"Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation." (Isa 12:2 NIV)
In a Harris Poll taken for the American Psychiatric Association (Stress in America Survey 1/2012), it was discovered that 81% of women say they manage stress extremely or somewhat well. Yet, in actuality, 82% of the women polled experience physical symptoms of stress! Various sources have estimated that up to 75% of all visits to physician's offices are stress-related.
Most people experience physical or emotional stress on a daily basis from the normal pressures of meeting deadlines, driving to work, being a parent, or just making ends meet. When there is an immediate dangerous or lingering threat, like a global pandemic, to the body, it will react with the "fight or flight" or "acute stress" response for protection that can last anywhere from minutes to hours.
However, there are those events that can overwhelm even the strongest of people. Sub-acute stress lasts less than a month. Long-term pressures of "chronic stress" that last months to years can result in physical and emotional strain or tension that can take a toll on the body, triggering the premature aging of immune system cells.
Medical science has determined that chronic stress is most likely the primary cause of sickness and disease, which includes everything from the common cold to serious and debilitating illness. Psychology has shown that negative emotions can also hinder and even stop the immune system from working.
Stress is the building block for worry, anxiety, and depression. It can be an external stimulus that signals danger, often by causing pain both emotionally and physically. The stress of unresolved negative emotions such as anger, bitterness, hatred, and unforgiveness has been credited for up to 75% of all hospital stays.
When a person doesn't forgive those who have caused them hurt or suffering for any reason, or even if they have experienced a painful tragedy, they will have great difficulty dealing with any stressful situation throughout their life.
Worry
Worry is an emotional response that triggers a physiological reaction. It is a feeling that lingers long after the stress has lifted, and the threat has passed. It can be a useful tool for focusing the mind when there is a deadline looming, but it becomes a problem when it persists too long beyond the immediate threat.
Anxiety
Excessive worry leads to anxiety. Anxiety Disorder is the most common mental illness in the U.S., according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Anxiety disorders affect more than 50 million people in the U.S. It is second only to alcohol and drug abuse.
When a person experiences anxiety, they often can't specify what it is they're anxious about. The focus of anxiety is more internal than external. It seems to be a response to a vague, distant, or even unrecognized danger. They might be anxious about "losing control" of their self or some situation. Or, they might feel vague anxiety about "'something bad happening."
Anxiety affects a person's entire being. It is a physiological, behavioral, and psychological reaction all at once. On a physiological level, anxiety may include bodily reactions such as rapid heartbeat, muscle tension, queasiness, dry mouth, or sweating. On a behavioral level, it can sabotage the ability to act, express one's self, or deal with certain everyday situations.
Psychologically, anxiety is a subjective state of apprehension and uneasiness. In its most extreme form, it can cause a person to feel detached from self and even fearful of dying or going crazy.
Depression
Constant worry and anxiety can lead to depression, which is the state of feeling sad, dejected, and hopeless. It is most often a result of not getting what one wants - the way they want it - and when they want it. It can show up as irritability, anger, and discouragement, and can even lead to thoughts of suicide. It can also be very difficult to recognize and is often masked behind problems such as alcohol and drug abuse, domestic violence, troubled relationships, excessive work hours, poor grades at school, difficulty in thinking and concentration. Researchers know that adults who suffer from depression were often very anxious as children.
Medical science has created anti-depressant drugs known as serotonin reuptake inhibitors to deal with the problems associated with worry, anxiety, and depression, but not the actual root issue. These drugs are prescribed by the tens of millions, and a majority of them contain chlorine, and at one time in the past, mercury before it was banned, as their primary ingredients. Mercury is connected to Alzheimer's.
Exercising three times a day is eight times more effective, and a sugar pill is 20 times more effective than these anti-depressants. Research has confirmed that one of these drugs shows a 700% increase in breast cancer. In addition, some of these drugs are highly addictive, and the more often a person takes them, the more often they need them to get the same effect. They can even cause an increase in the very problems they are designed to help.
The Actions of Anger
Along with depression, worry, and anxiety, anger is one of the most complex emotions a human being can experience. Left unchecked, it can turn to bitterness and hatred that can significantly harm the person experiencing it.
Feeling anger is neither good nor bad, but is rather a natural reaction that occurs whenever a person's self-esteem or self-respect is hurt or threatened. Anger is a sign that a person is alive. Hate, on the other hand, is a sign that one is sick and in need of healing. Healthy anger can drive them to do something to change what makes them angry. It can actually help to make things better.
The main difference between hate and anger is that hate does not want to change things for the best; it wants to make things worse. Anger can mask feelings of helplessness, disappointment, insecurity, grief, and fear. Some people fear the possible consequences of revealing how they really feel.
Anger is a powerful emotion that can consume a person's energy. It has been compared to the combustion process of a car engine that produces the power to make the car move. When those explosions are under control, they will take the car safely to its destination. But, if instead of controlling the flow of gas-producing the explosions in each separate cylinder – all the gas in the tank was ignited at once - the car would blow up with the person in it!
Anger is also a strong emotional reaction to threatening situations. When anger is managed correctly, it can be an asset. Anger is something that can't be avoided, but it's something that can be controlled. When it rears its ugly head, it can be expressed openly and directly, or it may be kept hidden inside expressing itself as resentment.
Suppressed Anger
There are also ways in which anger can be shown unknowingly. This type of "suppressed anger" is used to control others through guilt or fear. Suppressed anger may get a person their own way without having to acknowledge that they are angry. They may (unknowingly) be showing it by being habitually late, using sarcasm, forgetting things, accidentally damaging or losing things that belong to others, annoying someone, sulking, not paying attention, embarrassing people, being silent, and gossiping. Such behavior is infuriating because this anger manipulates and controls others, and then they, in turn, feel angry and resentful.
Positive Indignation
Indignation is anger that rises up as a result of seeing someone or something of importance being mistreated or suffering injustice. Indignation anger is free from rage, resentment, and retaliation. It's healthy anger that is aimed at the problem and not the person. It is anger for the right reason and is expressed in the right way. It's a controlled anger that is meant to be corrective and constructive.
Repressed anger that is not controlled can turn into rage and wrath because it wants to retaliate in revenge for a wrong done or pain suffered.
Anger left unattended can turn to hate - a dangerous, deadly emotion when directed toward the people who caused the hurt. It is destructive to those to whom it is directed but, more importantly, it is destructive to the victim as well. It can become a cancer that slowly destroys the body and the soul.
Hate can give instant energy and empower the one who has been attacked, but ultimately, hate will turn its power against the hater. It will sap the energy of the soul, leaving it weaker than before, too weak in fact to create a better life beyond the pain.
Anger that is not dealt with will consume time and energy as the painful experiences are mulled and fumed over. Holding onto anger makes it impossible to forgive people who caused the hurt, even when they have changed and want to reconcile.
James, the brother of Jesus, taught that Christians should be:
"quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires." (James 1:19-20 NIV)
Anger can only be set free through forgiveness. This is the only way to learn how to be "angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath." (Ephesians 4:26 KJV)
"You have heard it said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your father in heaven." (Matthew 5:43-45 NIV)
Healthy living, free from sickness and disease, is possible! The strongholds of stress, worry, anxiety, depression and fear can be broken! A person doesn’t need a “faith healer” to receive a healing. They just need to walk IN faith in order to stay healthy by trusting God with every cell of their being.
Learning to live a healthy life is not just about how to stay healthy, or when disease and sickness come, to obsess over trying to figure out what, or who is to blame, or is responsible. The best way to avoid a premature breakdown of the body is to diminish the effects of stress, anxiety, worry and depression that are a part of living in this sin-filled world by trusting Jesus, the Creator of all things, with every atom of ones being.
Ultimately, what really matters is simply Jesus alone because it is ALL about Him. He is looking for those who will trust Him – no matter what! That is the real secret of how to live and prosper in health! It is my belief that the reason God’s mercies are new every morning is because we have to learn how to trust Him new everyone day, breath by breath!
“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:22-23 ESV)
