Dangerous Faith

#45: Dangerous Life– The Causes of Anxiety and What to Do about It

• Nathan

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Ever felt that wave of panic scrolling through social media or observing the constant barrage of worldwide news? On today's episode, we're tackling the beast of anxiety, its causes, and strategies to tame it. Technology, media, fear of judgement, and loss of control - these are the titans we're wrestling with. We're walking through the digital battlefield facing Gen Z, discussing how technology and the media can overload our brains and emotionally overstimulate us, contributing to anxiety.

We're not just about identifying the problem, we're about solutions too. Our conversation ventures into how faith serves as a sanctuary amidst the storm of anxiety. Deep breathing, hobbies, and stepping out of our comfort zones - we're exploring these alternative strategies to keep anxiety at bay.

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Nate Williams:

Anxiety. It seems like we're all going through it and it seems like a lot of us have it. So what is it and what can we do about it? Welcome to the Dangerous Faith Podcast and Dangerous Faith YouTube channel. We are the Spencer. I'm going to slap you.

Justin Weygand:

Apparently, I wave my head too much in the videos according to Blake's dad.

Nate Williams:

Hey, Blake's dad, I'm trying to do better. It's just hard and I get in my head and I get nervous.

Nate Williams:

So, forgive me. Anyways, welcome to the Dangerous Life version of the show. And we talk about things that Gen Z is going through, and one of those things is anxiety. So we're going to go ahead and get started. It seems like either we are struggling with anxiety or a dear friend of ours is, or some combination. And from impact360instituteorg it says that 26% of Gen Zers are anxious. So my question to the team is a lot of people our age are anxious. Why is that, in your opinion?

Justin Weygand:

I would say that one of the reasons is because of different media platforms we have. I'll mainly say the news. The news focuses on some of the most anxiety inducing topics because it's what gets views, it's what gets people to watch it. So if that's all that's shoved in our face all the time is, I'd be dramatic. But the world ending, that's all that's shoved in our face, obviously we're going to experience some form of anxiety or depression or something along those lines.

Nate Williams:

That's a great point, that if we're, it's all gloom and doom, everything's terrible. I remember it was a 2019 or 2020. There was this stuff going on with Iran, and then there was this tiny little thing called COVID that was making its way around the world.

Blake Tetro:

Oh yeah, I remember that. Do you all remember that? No, I was back in Noms COVID days.

Nate Williams:

Spencer does not remember COVID. It was so traumatic that he just blocked it out of his mind.

Spencer Smith:

What are some? I can't remember if it was traumatic or not.

Nate Williams:

Oh goodness, covid and the various responses to COVID was very interesting, but anyway, so that's a great point, justin. I'm glad you brought that up. Anything else, why are we so anxious? I?

Blake Tetro:

was going to say the cell phones. I think just like technology and stuff like that, Because I remember when I was younger, when all I'd do is just play with toys and stuff, I wasn't anxious. But then, the minute I got like a cell phone and I had access to the worldwide web, the interwebs Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat. You just get introduced to all these new things that are going on, For instance, while we were on COVID new viruses and diseases, health conditions, health problems. Then you started with Instagram. You started having anxiety about are people going to like what I post, and stuff like that. It wasn't until I got a phone and it was just speaking from personal experience that I started dealing with a lot more anxiety. Okay, so phone has not helped.

Spencer Smith:

Adding on to that, the way that we communicate through the phone is like Snapchat texting and all that kind of stuff. It's so anxiety inducing in the way that you wait for a response. In most ways that we communicate, naturally it's face to face, like we're doing right now or in the last couple hundred years over the phone, like actually instant response. Now there's that waiting game like email and all this kind of stuff. You can send in something to a supervisor or something and you get anxious because what if they don't like the way I typed my email up?

Emily Smith:

or something like that. So it's something ridiculous like that.

Spencer Smith:

Uh, that I mean. That causes a lot of anxiety.

Blake Tetro:

What's crazy? Like that you say that is like Now you have anxiety when you have to talk to somebody face to face. I was just thinking of that when you were saying that like we, because now we do it over the phone and stuff, we don't even know how to talk to each other in person like that causes anxiety. Because, like what, if I say the wrong thing or I don't know how to communicate, like there's like a level of protection with the phone, but at the same time there's even more anxiety because of that waiting game.

Nate Williams:

Yes, emily, you wanted to chime in.

Emily Smith:

I think too. Um, with the technology that we have, we're able to be more educated on what's going on in the in the world. We see all the chaos around us and because of that, we're becoming increasingly more aware of the lack of control that we actually have, because we tend to think that we're in control of what's happening in our lives. That's right. We're faced with that every single day. We realized how powerless we actually are.

Nate Williams:

Yes, that is a great point.

Justin Weygand:

Justin, I was just going to say you know we're dodging. Something important we should be asking is what do you think?

Blake Tetro:

Oh yeah.

Nate Williams:

What do you think? I just? I'm just the moderator.

Blake Tetro:

No, sir, I went to college and got a degree in theology, so I have no opinion on anything. Are you done? You can answer your questions.

Justin Weygand:

Answer the question, Mr Williams.

Nate Williams:

Anyways, this has turned into a roast, a Nate session which is how a lot of these conversations go.

Nate Williams:

But anyways, why are we anxious? What you're saying is right on a smartphone, social media responses, lack of control, and we were not. Psychologically, we were not designed to care about what everyone thinks. Think about it in the old days, when your circles were much smaller, you went into town every once in a while. You really were only aware of a few opinions at the time. You might have a newspaper that would come in.

Nate Williams:

You'd hear a couple of things from around the world, a couple of things in your country and other than that. It was kind of like the grapevine. You talk at church, you talk at different social events, but it was much more relaxed and manageable. Now you can hear things from all around the world instantly. You can get involved in India's politics and South America, let's say. There's a couple countries there that are tents, and then you have the various nuclear threats Russia, china, iran's building their program, and we have our program, and so on and so forth. All of a sudden now you have so much information Our brains can't process it. Also with Instagram and things like that, where now, with Facebook and Twitter, I can learn what everybody thinks? We were not designed to care about what everyone thinks about, so it's just information overload, emotional, overly stimulated, I think that kind of all contributes. Are you happy, justin? I stated my opinion.

Justin Weygand:

I absolutely am. Thank you, Mr Williams. Okay, do we? Have anything else to add about the causes of anxiety before we get to the other end of what we can do about that, justin, Something else to kind of add on with the social media thing, I think, because people tend to now wear their feelings on their sleeves Not that there isn't some things you shouldn't say online, period, but there's also the anxiety of cancellation, which can completely ruin your life.

Justin Weygand:

It ruins your career. It ruins the social groups you hang out with. It ruins all sorts of different things.

Nate Williams:

Cancel culture. What if a tweet from 10 years ago comes back and gets me? What if a conversation is secretly recorded or a screenshot of something gets out? Yes, that would add a lot of anxiety. Some things that were acceptable to joke about five, 10 years ago are no longer acceptable. People went after Kevin Hart for a couple things, I believe.

Emily Smith:

Like that and comedians.

Nate Williams:

Things that again you could joke about a while ago, that now are not politically correct. People will try to cancel you over that and that stuff.

Emily Smith:

You can't control.

Nate Williams:

But anyways, anything else. Now let's go talk. Let's get to the flip side. What can we do about this? What advice, what wisdom? What's worked for you? What's worked for your friends? How does faith, how can faith be more involved in this question when it comes to making anxiety better? Does anyone have any questions? Does anyone have any thoughts there?

Blake Tetro:

Something that's helped me a lot, because I am someone that struggles with anxiety, probably should be medicated for it from time to time. But I've learned some things that have just helped me learn to control it, and one of the big things is one it's my faith. That really has helped me out a lot. God tells us to cast our worries and our troubles onto him, and for me personally I know that for some people I know, when you're in the middle of an anxiety attack and stuff like that, that is so hard to even think about is just stop thinking about it. But when I think, okay, I can cast all this doubt, all this anxiety, all this worry, I can just put it in God's hands and he's going to take care of me. It doesn't make the anxiety go away just like that, but it does allow me to find a level of peace and rational thinking so that I'm able to have moments where I can calm down, I can breathe.

Blake Tetro:

Breathing also helps too Big, slow, deep breaths. Don't hyperventilate. If you're like me and you have anxiety and you get hyperfixated on that thing, that's giving you anxiety. Finding a hobby where I like to read, I like to pray, play basketball, anything that you can do to kind of get yourself out of it and then also taking away anything that's causing the anxiety. So if it's social media, I delete my social media. Like right now, I have my social media deleted. Say it because I don't want to have to deal with anything right now.

Nate Williams:

Yeah, Any other thoughts, Justin?

Justin Weygand:

Something I would add on to that is I do agree you need to find something to help you out with the anxiety. There's also different types of anxiety, like for me, I have bad social anxiety. I have fear of talking to people. There's different stemming reasons behind that, but there's sometimes you've got to do stuff to get out of your comfort zone to help you get over these things. Like, for example, as much as I don't want to, the way to get over social anxiety is to go talk to people Okay.

Justin Weygand:

So you have to put yourself in situations to help you conquer some of this stuff.

Nate Williams:

sometimes If I'm afraid of certain drugs. What I'm hearing you say.

Justin Weygand:

Go do them.

Nate Williams:

I should go do them to get over that fear.

Justin Weygand:

Start with cocaine. Heroin. There you go. He's got the better idea.

Nate Williams:

Spencer wants me to take heroin. We have it on camera we have it on video. We have it documented, but no, go on, justin. I'm sorry.

Justin Weygand:

I know. That's basically all I had to say is I mean, obviously you know you're joking and this stuff like that. Don't go do hard drugs or anything like that.

Nate Williams:

but Blank Hard drugs.

Emily Smith:

I will slap you.

Nate Williams:

But for the appropriate things, go do them and eventually, over time, it gets better yeah absolutely.

Justin Weygand:

Now I still think, like if you have anxiety about heights, I don't think you necessarily got to go skydive. Like don't go to the way extreme.

Nate Williams:

It depends on what it is.

Blake Tetro:

Yeah, yeah, find healthy ways to deal with your anxiety.

Spencer Smith:

Absolutely. Sit on the edge of the Grand Canyon, just look down.

Nate Williams:

Now, spencer, I know that you've been involved in youth ministry and I know some of the teens that maybe you served with were struggling with anxiety from time to time. What would you tell them, or what might you tell them? Do you have anything to add there? Pretty much what Blake and Justin are saying.

Blake Tetro:

I mean, yeah, really what they nailed it on the head right there nailed it on the head, nailed it on the head, hit it on the nail. Hit the nail on the head.

Spencer Smith:

Nailed it on the head, hit it on the head.

Nate Williams:

They punched the head of the nail with their fists.

Spencer Smith:

So in my short time in youth ministry I didn't really have that conversation a lot, but I know she has had more conversations because I don't know if it affects women more, but women usually open up about it more, their anxiety and all their problems. So I think that's a better question.

Nate Williams:

Spencer, is this because you believe women are inferior? Is that what?

Spencer Smith:

you're saying they're more open, is it is being more open inferior, just kidding, I like twisting people's words.

Nate Williams:

It's very healthy thing to do. Emily, do you have any thoughts about anxiety, like how to help people going through? Any thoughts there?

Emily Smith:

So I'm just gonna put myself out there.

Emily Smith:

I'm really struggled with anxiety a lot in my life. A lot of it comes from a History of trauma and I know for myself when I find myself getting anxious, I try to catch it before it gets out of hand. Okay, and the way that I personally choose to deal with this by immediately going to the Lord and prayer and telling him what it is that I'm anxious about and Just reminding myself that he's in control of all things and that, regardless Of what is going to happen, I know that he'll be with me through it and that he can use it for his glory. So I think you know that's the biggest thing is just acknowledging that God is in control and I'm not alone going through it. And so, even you know, at night sometimes, when I get anxious especially when I was living alone prior to getting married Just turn on some worship music and worship. Try to get out of that zone, like Blake was saying, where you're Allowing yourself to do well, and just keep rotating those thoughts yes, okay, a lot of good advice and wisdom there.

Nate Williams:

I think that, justin, go that you finish your thought. I think that we want a well rounded response to anxiety. So, for example, check your sleeping habits and get good sleep, eat well, check your social circles, because sometimes we have friends that are particularly anxiety inducing, depending on various levels of drama. And yes, we won't, we won't point anyone out that causes anxiety.

Nate Williams:

No, but we have not mentioned anyone by name, but just kidding. Check your social circles, also your relationship with God. Read the Bible and praying and understanding Right, but where does my identity come from? Who, ultimately, is in control? All of these things are good now. Just what would you have to say?

Justin Weygand:

Something else that helps is to you kind of. I think I'm just talking about your relationship with God is important for this. Well, obviously, but If you're doing sinful things, I kind of I know for me something I struggle with this masturbation, masturbation addiction. When I when I do it, the anxiety I feel afterwards is it is incredibly immense because I know I've done something incredibly wrong. If it feels great at the moment, it's not worth.

Justin Weygand:

It's not worth the feeling afterwards so you gotta pay attention to what you're doing and make sure that you're right with God and your actions as well, and I think that can help with anxiety as well check your habits, check various things online, things that you want to be careful about.

Nate Williams:

And now let's talk briefly about medication. Right? So I'm sure that if you take medication for anxiety, depression or other things, it's because you don't love God and that you can't be a Christian if you take medication. Is that accurate?

Blake Tetro:

let me ask you this question instead. I will get to that question, but that reminds me. How do you feel about that? How do you feel? I want to get your insight on this because I've watched a lot of faith healer stuff. I name it, claim it baby. I think that he I think there are people I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna be that person that says that those gifts don't exist anymore. But I'm also in the camp of God puts people, or God gives people like doctors, he gives them the gift of medicine and he puts people like that in this world that will help us. So how do you feel about that, about the faith healer? Were you in the faith healing camp?

Justin Weygand:

Yeah, Nate, tell us.

Nate Williams:

Definitely, I think, charismatic pentecostals. There are just a lot of different thoughts there. With the gifts of the Holy Spirit, I believe that God can and does heal. This is going to be a very generic answer. So, blake, I'm sorry to disappoint that God can and does heal, that he often works miracles. I believe in God that does miracles, but he doesn't always heal every time, in every situation and how God decides. All right, I'm going to heal this person, take their anxiety completely away, versus I'm going to allow someone else to struggle with it. What his thought process is I do not know, but I do think that God definitely can heal and does heal. Now, whether or not an individual has the gift of healing, that that can be the subject of another video.

Blake Tetro:

But that might take us in a different direction. Fair enough.

Nate Williams:

We'll talk about Pentecostalism, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, cessationism maybe that after the first century, after the apostles passed away, that certain gifts like healing and prophecy and tongues, they're gone, versus continuationism that they're still around and that individuals will have the gift of healing, prophecy, tongues, interpretation, things like that. We'll have a video on that and we'll get different thoughts. But let's steer a little bit away from that.

Justin Weygand:

That's fine, justin. Something to back on the topic of the medication that we were talking about.

Justin Weygand:

I think something else to add on to that as well is because it becomes ever more prevalent and legal in the United States is people are using things like marijuana to treat anxiety. It's a very common thing. I mean, in some states it's legal, some states not, but people still use it for that. So I guess something we need to really sit down and think is what's? I personally am okay with medication if someone is like, to the point where they cannot function, but I don't think marijuana is ever the answer.

Nate Williams:

So I think that's something to discuss as well and also have a video on marijuana. Let's just take it versus specific medications and specific drugs. Let's take a step back and talk about medication just in general, because marijuana can be its own thing, spencer.

Spencer Smith:

I think medication it can be helpful, but it needs. It, doesn't need to be the first stop. You don't need to go to a doctor and say, hey, I need you to put me on something for this, when you haven't even evaluated your own health, your own social situations, your own daily routines. If you look at what actually you know is like check your diet and say, hey, am I going to McDonald's three meals a day, or maybe not something that extreme but I'm only going two times a day.

Nate Williams:

That's still pretty extreme, am I?

Spencer Smith:

eating whole nutrient dense foods, or am I just eating junk? Am I on my phone 12 hours a day, or am I outside for a couple hours a day soaking in the sun? Am I like? What was my life like? And then? If you haven't changed your life. If you change your life and still not working, then I recommend go to a doctor, say hey, I need something, I've tried everything, I need medication.

Blake Tetro:

Yeah, I like that. You said that, because I everybody that I talk to. Now it seems like it's a fad to have anxiety and stuff like that and the first thing they want to brag about is how much medication they're on. Really, Really. Yeah, that's something that's. That's something that's kind of going on in Gen Z.

Nate Williams:

I might be careful I wouldn't categorize necessarily everyone.

Blake Tetro:

Well, not every my bad, my bad, my bad Not everyone, but a large majority of people that I've encountered, talked to and what I've seen on social media all they brag about is how much medication they're on. Or it's not like they're bragging in the sense of I'm better, it's just like look at me, like, look how it's like the competition, who has it worse? And I like that. You said that you know, evaluate it first. I don't think anybody evaluates why they have anxiety. They just think like, oh, I'm feeling this way, I need medication.

Blake Tetro:

Because then I can fit into this group I can make I hate to say this, but it's like I can use it to my advantage I can make videos about it. I can say look at me, look how bad I am, and stuff like that.

Nate Williams:

People make YouTube channels on these topics. Youtube videos, youtube videos Kind of like Dangerous Veils. Those people are the worst. They're really bad, aren't they? They're terrible. They're terrible, justin.

Justin Weygand:

Something to add with what you said, Spencer. I think you can put a step in the middle, which is also go talk to a therapist. Yes, I think that that should be. That's a very important step, and even if you're not going for medication I'm going to steal this quote from you, Nate I think everybody, just about everybody, at some point in their life needs to have that person to talk to.

Blake Tetro:

Babe, no, you're tapping on the table.

Justin Weygand:

But everybody, I think, needs to have someone to talk to to help them express their feelings.

Nate Williams:

No violence, Justin.

Justin Weygand:

Ow Sorry.

Nate Williams:

Yeah.

Justin Weygand:

Yeah.

Nate Williams:

Go on.

Justin Weygand:

That's basically the end of my.

Nate Williams:

He has something to talk to you, a therapist counselor. That was the end of my TED Talk. That was the end of his TED Talk.

Justin Weygand:

Emily Running joke every episode.

Emily Smith:

I do agree with the use of medication but, like Spencer said, I do think you should look at your life first and see if there's things that you can change first. I know at one point in my life I reached this point where I was extremely anxious, couldn't leave my house, was sick. But I talked to my friends, I tried to change things in my life that I knew were causing extra anxiety on top of the other extenuating circumstances, and I know that that did help. But at some point, you know, I did go on medication and that ultimately helped me get back to living my life and then I was able to come off the medication and just continue with the changes that I had previously made.

Blake Tetro:

Yeah, okay, that's something I wanted to ask about and since you came out, there are some people when they get on medication, they use it for life, or they think, like I've talked to you about a handful of people, that they sit Like the minute their prescription runs out. You can just tell in their face like, oh, this is going to be bad, like they're panicking, it's all, like they're having anxiety about not having their anxiety medication. How do we and you can answer this can be a question for you too Do we need to look at anxiety, like anxiety medication, as an end-all fix-all, or do you think at some point you need to learn to like come off of it and like use it for when in the worst moments, but then be able to kind of come off of it, so that way you learn to deal with it rather than become dependent on a specific thing?

Nate Williams:

What do y'all think? Anxiety medication for life or wean yourself off of it? Any thoughts there?

Spencer Smith:

Well, okay. So the people that rely on it, the reason that they're not okay after they get off of it is because it's not preventative medicine, it's just coping medicine. It's not like a fix, it's just a certain Like just for a certain amount of time you're gonna be okay, essentially, yeah. So it's literally just a band-aid. It's not gonna close up the wound, it's not gonna heal you from the inside, gotcha. So that's what I was talking about earlier. You need change what you eat. You need change how you spend your day, because if you just sit inside all day and you're just eating chips and you're talking to people online, you don't go out to anyone, you don't have any real life friends Spending your time on my favorite foods.

Spencer Smith:

You're wondering why, hey, why do you hate your wife?

Blake Tetro:

Why do you hate women?

Spencer Smith:

There's no good answer to that Spencer have you stopped beating your wife. You see the clown in Walmart that only appears to gay people.

Blake Tetro:

Oh, no, oh.

Nate Williams:

I'm not gonna fall for that one, anyways.

Spencer Smith:

But yeah, people, they want to have that easy, quick little fix and they just want to keep relying on the medicine. But they don't want to change anything about how they live, they don't want to get to know the people around them, they just want to have that crutch and that's why there's that problem there for life.

Nate Williams:

Yeah, I agree in broad strokes. I think we will need to necessarily have a disclaimer that none of us here are medical doctors no, and none of us here except for yes, none of us here necessarily have credentials. But what we're talking about really is just our experience. Yeah, that, either as those in the Gen Z generation or right on the line again the term I use I came across a month ago was Zillennial those on the line between Millennials and Gen Z. That we're just talking from our experience. It seems to be this way generally. But if you're watching this video or listening to the podcast and you're like, hey, that doesn't describe me or that's not my motivation, definitely sure, we're just talking broad strokes.

Nate Williams:

We're obviously not gonna cover every single person's story or all those backgrounds, but I think, spencer, you hit on something that's really good. We want to be well-rounded. How are we eating? How are we sleeping? Let's check our friends. Are we exercising? Are we getting out? How's our relationship with God? Justin, you talked about our habits and our addictions. That matters as well. Our conscience plays a role there. But anyways, friends, as we sign off and then we go, do our own thing for the rest of the day, any other final thoughts on anxiety from either end, its causes or some things that might help us, or help us to talk to friends. Emily.

Emily Smith:

I've heard some people say that people who struggle with anxiety just don't have enough faith, and I don't necessarily think that that's true.

Emily Smith:

I think that anxiety is normal, but I do think that people who stay in a state of anxiety, maybe that is a lack of faith Because, like I was talking about earlier, in recognizing Christ is in control of all things and then he can use all things. He can even use you when you're in that state of anxiety, maybe to witness to another person who is struggling just like you are. But I think that's important to realize that just because you have anxiety doesn't mean that you're not a Christian or you don't have enough faith.

Nate Williams:

Exactly. That's a major lie You'll hear, depending on the circles you run in, that if you're dealing with something, a sickness, an illness, whatever it might be, it's because you're not a good enough Christian. That is patently false. It's unbiblical that sometimes God heals and takes away. Sometimes God does allow us to go through things for various reasons, such as helping other people, and then finally on medication, just in case we get bashed for that. We're not against medication, but just make sure you check off different boxes, check different things. Don't let medication be the first thing that you jump to to fix all of your problems, even if ultimately, it can help you feel better.

Blake Tetro:

Well, friends, glad you could wait, I wanted to add something to that Also. I just want to do like a personal apology from the, from the church, to people like with anxiety. I feel that we sometimes newer churches and stuff. They tend to stay away from stuff like that. And then you have churches like Greg Locke's Church, who thinks that anxiety and disorders are of the devil, and you get some of these faith healers in there and we'll fix them right up. We're not in that camp.

Blake Tetro:

I believe that. I do believe that there are demons and I'm going to nuance their spiritual warfare going on but we are. I think we are all. We all have something that we're going to struggle with in life, whether it be mental disorders, sicknesses, ailments, anything you name it. That's life. You're going to go through many trials.

Blake Tetro:

So if there's ever been a church that tells you your trial or anybody that's been in a church that tells you that your trial is not real or it's a demon, or they make you feel like you're crazy and stuff like that, I would like to personally apologize on the behalf of that, because that's not it at all. We want, when you come into the church, we want to bring you in as you are and we want to help you and we want to help you get better, and we want to sit down and we want to listen to you and allow God to use us like, allow him to move in us to help you and guide you closer to him, because, at the end of the day, god's going to, god's going to fix everything, whether it's whether when you're alive or when you die. He's going to be there and he's always been there and he's going to heal you, just like that, so new bodies, new heavens, new earth, new creation.

Nate Williams:

We look forward to a time of no more crying, sickness, pain, war, death, injury, all those things, and that's what we're moving towards. Sometimes it seems slowly, but one day we'll be on the other side with our save, your face to face, and I think that's a great way for us to finish this podcast episode. Dangerous Faith YouTube video. Keep on coming back. We try to upload once or twice a week. Give or take and like, share, subscribe. Let other people know about the ministry. Check out our website dangerousfaithnet. Until next time, we'll talk with you later.