Episodes
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We’ve heard lots about anxiety; both from those who experience it, and those who help treat it. We’ve talked to doctors and pastors and counsellors and sufferers and everyone in between to find out how they experience anxiety, and what we can do about it.
But what about exploring the very concept of anxiety, as a whole, in light of God’s Word? How should Christians deal with anxiety? And why is it such a struggle for so many of us?
Who better to ask these questions of than the guy who wrote the book on it? We’re joined this episode by Paul Grimmond, the Dean of Students at Moore Theological College and author of the book ‘When the Noise Won’t Stop: A Christian Guide to Dealing With Anxiety’.
With Paul we’ll explore the biblical perspective of anxiety, including what it is and whether we’re meant to feel anxious for certain things. We’ll also take a deep dive into some of those well known “anxiety verses” such as Philippians 4:6, and unpack the context behind them and what they’re really saying to us.
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You can find Paul’s book, ‘When the Noise Won’t Stop’, at Koorong, Matthias Media or on Amazon. To find out more about Paul’s role as Dean at Moore Theological College, click here.
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Through this podcast and our other resources, our heart here at Anxious Faith is to spark conversation and tackle the taboos around mental health in our churches and faith communities. Will you help us do that?
We’d be grateful if you would consider supporting us, whether through prayer, sharing our resources in your circles, or contributing towards our ministry costs.
We’d also love to connect with you on socials, where you can join the community, check out our other resources and see behind the scenes content from our team.
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Men are notoriously bad at understanding our emotions—let alone actually sharing about them with someone else—and it’s to our detriment.
Here in Australia, it’s Movember; a month where the titular charity encourages guys to raise money for Men’s Mental Health by growing a moustache. And awareness like this is sorely needed — because men are three times more likely to die by suicide than women.
So how do we as men learn to open up and start talking about what we’re going through? And…why should we? Does the Bible tell us to?
What better way to open up this conversation than to sit down and chat with Akos Balogh, a fellow Aussie bloke helping us figure some of this out. We’ll talk through some of the reasons why guys don’t like sharing about our emotions, and dive into why it’s a really important thing for us to do not just as men, but as followers of Jesus, too.
So, here’s our chat with Akos.
You may recognise Akos as our podcast guest from Episode 24 - We Are Not Our Feelings, where he shared on his own struggle with anxiety, and what he’s learned about difficult emotions. He’s also written several pieces on our blog, including ‘10 Surprising Things I’ve Learned About Having Good Mental Health’ and ‘As a Christian Bloke, Here’s What I’ve Learned About Dealing With Difficult Emotions’.
And, if you want to see more of how Akos engages with faith, mental health, and culture, you can check out his personal blog at akosbalogh.com.
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Through this podcast and our other resources, our heart here at Anxious Faith is to spark conversation and tackle the taboos around mental health in our churches and faith communities. Will you help us do that?
We’d be grateful if you would consider supporting us, whether through prayer, sharing our resources in your circles, or contributing towards our ministry costs.
We’d also love to connect with you on socials, where you can join the community, check out our other resources and see behind the scenes content from our team.
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Episodes manquant?
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Contrary to what many of us have grown up believing, porn addiction is not a “guys’ issue”. It’s a human one.
Join us as we chat to Amanda Anaestad, cofounder of The Victory Collective, a ministry centred around community and resources for women struggling with a porn addiction.
Amanda was first exposed to pornography by accident in middle school, and it grew into an addiction that had a hold on her for many years. She shares with us how she only ever heard of porn being discussed as a problem for men, and how her feelings of shame and isolation stopped her from reaching out and getting help.
Because of her own experience, Amanda and her friend set out to build a community of women bravely speaking out and helping each other find healing.
We’ll hear from Amanda about her own journey and recovery, which included opening up to her now-husband about her secret struggle, as well as the importance of community and confession, and how God can—and does!—bring lasting healing to anyone who struggles with porn.
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The Victory Collective’s mission is to help women navigate their porn recovery journeys with grace by providing resources, personal insight, and a supportive community. Their goal is to provide women with a safe space to heal, grow, and find freedom in the grace of Jesus. You can find out more here.
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Through this podcast and our other resources, our heart here at Anxious Faith is to spark conversation and tackle the taboos around mental health in our churches and faith communities. Will you help us do that?
We’d be grateful if you would consider supporting us, whether through prayer, sharing our resources in your circles, or contributing towards our ministry costs.
We’d also love to connect with you on socials, where you can join the community, check out our other resources and see behind the scenes content from our team.
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As we began to branch out in topics here at Anxious Faith, we were surprised by the number of people who resonated with the episodes and blog posts we’ve done around OCD, or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. This often-misunderstood condition can be so hard to live with, and yet there are therapeutic approaches that can offer hope and relief for those living with OCD.
One of those approaches is called Exposure Response Prevention, or ERP, and we were intrigued to meet Justin Hughes—a licensed professional counsellor in Texas—who talks about ERP not just as a therapy for OCD, but as an inherently spiritual practice, too. Interesting, right?
Exposure Response Prevention therapy is designed to help people with OCD learn to face the triggers to their obsessions without following through with the compulsion that comes with it. But this approach, as Justin shares, is actually a way that all of us can approach anything that is difficult in our life, faith, or relationships, even if we don’t suffer from OCD ourselves.In today’s episode, Justin will take us through what ERP looks like, and we’ll spend some time unpacking how this practice can help us all grow our faith.
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Justin K. Hughes is a writer, speaker and licensed professional counsellor passionate about helping those impacted by OCD. He has a Masters from Dallas Theological Seminary and is the owner of Dallas Counseling, a private practice in Texas. Justin is passionate about advocating for those who feel controlled by fear and anxiety. To read his blog, check out his new course on overcoming OCD or get in touch, you can visit his website: https://www.justinkhughes.com/.
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Through this podcast and our other resources, our heart here at Anxious Faith is to spark conversation and tackle the taboos around mental health in our churches and faith communities. Will you help us do that?
We’d be grateful if you would consider supporting us, whether through prayer, sharing our resources in your circles, or contributing towards our ministry costs.
We’d also love to connect with you on socials, where you can join the community, check out our other resources and see behind the scenes content from our team.
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Self-awareness is something that we all need; in order to be healthy, loving, thriving people, we need to understand a bit about ourselves and how we interact with other people, the world around us, and even God. And, for those of us who struggle with our mental health, learning how and why we function and react to things the way we do can be a key part of working towards healing.
But is there a point where leaning into self-awareness is actually just…selfish? Tinged with pride, and putting too much emphasis on ourselves?
Today we’re chatting with Steve Mitchell from the UK, who works as the Senior Vice President of the European branch of our organisation, Our Daily Bread Ministries. Steve is also an Executive Coach who has a passion for helping people have transformative conversations. His goal through coaching is to help people grow in self-awareness so that they can ultimately become healthier members of their communities — and the broader body of Christ.
We’ll hear what coaching is, how it works, and whether there’s a point when spending too much time thinking and talking about ourselves is actually selfish… and unhelpful. Steve also gives us a practical example of a coaching session using a real scenario to help us all learn how we can have better conversations with people in our lives that lead to greater self-awareness and the ability to better understand, love, and care for each other.
Let’s dive in.
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Through this podcast and our other resources, our heart here at Anxious Faith is to spark conversation and tackle the taboos around mental health in our churches and faith communities. Will you help us do that?
We’d be grateful if you would consider supporting us, whether through prayer, sharing our resources in your circles, or contributing towards our ministry costs.
We’d also love to connect with you on socials, where you can join the community, check out our other resources and see behind the scenes content from our team.
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When someone is struggling with their mental health, whether that’s dealing with stress, anxiety, or a diagnosed mental health condition, it’s not just them who feel the effects of it — there’s often a flow on effect to the people around them; their partner, children, family, friends, colleagues… The list goes on.
So what’s it like to be struggling with your mental health, only to feel the added weight—and often, guilt—of knowing that what you’re dealing with is also impacting the people you love? How do you navigate those dynamics when there are seasons of your life when you’re more vulnerable and in-need than you’re comfortable with?
Today we’re chatting to Erin, a mum of two girls from Tennessee in the US, who has dealt with significant periods of anxiety, depression, and suicide ideation which led to multiple hospitalisations and in-patient therapy stays.
We’ll hear not only about Erin’s journey and the role of her faith amidst the challenges she’s faced, but also what it’s been like to deal with the added guilt of seeing what her mental illness was doing to her husband and children.
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Erin Mount is a lover of God who writes about faith, suffering, and mental health. If she’s not spending time with her family, watching Gilmore Girls or reading, she’s probably napping. Read more from Erin on our blog in ‘When My Thoughts Lie to Me’, and check out her Substack here.
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Through this podcast and our other resources, our heart here at Anxious Faith is to spark conversation and tackle the taboos around mental health in our churches and faith communities. Will you help us do that?
We’d be grateful if you would consider supporting us, whether through prayer, sharing our resources in your circles, or contributing towards our ministry costs.
We’d also love to connect with you on socials, where you can join the community, check out our other resources and see behind the scenes content from our team.
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CW: Keola’s story covers his struggles with self-harm and suicide ideation, so please be wise as you listen and mindful of who you’re listening with.
Today we’re hearing the story of Keola, a young guy from Las Vegas in the US who thought he was living the dream — scouted out of high school for Division 1 baseball college, and on his way to making it as an athlete. But moving to that college wasn’t the highlight he was expecting it to be, and instead, it became a time of anxiety, fear, and dread.
As Keola fought against these newfound mental health challenges, they worsened; leaving him feeling lost and alone. He fought against thoughts of suicide, and turned to unhelpful ways of coping — including trying self-harm, which became addictive.
Though Keola’s mental health struggles aren’t all over now, his testimony is one of immense hope. Through his darkest periods, Keola has experienced God’s grace and deliverance in incredible ways and, while his struggles have never entirely gone away, he’s able to proclaim the goodness of God in all circumstances.
In his own words, he shares with us: “I’ve gotten a lot closer to God because of my suffering… because I know He’s going to show up, and I know if I lean on Him, He’s going to make a way.”
Keola shares his story today with the prayer that it might bring hope to anyone suffering through similar circumstances, and understanding to those who haven’t experienced this.
When you’re done listening, you can read this piece written by Keola on our blog: To the Christian Who Self-Harms.
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Through this podcast and our other resources, our heart here at Anxious Faith is to spark conversation and tackle the taboos around mental health in our churches and faith communities. Will you help us do that?
We’d be grateful if you would consider supporting us, whether through prayer, sharing our resources in your circles, or contributing towards our ministry costs.
We’d also love to connect with you on socials, where you can join the community, check out our other resources and see behind the scenes content from our team.
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“Nothing is certain except death and taxes,” or so the saying goes. But there’s something else that we’ll all face in our lives, regardless of our background, finances, upbringing or culture: suffering.
Whether it’s suffering brought on by mental illness, physical illness, financial pressure, issues with relationships or family or any number of other things, at some point in our lives, things are going to be hard. Messy. Painful.
When we face suffering, it’s easy to wonder where God is. We can feel lonely, isolated … even abandoned by Him. Why is this happening to me?, we ask. How can a good God let me suffer?
So what do we do, knowing we’ll face suffering?
Today we’re chatting with Dr Katherine Thompson, who we heard from back in Episode 18 on the topic of Christ-Centred Mindfulness.
Katherine has written a new book called The Discipline of Suffering, and that’s what we’re going to chat to her about today; the idea of suffering, and how to work our way through it as followers of Jesus.
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Through this podcast and our other resources, our heart here at Anxious Faith is to spark conversation and tackle the taboos around mental health in our churches and faith communities. Will you help us do that?
We’d be grateful if you would consider supporting us, whether through prayer, sharing our resources in your circles, or contributing towards our ministry costs.
We’d also love to connect with you on socials, where you can join the community, check out our other resources and see behind the scenes content from our team.
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Video games can be a contentious topic. There are the people who love them, and those that don’t — or simply can’t understand the appeal. And then there are the stories we hear in the media about gaming addiction, social isolation, and a growing concern for the way gaming seems to lead to a whole range of mental health challenges.
So, what do we think? Does gaming affect our mental health?
Perhaps it’s not quite so black and white.
Today we’re chatting with Jacob, a life-long gamer, who shares how gaming has affected his mental health — both negatively and for the better. Jacob now runs a ministry seeking to reach one of the groups least represented in the church—gamers—and build off their existing hobbies and interests, providing positive opportunities for social interaction and inviting gamers into spaces where they might also encounter Jesus.
We’ll hear Jacob’s journey and discuss the bigger picture of gaming, as well as what we might need to watch out for in this space as Christians. We’ll also be joined by a familiar voice, Maddy from our team—who’s an outsider to the world of gaming—to give our conversation a range of different experiences.
Jacob started a non-profit called The Big LAN for gamers in Australia to come together, meet like-minded people, and form long-term friendships. The Big LAN is a Melbourne-based community and currently the largest LAN event in Australia. To check it out, click here.
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Through this podcast and our other resources, our heart here at Anxious Faith is to spark conversation and tackle the taboos around mental health in our churches and faith communities. Will you help us do that?
We’d be grateful if you would consider supporting us, whether through prayer, sharing our resources in your circles, or contributing towards our ministry costs.
We’d also love to connect with you on socials, where you can join the community, check out our other resources and see behind the scenes content from our team.
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When we think of non-physical problems that affect people, we’re pretty immediately drawn to the common ones — anxiety, depression, and the realm of mental illness. But there’s something just as insidious that can cause significant issues to our mental wellbeing, quality of life, and faith.
It’s loneliness.There are some mind-boggling statistics around loneliness. One in four adults around the world report feeling lonely. Our ministry recently did a study of 18-35 year olds here in Australia, and 44% of the overall respondents reported struggling with loneliness and a lack of connection.
But why is loneliness a growing issue? What are its impacts? And, more importantly, what can we as individuals—and the broader church—do to combat loneliness?Today we’re diving into it with Kimberly Smith, a pastor, speaker, and author of a book on singleness in the church who is passionate about this topic.
To get in touch with Kimberly, read her blog, check out her book ‘What We Cannot Be Alone: Understanding Singleness in God’s Family’ or see where she’ll be speaking next, you can visit her website.
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Through this podcast and our other resources, our heart here at Anxious Faith is to spark conversation and tackle the taboos around mental health in our churches and faith communities. Will you help us do that?
We’d be grateful if you would consider supporting us, whether through prayer, sharing our resources in your circles, or contributing towards our ministry costs.
We’d also love to connect with you on socials, where you can join the community, check out our other resources and see behind the scenes content from our team.
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You think of a CEO and you probably picture someone who has it all together. They’re out there speaking in front of audiences, resolving high-level disputes, and running companies.
But what’s happening behind the scenes? Is it possible that even CEOs can wrestle with mental illness?
Dr Matt Lucas is the President and Global CEO of Our Daily Bread Ministries, whom Anxious Faith is a part of — yep, we’ve got the big boss on today. From being thrust into leadership roles to tasting career success at an early age, Dr Matt looked like he had it all together. But inside, his reality was a little different. Despite the face he put on for work, he wrestled with high levels of stress, anxiety and depression, which grew harder and harder to hide.
In this episode, Dr Matt shares vulnerably about how his mental health struggles caught up with him and caused some significant issues. We’ll hear what led to that point, how he faced and worked through these struggles, and how they’ve impacted him as a leader today.
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Through this podcast and our other resources, our heart here at Anxious Faith is to spark conversation and tackle the taboos around mental health in our churches and faith communities. Will you help us do that?
We’d be grateful if you would consider supporting us, whether through prayer, sharing our resources in your circles, or contributing towards our ministry costs.
We’d also love to connect with you on socials, where you can join the community, check out our other resources and see behind the scenes content from our team.
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This episode, we’re chatting with Josh, a young Aussie guy who was first exposed to pornography at the age of eight. For years, Josh’s addiction to porn grew and had a hold on his life, affecting his mental health, sense of worth, relationships with others, and faith.
Over the years, Josh tried everything to break his addiction. He sought accountability from parents, friends and pastors, met with counsellors, restricted his phone and computer access, read books and paid for addiction courses… To no avail. Despite trying his hardest to beat the addiction, it persisted — for more than 15 years.
So what changed? How did Josh eventually find freedom from the grip of a porn addiction? Join us to find out.
Note: For the sake of time we’ve had to cut out parts of Josh’s story to fit into this episode, so if you want to hear his full interview, you can check it out on our YouTube channel below.
Finally, we’ll be taking a short podcast break while we work on more episodes, but we’ll have new things coming out on our website and socials in the meantime, so make sure you’re following us on socials and subscribed to our mailing list to stay up to date!
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If you’re struggling with addiction yourself—whether that’s to pornography or something else—please reach out to someone for help. That could be a friend, family member, your pastor, doctor or counsellor. If you’re not sure who you can talk to, please visit our helplines page for a list of organisations you can contact. Otherwise, a quick google search for addiction support in your area should help.
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Anxious Faith is a production of Our Daily Bread Ministries
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Self-harm is something we’ve touched on a few times through different people’s stories, but today, it’s our main focus.
What leads someone to self-harm? Does it really feel ‘good’ at the time? And how does someone who’s been addicted to self-harm stop?
In this episode, Gabby Wilkinson from Dear God I’m Sad shares about her journey with depression, which led her to trying self-harm. Soon after, she found the urges to hurt herself were difficult to suppress, and the more she continued down that path, the fiercer the addiction to it became.
So what changed for Gabby? How was she able to stop, and what has she learned through it all—about self-harm, her mental health, and ultimately, her faith? What would she say to someone who’s currently wrestling with self-harm, or to the person supporting a loved one through the struggle?
Find out with us.
Content Warning: We’re not discussing the act of self-harm in any detail, but you will be hearing Gabby’s lived experience of wrestling with it. Please use your discretion and be wise about who may be around as you listen.
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If you found this episode helpful, you might like to check out Episode 12 - Was God There During My Depression, Self-Harm and Suicidal Thoughts? and Episode 16 - Surviving Being Suicidal.
You may also be encouraged by these stories on our blog, To The Christian Who Self-Harms and My Healing From Depression Came Slowly.
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Anxious Faith is a production of Our Daily Bread Ministries. If you’re struggling with trauma or addiction yourself, please talk to someone to seek help. That might be a friend, family member, pastor, or your doctor. If you’re in Australia or New Zealand, there’s a list of helplines you can call here.
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We're exploring how different approaches to counselling and psychology line up with what we’re taught in the Bible. To do that, we’re chatting with Noni Potter, the Head of Undergraduate Counselling at Tabor, a Christian college in Australia.
Not only is Noni a lecturer in counselling, but she’s also practised privately and has been involved in church ministry for many years. She’s passionate about combining her faith with evidence-based psychological methods which, she believes, echo God’s truths.
Through our chat with Noni, we’ll learn about some of the common approaches to therapy, such as CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy), ACT (acceptance-commitment therapy), EFT (emotion-focused therapy), and SFBT (solution-focused brief therapy), and hear how many of these are “rediscoveries” of what God has already shown us through His Word.
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Noni has written a book called ‘Living Your Best Life: Keys to Freedom and Wholeness’, which integrates the restorative power of a relationship with God with evidence-based psychological tools. You can find her book here.
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Anxious Faith website
Follow us on Instagram
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Support Anxious Faith
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Anxious Faith is a production of Our Daily Bread Ministries. If you’re struggling with trauma or addiction yourself, please talk to someone to seek help. That might be a friend, family member, pastor, or your doctor. If you’re in Australia or New Zealand, there’s a list of helplines you can call here.
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A common thread through many of the stories we share is our guests’ experiences of being told that their anxiety or other mental health struggles are a faith issue, not a mental one. Today we’re chatting with Lara d’Entremont, a young woman who grappled with being told that her anxiety disorder meant she was living in sin; refusing to trust in God.
Lara tells her story of struggling through unhelpful teachings about her anxiety, and of the damage it ended up causing to both her mental health and her faith. Ultimately, Lara shares how she discovered that God’s truth does allow us to seek medical treatment for mental illness, and how it enabled her to blend her faith and mental health journeys together.
From the outset, we want to note that this episode talks about Biblical Counselling, because that’s what Lara was studying at the time. But ‘biblical counselling’ is a bit of a catch-all term that can refer to a whole range of different approaches, and while Lara has personally experienced harmful teaching in the name of biblical counselling, those teachings aren’t what most of us would consider biblical counselling to represent.
In a future episode, we’re going to be interviewing a biblical counsellor directly to hear more about what they practise, and how they approach using God’s Word to counsel and encourage people who may be struggling. But for now, it’s important to remember that Lara’s story in this episode is just one person’s experience, and isn’t demonstrative of biblical counselling as a whole.
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You can also check out more of Lara’s story in her two pieces on our blog, called ‘I’m Haunted by Intrusive Thoughts’ and ‘When Unruly Thoughts Refuse to Be Taken Captive’.
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Anxious Faith website
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Support Anxious Faith
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Anxious Faith is a production of Our Daily Bread Ministries. If you’re struggling with trauma or addiction yourself, please talk to someone to seek help. That might be a friend, family member, pastor, or your doctor. If you’re in Australia or New Zealand, there’s a list of helplines you can call here.
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Together we’ve been exploring different diagnoses such as anxiety, depression, OCD and bipolar, and seeking to learn more and find encouragement for how those struggles don’t have to keep us from God. But what about other conditions that might impact our faith—other struggles and diagnoses Christians can wrestle with, including forms of disability or other differences like neurodivergence?
And so, with today being the International Day of Autism Awareness, we thought it would be the perfect opportunity to broaden our scope and speak to someone who’s autistic and learn a little about how autism and other neurodivergent conditions can impact someone’s engagement with church.
Maddy is our team’s Writer & Editor, but you may also recognise her from earlier episodes of the podcast, where she’s shared on her journey with depression and self-harm, and navigating anxiety in a relationship.
Maddy was diagnosed autistic several years ago, and has since been on a mission to explore how that diagnosis interplays with her faith, and the ways in which her brain can be an asset—but also a barrier—when it comes to engaging in church.
In this episode, Maddy leads the conversation with Dr Katy Unwin, a Lecturer in Psychology at La Trobe University. Katy has a PhD in Autism, and has done a lot of research in this area — including a study she’s recently conducted into how autistic people’s sensory differences impact their experiences of church.
Through their conversation, Maddy and Katy hope to help us all learn a bit more about autism, the impact it can have on people’s engagement in church, and how we can work towards becoming churches and communities that are more accommodating for everyone — whether they’re autistic or not.
Maddy has also written two pieces about autism on the blog, titled ‘Navigating Church as an Autistic Person’ and ‘3 Ways the Church Can Love an Autistic Person Like Me’.
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Dr Katy explains what Autism is (video)
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Anxious Faith website
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Anxious Faith is a production of Our Daily Bread Ministries. If you’re struggling with trauma or addiction yourself, please talk to someone to seek help. That might be a friend, family member, pastor, or your doctor. If you’re in Australia or New Zealand, there’s a list of helplines you can call here.
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Most of the people we’ve interviewed on Anxious Faith so far are between the ages of 20 and 40. It seems a natural place to look for stories of mental health challenges; after all, we’re the age group that seem to be dealing with them—or at least, talking about them—most.
But would it surprise you to know that some of the biggest sufferers of mental health challenges are people aged over 65? Conversations around rising mental health challenges usually focus on the statistics around working age adults, and leave out a huge percentage of our population. Older people, it turns out, can struggle with their mental health just as much—if not more—than younger generations.
So today we’re talking with Ben, an Aged-Care Chaplain here in Australia, who meets with people in care homes every day and sees the shockingly high number of those who are dealing with a mental health condition. Most of us would know someone in the later stage of their life, whether that’s a parent, grandparent, or even one of those nice old people from church.
Through today’s chat with Ben, we want to learn more of what mental ill-health looks like for the older members of our society, and what we—as individuals, and the broader church—can be doing to better love, care, and support them.
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Anxious Faith website
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Support Anxious Faith
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Anxious Faith is a production of Our Daily Bread Ministries. If you’re struggling with trauma or addiction yourself, please talk to someone to seek help. That might be a friend, family member, pastor, or your doctor. If you’re in Australia or New Zealand, there’s a list of helplines you can call here.
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We’ve shared lots of stories of people who have dealt with anxiety, and for many of them, the reality is they may always deal with anxiety. But what if you went and sought help, brought it all to God, went to regular therapy sessions and even tried medication,only for anxiety to come back, and come back stronger?
What would it be like to do all the right things, to think you had beaten anxiety, only for the anxiety to return later on?
This episode we’re chatting with Tiffany, a teacher and writer in California in the US who lived this experience. She shares what it’s like to have the anxiety come back even after doing everything right, but also the difference she experienced when she chose to allow her church community into what she struggled with, and the difference that made in her faith.
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Tiffany has also written several pieces for us on the blog, including ‘Clinical Anxiety Isn’t What the Church Thinks It Is’ and ‘How to Be Helpful When a Loved One Tells You They’re Anxious’.
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Anxious Faith website
Follow us on Instagram
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Support Anxious Faith
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Anxious Faith is a production of Our Daily Bread Ministries. If you’re struggling with trauma or addiction yourself, please talk to someone to seek help. That might be a friend, family member, pastor, or your doctor. If you’re in Australia or New Zealand, there’s a list of helplines you can call here.
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Many of our guests have shared that they’ve experienced some form of anxiety since childhood. But that’s not always the case; for some people, anxiety or any other mental illness might not show up until later in life, seemingly out of nowhere. That was the case for Akos.
It wasn’t until his 30’s that Akos faced anxiety for the first time, in the form of a panic attack while seated on a small aircraft. That seemingly isolated incident led to a second panic attack, and a third, until his anxiety worsened.
Despite having a strong faith and a good understanding of mental health—Akos was working in ministry and married to a psychologist, after all—he wrestled with recurring anxious thoughts and couldn’t seem to control his feelings. And that led to a shift in his understanding, as he learned that he was not his anxious feelings — they were separate from him, much like how we can be confronted with sinful temptations that are not a part of our identity.
By seeing his anxiety as something outside of who he is as a person, Akos has been able to come to terms with the uncontrollable thoughts he sometimes has and yet choose how to respond to them.
Today, he shares with us how he sees the Bible’s “heroes of the faith” also being confronted with trials and suffering outside of their control, but choosing to remain faithful to God and trust in His promises.
Akos has written several pieces on our blog, including 10 Surprising Things I’ve Learned About Having Good Mental Health and As a Christian Bloke, Here’s What I’ve Learned About Dealing With Difficult Emotions.
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If you want to see more of how Akos engages with faith, mental health, and culture, you can check out his personal blog here.
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Anxious Faith is a production of Our Daily Bread Ministries. If you’re struggling with trauma or addiction yourself, please talk to someone to seek help. That might be a friend, family member, pastor, or your doctor. If you’re in Australia or New Zealand, there’s a list of helplines you can call here.
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To kick off this year, we’re chatting with Amelie, a university student in Sydney. Amelie’s mental health journey started during high school, with what she thought was anxiety and experiencing a lot of existential dread. Initially she thought that the anxiety was all based around school pressure and performance, but it wasn’t long after she graduated that she realised the feelings hadn’t gone away, which led to a diagnosis of OCD - or obsessive compulsive disorder.
Amazingly though, it was the beginning of her anxiety and mental health journey that actually led Amelie to finding God in high school, and she has a great story of how the growth of her faith has enabled her, along with a lot of hard work and medication, to be in a much better place where her OCD is now manageable, and to know that God is good, God is just, and God is holy even amidst the struggles of OCD.
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Amelie has also shared part of her story in a blog post for us, called With Trauma Came OCD, but Then Came Jesus.
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Support Anxious Faith
--
Anxious Faith is a production of Our Daily Bread Ministries. If you’re struggling with trauma or addiction yourself, please talk to someone to seek help. That might be a friend, family member, pastor, or your doctor. If you’re in Australia or New Zealand, there’s a list of helplines you can call here.
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