Maybe it was always there, waiting.

Growing up in the 80s and 90s, anxiety wasn’t something anyone talked about. I do remember having sudden, inexplicable episodes of something I couldn’t quite describe. My mother certainly would’ve listened, but back then it didn’t occur to me to tell someone, “Every now and then, for no reason at all, I feel completely exposed and anxious.”

Over the years I’ve had friends confide that they suffered from anxiety, but I couldn’t imagine what they were going through. I’d never had a full-on attack.

We use that word, attack, as if we’re being attacked by some strange force, and I certainly believe we are. It’s something waiting for just the right opportunity to do just that, attack us, invisibly from inside ourselves.

But how does it get in?

I know exactly when it happened to me.

Even though I had inhaled caffeinated drinks most of my life, that wasn’t the doorway of my anxiety. The thing that set it off was an attempt to energize myself more “naturally.” In hindsight, I knew better.

I’d just been healed of Stage III ovarian cancer, and that process left me nearly 20 pounds overweight, with so little energy I looked for natural sources to give myself a boost. I went online, did a little googling, until I came up with articles about green tea. I didn’t like the taste of green tea, so I opted for green tea pills.

With the first dose of those pills came almost immediate nervousness, but I kept taking them, hoping if I halved the dose I’d get used to it.

Very shortly, even though I stopped taking the pills, anxiety set it.

I’d never felt anything like it before. It was an arresting feeling, like instantly being in an emergency, but without a cause. It was an overwhelming sense of intense dread, followed by a rush of nausea and pounding heartbeat. It lasted only a couple seconds, but it hit me often throughout each day without rhyme or reason.

This went on for two more years. Exercise helped, but as soon as I got out of the habit of exercise, the anxiety returned full force.

During this time, coffee was trending and I fell for it. While coffee didn’t cause my anxiety, it obviously fueled it. Anxiety feeds off stimulants. Stimulants interrupt sleep, and lack of sleep fuels anxiety. It’s a brutal cycle.

Then one day, I came to my senses and decided to ask God for help. I’d whispered a few “please-make-this-go-away” prayers, but what was happening to me required a “be still and know” kind of prayer.

As promised, our very kind Father God helped me, but He asked me to get off caffeine. So I did.

Some people experience extreme withdrawals, but mercifully, I did not. At first I had trouble sleeping, which is an ironic withdrawal symptom, but after about a week, the change was undeniable. I was falling asleep at night within minutes of lying down—something I haven’t done since high school. I also had headaches throughout the first week, so since Excedrin has caffeine in it, I treated them with Tylenol.

Gradually the waves of anxiety lessened and within another week or so, it stopped altogether. It was gone.

There’s an important step to this process that I have to share with you, though.

I’m not telling you to give up caffeine; I’m just telling you it’s part of how the Lord delivered me from anxiety. The point I’m really trying to make is about prayer, so that maybe you can apply it to an area of your life where you need God’s help.

First, I had to break up with caffeine by renouncing it. I had to admit to God that I had intentionally partnered with a stimulant to lose weight and artificially energize my body instead of trusting Him to help me. This process is called repentance, and it’s done with actual words, not just by thinking it in our mind.

Then, since I felt “attacked” by these episodes, I treated it like an outside force. The Bible has plenty of examples of things being “cast away” from people, so as odd as it might sound, in faith, I did this. I detached myself from anxiety, in Jesus’ Name, and in faith believed that it left me.

I can testify to you, I no longer have anxiety attacks, ever. Hallelujah!

Psychologists will tell you this is merely a mind-over-matter effect, but if that were the case, we would all just “will” this stuff away.

There’s a Scripture that says, “Be anxious for nothing, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” (Philippians 4:6)

I used to think being anxious for nothing meant just deciding not to be anxious, which most people will agree, is just not that easy. But now I read it a little differently, because the power is in the prayer spoken in faith in Jesus’ Name. Renounce, repent, receive.

There are all kinds of reasons for anxiety, and different necessary medications can even cause it, along with life’s circumstances.

But if it’s something that was let in, it can be kicked out, so if you’re willing to try it in faith, I know from experience, God will show up.

Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. ~ 2 Corinthians 3:17

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Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

~ Philippians 4:6-7