December 19, 2024
The Treasures of Scripture for Panic Attacks
Dear friend,
Have you ever had a panic attack? I mean an honest-to-goodness, thought-you-were-going-to-die, uncontrollable physiological invasion of your own body experience? I haven’t, but I know many who have. It’s excruciating. And utterly terrifying, at least the first time, because you have no idea what is happening—you just know you feel like you aren’t going to make it.
It’s because of severe, confusing trials like panic attacks that biblical counseling exists. And it’s because of our desire to serve the church with rich, careful, practical theology that I am asking you to consider a year-end gift to help CCEF continue to engage the hardest issues we face.
I still remember my own first encounter with a panic attack. I was about eight years old and had been playing with a friend, but left the room for less than 30 seconds. When I returned, my friend was standing paralyzed and weeping in the middle of the room. My first instinct, of which I am now ashamed, was self-defensive: “It’s not fair for you to be mad. I didn’t do anything!” My friend was able to muster the presence of mind to say, “It’s nothing you did. I’m just so scared.” I got my mom. I was confused, but even at eight, I could appreciate that I had wandered too close to things “too high for me,” as Psalm 131 puts it.
I’ve learned a lot since then. I’ve counseled moms who experience panic attacks sparked by fears about their children. I’ve worked with people who find almost any social interaction to be a place of extreme danger. I’ve talked to confident, assertive business men who have had to pull to the side of the road on a normal Tuesday commute because they thought they were having a heart attack. I’ve walked a family through admitting an adult child to a psych ward because his panic attacks were so severe. I’ve seen a single session of counseling lead to a complete, extended remission of panic attacks. I’ve seen years of care and truth support and strengthen mature saints whose panic attacks do not relent.
Panic attacks are mysterious. They are one of the keynote places where the complexity of the body–soul interface is on display. Sometimes the connection between a set of fears and a bodily shutdown are obvious. Much more often, the connection between particular anxieties and a particular episode of heart, lungs, and brain going off the rails is utterly mysterious.
I say all this to set the stage for a very simple truth: when terrible, confusing things come crashing down into one’s life, the need for help from a trustworthy source is acute. That is why we want to ask you to support us in this work.
As counselors at CCEF, we are constantly engaging people who are dealing with panic attacks and the like: experiences that fracture our understanding of the world and the help we can anticipate from God, leaving us upended and gasping. We find ourselves walking with brothers and sisters in Christ whose lives have been totaled, trying to help them discern a path of faithfulness and hope. Sometimes that means radical relief from suffering. Sometimes panic attacks and profound trials are alleviated when we recognize our absence of trust that the Lord will see us through. Other times it is the kindness and compassion of a friend who can affirm that one is walking faithfully through deep trials, such as panic attacks, that is the steadying ballast needed to keep someone from capsizing in life and faith.
This is why it brings such joy to our hearts when we hear of ways the Lord is meeting his saints, such as this pastor who recently ended a season of receiving counseling at CCEF:
For the most part, things have been going well—praise God for that. However, I've still experienced moments of quasi-panic in response to various stimuli. Just today, after another brief episode, this time in a car wash, I felt the Lord might be giving me some clarity on why this is occurring. I noticed that this fear of feeling trapped has been a thread throughout each episode, whether it be physically, mentally, or even socially trapped. I think this whole season of wrestling has been exposing my need to rest in what the Lord thinks of me.
Our goal at CCEF is to help people walk through the hardest places with a radically clear understanding of Christ with them and Christ leading them. We want to help individuals do this, and we want to train up numerous counselors to help others do this. We want to encourage and support churches in their efforts to help their beloved brothers and sisters walk with each other through the hardest things. We want to press into panic attacks and whatever new problems and crises arise in each new season of the church’s history.
Would you make a gift to CCEF today? Your support helps guard, guide, and protect the Lord’s sheep—not only by helping individual strugglers but also by training counselors around the globe to help the most vulnerable and most troubled to find hope and rest in Christ.
Blessings,
Alasdair Groves
Executive Director
P. S. As I write this, we’re asking the Lord to provide another $700,000 by December 31. Thank you for considering how you might support this work of applying Scripture to the darkest corners of human life.
