Six Signs You May Be Wrestling With Anxiety

Nearly everything we read nowadays talks about the fact that more and more people are wrestling with the crippling reality of anxiety.  

However, most of us don’t need to read about it - we actually are dealing with it.  

Both from my research and personal experience - here are six signs that are common for those who wrestle with anxiety.  

#1 - Excessive Worrying  

All of us worry about things (will the traffic be bad today, will my picture get likes on Insta, will Donald Trump stop tweeting!)  

However, anxiety sets in when we fixate on something and we simply can’t let it go - and our minds takes us down the rabbit hole of worse possible scenarios until we find ourselves weighed down by things that have only happened in our imagination.  

We know Jesus said not to worry (Matthew 6) - but that just adds to our anxiety as we feel guilty for worrying, but can’t seem to stop.  

We know that “He has the whole world in His hands,” - except for maybe this ONE thing we are fixated on.  

#2 - Getting Easily Agitated

Everyone I know gets agitated at things (I once nearly lost my mind in a movie theatre sitting in front of a kid who kept kicking my seat.)  

But - when we are wrestling with anxiety we find ourselves becoming agitated way too easily - often “going off” on someone or something in ways that are a bit extreme (like using a cannon to kill a fly!)  

It’s not that we WANT to be like this - but - because our minds are in an unhealthy, occupied place - we just can’t handle the added stress of one more thing in our lives.  
#3 - Difficulty Concentrating   

I have A-D-D (maybe A-D-H-D) - I have all my life.  “Perry often daydreams and doesn’t pay attention in class” is a comment that was written on nearly every single one of my report cards in elementary school.  

However, one of the blessings of having A-D-D is that—WHEN people like us DO focus, we hyper focus and are actually able to accomplish a lot of quality work in a short amount of time…

…unless…

…we are wrestling with anxiety.  

Why is this?  It goes back to the first point - we are excessively worrying, and so when we do get in to a mode of “hyper focusing” - we do so on the thing we are worried about, not what we are trying to get done, which multiplies our anxiety levels exponentially.  

#4 - Fatigue

Far too many of us answer “tired” when people ask us how we are doing.  

But the thing is—it’s true.  

If anxiety is dominating our mindset, if we are getting easily agitated and are hyper focusing on all that we believe is wrong - it is both emotionally and spiritually draining as heck.  

I can remember a season in my life where, no matter how much coffee I would drink or how much rest I tried to get - I just always felt like I was dragging my butt around all day long.  

Emotional weight really does take a physical tole.  

#5 - Trouble Falling/Staying Asleep

This has been one of my biggest contributions to my battle with anxiety.  

I used to have SERIOUS trouble falling asleep.  I would literally lay in bed and just think.  I tried to pray, read Bible verses, think “godly thoughts,” but somehow the anxiety gremlins found their way into my thoughts and would keep me awake for hours.  

OR - if I did go to sleep and happened to wake up in the middle of the night—I could not go back to sleep because those same gremlins were patiently waiting to pounce all over me.  

A lack of sleep ads to the fatigue factor - and also causes us to be agitated easily as well (see how it’s all connected.)  

#6 - We Intentionally Avoid People

It’s not that we hate people - it’s that we don’t want for them to know what’s going on, either because…

A - They try to fix us - you know, the “take that frown and turn it upside down” people (to which we want to say, “I’m gonna take my foot and stick up up your @$$!”  
B - They minimize our pain and say things like, “Get over it, Jesus died on the cross—Paul was beaten in prison—Job lost everything, stop whining.”  (Let me pause and say that minimizing someone’s anxiety has NEVER made it go away—it only increases it.  

However, take it from the - the absolute WORSE thing we can do in these times is isolate ourselves.  Solitude is refreshing, isolation is destructive.  

What we need are safe spaces with safe people (full of empathy) who can walk with us through our mess rather than provide social and biblical commentary on it.  

If you wrestle with anxiety - I get it.  I’ve battled with it off an on all my life.   

Which is why I wrote, “Overcoming Anxiety” - because I understand that the battle with anxiety is so real - but, you CAN make progress, you CAN begin to experience peace, and I believe this book WILL help in that process.  

Go here to pre order it now (available on February 11) - copies are going pretty fast, so get yours ASAP!