By Pastor Andrew Farland
Let’s recap. Panic attacks are the result of an overactive brain sending adrenaline through your body. You are not crazy because you have them. It’s a normal part of the journey that you’re on even though it feels like a ride that will never stop.
I remember, after a week in which I had literally hundreds of panic attacks, sitting down with my counselor defeated and ready to give up. The first issue was that I had never experienced anything like them before. They made me feel completely out of control and their unpredictability made me even more anxious. The other problem was that I didn’t have any tools, any methods, for managing my panic attacks. I would just fearfully go through them and hope that it would stop.
If you’re going through depression right now, you probably know what I’m talking about. Today, you’re going to do a little homework. This exercise is the very one that my counselor gave to me when I sat in his office clueless about what to do next. Grab a pen and paper, or your smartphone, and spend time writing your answers to these questions:
How many panic attacks have you had?
How many of those panic attacks have killed you?
Think of every one of your panic attacks. On a scale of 0 to 10 (0 = ultimate peace and serenity; 10 = running out into the street naked, wielding a ballistic weapon), how often did you make it to a 10? You can call this the “Crazy Scale.”
What does this tell you about how you are naturally able to manage a panic attack?
This exercise is important because I want you to see how awesome you already are. You may feel like you don’t have the power to overcome life’s obstacles, but the reality is that you have been able to navigate your attacks with your own God-given strength! You’ve accomplished a lot without having very many tools to work with. In the next section, we’ll talk about some practical tools you can begin to utilize as you take control of what seems uncontrollable.
Psalm 139:14
Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
Be encouraged today because God is with you.
