the day 24:15 helps get rid of excess Cortisol... 24:17 it might help you sleep... or crying... 24:19 Christina: Definitely, that's number one. 24:21 Jennifer: Now I have an excuse to cry. 24:22 Shelly: I got to share the "onion" thing real quick... 24:25 they did a chemical study of the tears... 24:29 when you chop an onion, you know, crying... 24:32 Jennifer: It paralyzes you. 24:33 Shelly: Yeah, temporarily... 24:35 but the genetic composition of tears... 24:37 when we have an emotional release... 24:40 had endorphins in it. 24:42 The tears that you cry when you're cutting an onion 24:45 does not have the God-given endorphins 24:47 that calms and relaxes the body 24:48 so tell me if God is not involved 24:51 when we need to cry in release... 24:53 Paul: And grieve our losses. 24:55 Shelly: A lot of people do a disservice, 24:58 whether it's in church or other settings, 25:00 where they're just trying to hush down the problem 25:03 maybe that's just actually the healthiest process 25:05 a person can be having. 25:07 Paul: It seems like a lot of the Psalms... 25:08 there are a lot of cries and pleas to God... 25:11 where they're processing directly with God 25:14 but like you're saying, Kessia... 25:16 it's not always possible to do that 25:18 so God meets you in the tax book, 25:20 He meets you as you're walking. 25:22 Shelly: Or sitting on the floor just trying to breath 25:25 in your nose and out your mouth 25:27 to get yourself to calm down 25:28 and to think clear... to make the next decision. 25:31 Kessia: Right... and you mentioned the Psalms... 25:34 and those became really helpful for me too 25:37 because I wanted to stay in touch with spiritual things 25:39 even in my panic... because, I mean, ideally... 25:42 it's like, "Oh, I prayed through it" right, 25:44 that would have felt very righteous to me 25:46 but I really wasn't able to do that 25:49 and God did give me the wisdom to say, 25:51 "If this is pushing you farther 25:53 into a false understanding of the world, 25:56 take a step back... " 25:57 but I started memorizing the Psalms 26:00 and then when panic would come 26:02 and I wanted the assurance of Scripture... 26:04 I wanted that comfort... 26:06 I could repeat those words 26:07 without having to think about them 26:09 but they're holy words... I'm repeating them back to Jesus 26:12 but I'm not having to engage in the sense of pleading 26:15 that could just increase my feelings of stress and anxiety, 26:19 that was really very helpful. 26:21 Paul: Instead of hoping against hope 26:22 that somehow prayer is going to change you... 26:24 that you're going to change God... 26:26 you're getting... your focusing more on 26:27 what God's Word has already said. 26:28 Kessia: Exactly, because once I realized, 26:31 "Oh, I'm living... I'm living with these feelings 26:34 that are out of line with the truth of God and Scripture... 26:37 I need to get my mind to get around this 26:41 so even if my feelings never do, 26:42 I know I can rely on that and I can know, 26:45 this will pass... 26:47 it will not be forever, God is still God... 26:49 you are still His daughter. 26:51 Shelly: The only thing that goes with that... 26:54 and I teach this to people is, 26:55 to remind yourself that 26:57 a panic attack is not going to last for a month, 27:00 it's not going to last for a day, 27:01 it's not probably even do an hour's kind of limit... 27:07 it's minutes... 27:08 we can survive minutes of things 27:10 and it just kind of brings it into more manageable place 27:14 but you know, that's time and skills and practice. 27:17 Kessia: Yeah, and realizing for me that my greatest fear 27:22 wasn't this or this or this that I was getting panicked about, 27:24 it was the fear of fear... 27:26 Shelly: Exactly, so that adrenalin 27:28 was flying through your body and you didn't know it 27:30 and you didn't know what to do with it. 27:31 Kessia: Yeah, but God delivered me... hallelujah. 27:33 Shelly: Yeah... amen. 27:35 Well, we could go on and on about this topic, 27:38 one in... almost one in five people 27:41 are diagnosed with an anxiety disorder 27:44 at some point in their lifetime, 27:45 that's how common these things are 27:47 and so you're in good company if you struggle with anxiety, 27:50 there's lots of us out there... 27:51 you're also in good company with a loving God 27:54 who is big enough for this, who can show you the way out 27:57 even if somehow it got associated with Him 28:00 and your religious experience was challenged... 28:02 courage... |
Revised 2017-08-10