Hi my name is Natasha and I have been battling anxiety and depression probably from pre-adolescents till now. I have always been a shy person and therefore feared people's judgements on my life. However, I would say that my anxiety within the last one year has really affected me badly. I have been trying to get a job but because of fear of the future( if I didn't get it), and fear of failure have really contributed to turning my world upside down. It's been hard dealing with it, but I am glad that God is a friend in need because for my strength I have been relying on him. When I had nowhere else to turn to I could only turn to Christ. The words of Simon Peter in John 6:6-8 "Lord to whom shall we go? you have the words that give eternal life" stand to be true. God's love and care for us is real he does never leave us, nor forsake us. So through my struggles day and night I would pray, read my bible and watch Christian tv stations. Amazingly I have found God's words speaking directly to me through those different avenues. His words have comforted me and given me the strength to keep pushing along even when life sometimes seems overwhelming. Earlier on this year my anxiety was so bad, I was in a constant state of it- where my body would feel tense, I would feel double-minded like I could not think straight and even had an experience where my heart was beating so hard I felt like it was going to jump out of my body. I could not see away forward and I prayed for God to heal me, and he used my mother to give me some books that have really assisted me in changing my thought pattern. Joels Osteen's book 'Your Best Life Now' and Kay Arthur's 'When the Hurt Runs Deep.' I was able to see a different perspective of things and some of the reasons I was doing the things that I was doing. I am still on my journey to full recovery, but I am doing better today then I was a couple of months ago. I do believe the words in Philipians 1:6 " Being cofident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."
Some of th advice I can give to you that God has shown me is :
i) Prevent self-justification, bad things can happen to us, but it is still upto us to choose how we react to those circumstances or people. Eventhough, people do things to you, you can't change those people but you can change you.
ii)Reading books to deal with my problems has definately helped me, and so you can pray for God to guide you and lead you to obtain books that would enable you to change.
iii)For me I came to realize that my anxiety and depression were being driven by negative thoughts and a lot of "what if" statements. Think positive and don't give into those worrying thoughts. Set your mind to think well of yourself . Colossians 3:1-4 " Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth." Because I believe God is always thinking about the best outcome for us and not the worst. Jeremiah 29:11
iv) Whenever you feel anxious pray, no matter how long it takes.
v) Plant a seed, work to encourage other hurting people and the healing may take place faster.
vi) Choose to be happy and thankful, try to count your blessings instead each day.
vii) Speak blessings on yourself, declare your healling even you haven't seen it yet.
viii) Always remember that God is not the source of your pain, but Satan is.
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Thanks for sharing your advice. I've written some of your tips down, and the books you mentioned and I'm planning on using them to help deal with my own issues.