Anxiety I Can't Shake: Symptom Clarity, Christian Help, and Holistic Relief

Episode 9

Racing thoughts. Tight chest. Exhaustion you can’t explain. If you’ve been silently suffering, wondering whether it’s stress or something deeper — this episode is for you. 

We break down anxiety symptoms in the body and mind, how anxiety affects habit formation, and why getting help is not weakness, it’s wisdom. You’ll learn the difference between worry and clinical anxiety, hear hope-filled insight from both a Biblical counselor and a family physician, and explore gentle, faith-based options for support and relief. 

We also address why real, lasting relief comes from truth and trusted care, not trendy shortcuts. Anxiety isn't just mental, it affects our body, habits, relationships, and spirit. That's why true healing takes a holistic approach that addresses the whole person.

🌿 This Week’s Gentle Step:

Instead of a “quick win,” we’re offering a gentle step — a self-evaluation called the Beck Anxiety Inventory. This 21-question checklist helps you notice what symptoms you’ve experienced over the past week — and how strongly. It’s not a diagnosis, but it can be a helpful tool to bring with you to a trusted healthcare provider. It can also give you language for what you’ve been carrying — and that’s a powerful step toward healing.

Click Here for the PDF: Beck Anxiety Inventory 

📬 Need Prayer or Have Questions?

📧 contact.godlyhabits@gmail.com 

📖 Bible Verses Referenced:

• 2 Timothy 1:7 – “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind.”
• 1 Peter 2:9 – “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood…”

📚 Articles & Research Referenced:

• National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) — Statistics on clinical anxiety

🔔 Don’t Miss an Episode:

Follow the Godly Habits Podcast for practical wellness, biblical encouragement, and grace-filled tools to walk with God through real-life struggles.

📣 Coming Next Week:

If someone’s ever told you to “just pray more” when you were anxious… Episode 10 is for you. We’re talking about why anxiety is not just a faith issue — and how shame has silenced far too many Christian women.

Legal Disclaimer: 

This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical or mental health care. Always consult your doctor or therapist for personalized support.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Let me tell you about a woman I know. She wakes up with a racing heart and a pit in her stomach. Her chest feels tight before she even gets out of bed. She can't concentrate. Her brain feels foggy, scattered, like she's always forgetting something. And at night, her thoughts spin in circles. She's praying, trying to hold it together, telling herself it's just stress. But deep down, she wonders if it's something more. She's heard that anxiety means she isn't trusting God enough. So she stayed quiet, tried to pray it away, and hoped it would disappear. If you've ever felt like this, this episode is for you.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Welcome to the Godly Habits Podcast with Dr. Mason Howe.

SPEAKER_00 0:43

And Brooklyn Howe, where we help you build God-honoring habits so that you can bridge the gap between who you are now and who you want to be. I'm Brooklyn, a biblical counselor and life coach, and I've had to wrestle with these same questions in my own story.

SPEAKER_02 1:14

And I'm Dr. Mason Howe. I'm a rural family physician, and I spent years helping patients understand how anxiety shows up in the body and mind.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

And today we're starting a brand new mini-series to help you recognize anxiety for what it really is and not what shame says it is. By the end of today's episode, you'll understand what anxiety actually looks like in your body and mind, how it might be interfering with your ability to build habits, and why getting help is not a weakness, it's wisdom.

SPEAKER_02 1:46

Before we get into today's conversation, please remember this episode is not intended to diagnose, treat, or cure any medical or mental health conditions. It's for educational and informational purposes only. If you're struggling, please know that reaching out to a licensed counselor, physician, or mental health professional is a wise and courageous step. Support is available, and you are deeply worth that care.

SPEAKER_00 2:14

So unclench your jaw, relax your shoulders, take a deep breath, and let's get into it. Mason, before we go any further, can you break it down for us? What exactly is anxiety? Who struggles with it? And is this something that only affects certain people or is it more common than we think?

SPEAKER_02 2:33

So first I want to define what anxiety is. Anxiety is an emotional and physiological state, a fear, that is usually as a result of something imagined. In other words, we experience anxiety in our minds and bodies due to imagined images or mental talk in our heads. I like to think of anxiety as a subset of fear. Most of us would have a fear response if we were physically attacked. It would be an anxiety response if we were afraid of an imagined attack, especially one that is very unlikely to happen in real life. Worry, on the other hand, is usually more focused on something specific and involves more of a mind response than a body response, and it's also more mild than anxiety. And clinical anxiety is defined based on how really it impacts our life. If someone finds anxiety controlling what they do, where they go, and how they get along with other people, or their job performance for an extended period, that would be defined as clinical anxiety. Everybody experiences anxious or worried thinking, but not everyone experiences thinking or feelings to the extent of clinical anxiety. Even though not everyone experiences clinical anxiety, it's very likely that you or someone you know has experienced clinical anxiety. 20% of people in the US have experienced clinical anxiety in the last year. That's one out of five. And almost 35% of people are likely to experience clinical anxiety in their lifetime. That's over one out of three people. Anxiety affects all types of people, regardless of how much money they make, where they live, where they work, what their ethnicity is. That's why this is a very important topic to address. Because while this may not be affecting everyone listening to this podcast personally, it's almost certainly impacting them indirectly through loved ones and others that we encounter.

SPEAKER_00 4:41

Yeah, that's so good because if this doesn't direct directly affect someone listening, they can absolutely listen to this and know how to help those around them in a loving and caring way. And hey, if any of this is resonating with you, please stick around. We'll be sharing a few options that you can explore if you're looking for help or hope or just a place to start moving forward with no pressure, just some possibilities and some options. So for someone who's listening and they're not totally sure if what they're feeling is anxiety, what are some of the most common symptoms that they can look for? What might anxiety feel like in the body or show up in the mind?

SPEAKER_02 5:22

Yeah, I think it's really important that to address a problem, we have to be able to identify it. And so it's really important that we're able to identify the symptoms of anxiety, whether it's in the body or in the mind, so that way we can initiate the steps to figure out how to handle it next. Since anxiety impacts our mind and body, it impacts us holistically. Some physical symptoms of anxiety are tight feelings in the chest, a sinking feeling in the stomach, nausea, vomiting, sweating, racing heartbeats, or feeling like your heart is skipping a beat, feelings of dread or extreme fear, headache, abdominal pains, and so much more. Mentally, anxiety looks like replaying thoughts over and over again, through negative images or words, imagining the worst case scenario, working in your mind to avoid distressing thoughts, just to see them resurface again. It can also look like having an overactive inner critical voice, or sometimes anxious feelings can lead to feelings and thoughts of anger and frustration, leading to people lashing out at loved ones.

SPEAKER_00 6:33

Yes, and anxiety, it doesn't just affect our thoughts and our bodies. Like you said earlier, it's holistic. And so it will affect us on some relational level and spiritual level too. So if we're looking at relational symptoms, what that might look like is withdrawing from others. Sometimes it's like saying yes when really we want to say no. So saying yes to a lot of things, even if we don't have the time or the energy or we just simply don't want to. It's sometimes it can be caring for everybody else around us and doing a lot at work, but forgetting to take care of ourselves. Sometimes it's feeling like you have to do everything alone and you have to do it all. And sometimes it's trying to fix others or trying to fix ourselves just to quiet down the chaos that we might be feeling inside. And then spiritually, those symptoms they can sound like feeling directionless or disconnected from God, living in a fog of chaos or confusion, and believing that it's all up to you to hold everything together. That's a really big one. And then lastly, sometimes it can look like losing sight of your purpose that God has for you. And if any of this sounds familiar, I just want to say this you are not broken, you are burdened. So hear me say this anxiety is not a character flaw. It's not your identity, it's not who you are, because you are a daughter of the one true king. You are a royal priesthood, and you do not have to carry these burdens alone.

SPEAKER_02 8:17

So if you've been nodding along while we talk about these symptoms, the racing thoughts, a tight chest, the way it messes with your focus. Here's the thing: this isn't just about feeling uncomfortable. Anxiety actually starts to derail your daily habits, your routines, even your spiritual rhythms. And that's why we're slowing down to look at it clearly today. Because naming it is the first step towards shifting it. Brooklyn, as a coach, what have you seen when it comes to anxiety and habit formation? How does anxiety actually interfere with our ability to keep healthy rhythms?

SPEAKER_00 8:54

Definitely. Let me break it down. First, anxiety often pulls our focus towards what could go wrong. You explained that earlier. So we start to fixate on worst-case scenarios. And when that happens, our confidence in ourselves can take a huge hit. And when your confidence drops, so does your sense of agency. Agency is like the belief that you can take action and create change. Without that belief, it's really hard to start. And in the coaching world, the statistics show that clients who have a strong sense of agency and self-confidence are the ones who are the most successful and the ones who reach their goals. So without that agency, it can start to really be hard to even start. Another reason is that building habits require small, consistent risk taking. Any change to our brain can feel pretty risky, even if it's a positive change. So our brain on anxiety makes risk feel very, very, very unsafe. And we just eventually sometimes we avoid that change or we can shut down and stay stuck. Anxiety can affect how our brain works. So it's harder to think clearly when we have anxiety. Like we said earlier, it can create some brain fog. So it makes our decision making or our focus on tasks a lot harder, especially the ones that require discipline or mental energy. So it's not that you don't care about your habits or that you're lazy. It just means that your brain is already working overtime trying to manage the stress of anxiety. And I'm sure you know if you have anxiety, that stress is exhausting. Forming habits takes self-control. But what does self-control need? It needs fuel. Anxiety, it drains that fuel really quickly. So what do we do when we feel overwhelmed or out of control? We need to cope. We want relief. But if we haven't built up a lot of those habits that we would like to build, we might cope in ways that aren't always the best for us. Sometimes that can look like emotional eating. Other times it can look like losing our appetite completely. Some people numb with technology or substances. And others, kind of like me, I can stop moving my body and sometimes feel paralyzed or just shut down. All of this is our brain's attempt to get relief. The hard part is that anxiety can cause things like low motivation, low energy, all the things that I just described. But then those things can make anxiety worse. So it creates this cycle that's really hard to break. But here's the main point I want you to hear. If you've been stuck in that cycle, you are not broken and you're not weak. Your nervous system is likely overloaded. And when that's the case, you don't need to try harder to force yourself to build habits. What you likely need is support and safety and understanding. And that's what this anxiety series is here for, to help give our listeners clarity and compassion and gentle tools to begin healing or continue the healing process. It really is possible to move forward one supported step at a time. And while we're talking about support and getting help, let's just go ahead and have that conversation about treatment options. Let's talk about help. There are so many options out there, but a lot of there's also a lot of myths that keep people from reaching out. What are some of the real evidence-based ways that anxiety can be treated or supported, Mason? And then what are some of the trends or quick fixes that are out there in the media, like anxiety vape pins, for instance, that might actually be doing more harm than good?

SPEAKER_02 12:43

These myths really start holding people back from being able to access care because they're worried about things that is really generated by a lot of false information. And it and some of these myths, I will say, come from maybe some partial truths. So that's what makes them even more confusing. One myth is that anxiety medications that we have today are addictive. And once you get on an anxiety medicine, you can never get off of an anxiety medicine and that you got to take it for the rest of your life. And that's just not true. I will say again, what I said before, that a lot of these things do come from half-proof half-truths. And so anxiety medicines that were developed back in the 1960s and 1970s, called benzodiazepines, are addictive substances. And basically they act on the same receptors that alcohol does. And so we know that alcohol is addictive. And so since it acts on that same receptor to calm the brain down and kind of suppress the brain from worrying so much, it does have the potential to be addictive. Now, newer generations of anti-anxiety medicines, such as SSRIs, and when I say newer, I mean like newer as in they weren't developed in the 60s. They were developed more like in the 80s or 90s. So they've still been around for a good 35 to 40 years.

SPEAKER_00 14:08

Long enough to have like research.

SPEAKER_02 14:10

Yeah, long enough to have research research and data to back it up. These medicines, they don't work in the same way. They actually work by keeping more serotonin, which is the happy neurotransmitter of the brain or calming neurotransmitter of the brain around longer. So it actually uses your natural serotonin, not artificial serotonin. It actually just inhibits the breakdown of that serotonin molecule. So that way it stays around in your brain longer and is able to give you some of those more peaceful feelings. And so this particular medicine is not addictive. Your brain is not going to get into a habit of craving this. It's not going to become dependent on it. I don't have anybody who's had problems getting off of these medicines from the standpoint of their brain craving the medicine. Now I've had people that have came off of the medicines and then some of their anxiety has flared back up. And so then we needed to go back on the medicine. Or some people who thought to themselves, you know what, I'm feeling great. I don't need this in medicine anymore. So they went ahead and stopped at Cold Turkey and then decided to, and then all of a sudden, you know, some of their anxiety was coming back. And so then they needed to get back on it.

SPEAKER_00 15:27

Is it true that that most people that get on it, they pretty much have to stay on it? Or are there actually people out there who they just need it for a short period of time to kind of create this open window, so to speak, that allows them to use, you know, therapy and other helpful things to just kind of get over a hump?

SPEAKER_02 15:47

Oh yeah. I would say at least 50% of people, if not more, that get on an anxiety medicine are only on it for a temporary amount of time. Again, it really depends on the person.

SPEAKER_00 15:59

If a woman has like postpartum anxiety and she gets on anxiety meds to help her over that hump, she may not have to stay on it her whole life. It could just be for, you know, a period of time.

SPEAKER_02 16:10

Yeah. So typically in my practice, I will keep somebody, once we get them to the right dose and their anxiety is more well controlled, I will keep them on that same dose for about nine months after their anxiety is controlled. And if they've done well for nine months, then I go ahead and say, let's go ahead and slowly back off of your anxiety medicine and go ahead and stop.

SPEAKER_00 16:34

Mm-hmm. And I wonder if somebody, if they have like a genetic predisposition, like it it is passed down in the family that they would be more likely to have anxiety. If that's just for some of those people, do they sometimes just need to stay on it for their whole life?

SPEAKER_02 16:51

Yeah, I would say that anxiety in families, definitely that makes a difference. Also, really just a personal history of how many anxiety flare-ups you've had is going to make it more likely that you need to stay on anxiety medicine in the long term.

SPEAKER_00 17:09

What would you say to somebody who feels the need to try to get onto anxiety medication, but they also feel like it's weakness, like they should be able to handle it without the medication?

SPEAKER_02 17:23

So my encouragement to that person is them getting on anxiety medicine or them reaching out for help is not weakness. It's actually one of the strongest things that we can do as humans to be able to admit when we can't do it on our own. When we can't do it in our own strength. That's the point of the Bible. The point of the Bible is that humans couldn't do it in our own strength. We need a God's strength. We couldn't do it in our own strength. So to reach out to somebody for support, whether it be a friend or doctor, mental health professional or whatever, that is bravery. That's courage. That's like the definition of courage because I know so many people, they held on because it was kind of that last resort, but then they went ahead and took the courageous step to do it, and it helped change their life. And I would say that it's kind of that same courageous step whenever we're following God, right? We have to take that courageous step to say we can't do it on our own. And that's when we recognize that we need a savior, we need Jesus, and we dive into that. And that changes our life.

SPEAKER_00 18:37

Yes. And like we said earlier, this anxiety issue is a holistic issue. And so what do we do for holistic problems? We solve them with holistic solutions. Correct. So when we say going out and getting, you know, talking to your primary care physician and getting on medication or going out and talking to a therapist and getting, you know, some cognitive behavioral therapy or some type of therapy to help, those two options are wonderful options, but they are not the whole picture. We have a spiritual side to us, we have a relational, social side to us. There's so much to unpack there. And so next week we're actually going to be talking a little bit about that spiritual aspect of the solution.

SPEAKER_02 19:33

Yeah, I think that it's so important when I actually I think of standard of care. Whenever I think of standard of care as a physician, I think of what is the best practices that are going to help target all these different facets to help somebody overcome anxiety. And I think that really when you look at what standard of care is, it is one combining a lot of times medication with therapy, with good solid habits and coping strategies that maybe you've learned on your own.

SPEAKER_00 20:21

Learn from a therapist or a coach.

SPEAKER_02 20:23

Exactly. And some of those could be like deep breathing exercises, right? Physical fitness, doing journaling, right? Journaling out your thought process and what's going on, doing biblical affirmations, spiritual affirmations to remind yourself who you are in Christ. There are so many different things when you combine that spiritual side, the mental side, and then the physical side with adding that that those some of those chemicals back to the brain that are naturally deficient in people that are having an anxiety disorder.

SPEAKER_00 21:02

Yeah, and then exercise, like diet and exercise. I mean, we could harp on that all day long because that's such an ancient like prescription for a lot of the issues that we struggle with in modern society. And diet and exercise for me particularly has been huge, played a huge part in my recovery process with anxiety and depression.

SPEAKER_02 21:27

Anxiety is best approached in this podcast with a physical approach, a mental health style approach, and a spiritual approach, all three of those together truly is going to give you the best response to be able to help overcome anxiety. And the good news is if you're dealing with anxiety, there's a lot of hope. Even in studies. That are just looking at like medicines and therapy and not even combining a lot of other health strategies outside of that. I mean, you have treatment response rates that improve anxiety up to like 90%.

SPEAKER_00 22:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:13

So and that's that's not talking about, you know, the hopes that we have as Christians.

SPEAKER_00 22:17

It's not talking about the the relational aspect even of having social supports and having safe places and safe people to go talk about these things with. Yeah. You know, outside of therapy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:30

So and in the church.

SPEAKER_02 22:31

So this is not a hopeless situation. I think that there's a lot of hope around this and sometimes it takes time. It's not instant response. I feel like that there's a lot of people that come see me and they want an instant quick fix. And it is a lot of work and a lot of setting in discomfort for a while.

SPEAKER_00 22:52

Yeah, and like we can say these things because both of us have struggled with clinical anxiety at different times in our life. So we feel the pain. We know the pain. Yeah. And it's we definitely don't take it lightly.

SPEAKER_02 23:08

No. Okay, so I know we've talked a lot today, but before we wrap up, you've got a real practical and gentle step for listeners who might be wondering what to do next. Can you share more about that?

SPEAKER_00 23:21

Yes. Okay. So normally in this part of the episode, we will offer a quick win, something small and doable to help you build momentum in your habit building. But let's be honest, when it comes to anxiety, there's usually no instant fix. So instead of a win, I want to offer a gentle step, one small way to move towards clarity this week. I'm just gonna offer you this tool called the Beck Anxiety Inventory. It's a simple 21 question self-evaluation checklist, and it lets you rate how much common symptoms like your heart racing, dizziness, numbness that have bothered you over the past week, and you rate them on a scale from zero to three. Zero not at all, three severely. And your total score is gonna reflect whether your symptoms fall into a range of minimal, mild, moderate, or severe anxiety. So it's really important to know that this particular tool is not a diagnostic tool. So you can't diagnose or treat based on this tool alone. But what it can do is help you and a trusted health professional see a clearer picture together. Having a log like this gives your doctor something concrete to work with and it can make all the difference. So if today's conversation is stirring something inside of you, consider keeping a simple symptom log, like a mini inventory this week. It's just one option among many. And if any of what you record or feel worries you, reach out to a mental health provider, counselor, or physician. And you know, sometimes when we're trying to build better habits to grow and heal or just feel a little bit more like ourselves, we run into a wall. And often, like we've talked about today, that wall could be unaddressed anxiety. If that's what you're facing, it may be necessary and even wise to put some habit goals on the back burner while you tend to what's going on beneath the surface. Trying to force forward motion in our habits without addressing anxiety can feel like running a marathon up a mountain with a weighted vest on. Technically, it might be possible, but it's going to be very unnecessarily difficult. When things like habit formation and self-discipline start to feel impossible, it does not mean you're unmotivated or you're broken. It might mean your nervous system is waving a white flag. And in seasons like that, your healing deserves to take the front seat. So if you've been struggling to grow in an area, it's okay to let that area take the back burner for a while. It doesn't mean you're giving up. It means you're being honest and gentle with yourself. So you don't have to fix everything at once. You have permission to pause. Get support. Let God grow you through slow healing without expecting fast, rapid change. If you're wondering, how do I even start when everything feels stuck? That's why we're here. You don't have to figure this out alone. There are professionals and tools and people who can walk with you, holding your hand, offering clarity, helping you come up for air for a big breath. And through all of that, the healer, the capital H healer, Jesus Christ, walks with you. His pace is gentle. His love is steady. He has not forgotten you, friends.

SPEAKER_02 27:05

Next week we're talking about the deeper story behind anxiety. And why it's not just a faith issue. There's more going on and you don't have to carry the guilt alone. If this episode gave you a little more clarity or helped you feel less alone, we'd love for you to hit follow so you don't miss the rest of this anxiety series. And if there's someone in your life who might need this gentle encouragement, go ahead and send it their way. We truly thank you for spending this time with us. It means so much that you're here, and we're praying this week brings you small moments of peace, deep breaths, and the courage to keep going.

SPEAKER_00 27:43

And remember, you're not behind, you're not alone, and with the God of hope leading the way, you are right on time.