The Anxiety Club

Anxiety has become an EPIDEMIC in America.

"The biggest big business in America is not steel, automobiles, or television. It is the manufacture, refinement, and distribution of anxiety."

- Eric Sevareid, in 1964

THE ANXIETY CLUB

What is Anxiety?

• Anxiety is the anticipation of a FUTURE THREAT.

"Anxiety affects the mind and body in multiple ways. For many, anxiety is felt in the body as tension or tightness and as discomfort in the abdomen and chest cavity. [16] Emotionally, anxiety is experienced as dread, worry, and, after a while, exhaustion. Cognitively, it often becomes difficult to think clearly, pulling people into states of unproductive rumination and provoking cognitive distortions that are the focus of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), such as catastrophizing, overgeneralizing, and black and-white thinking. For those with anxiety disorders, these distorted thinking patterns often elicit uncomfortable physical symptoms, which then induce feelings of fear and worry, which then trigger more anxious thinking, perpetuating a vicious cycle."

- Jonathan Haidt, The Anxious Generation

• Anxiety is a SIGNAL, not a ROOT CAUSE.
• Anxiety is CONTAGIOUS.

How do you navigate the anxious world we find ourselves in?

How do you navigate your world of anxiety?

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”

- Matthew 6:25-27

NAVIGATING ANXIETY:

• Resist the urge to AVOID Anxiety and ADDRESS it.

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life…

• When you start SPINNING out, stop to ZOOM out.

Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?

Cognitive Distortions:

All-or-Nothing Thinking: You see things in black and white categories. If your performance falls short of perfect, you see yourself as a total failure.

Overgeneralization: You see a single negative event as a never-ending pattern of defeat.

Catastrophizing: Focusing on the worst possible outcome, however unlikely, or thinking that a situation is unbearable or impossible when it is really just uncomfortable.

Emotional Reasoning: You assume that your negative emotions necessarily reflect the way things really are: “I feel it. Therefore, it must be true.”

• Surrendering to GOD’S CARE is a more effective strategy.

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

"When we are under pressure, exhausted, or feeling threatened, we revert to depending on the stories we tell ourselves rather than the story of God."

- Steve Cuss, Managing Leadership Anxiety

• Worry is not just INEFFECTIVE; it’s COUNTERPRODUCTIVE.

Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

FURTHER RESOURCES:
Try Softer by Aundi Kolber
Seen by Will Hutcherson and Chinwe Williams
Managing Leadership Anxiety by Steve Cuss
You Are Not Your Brain by Jefferey Schwartz and Rebecca Gladding
The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt