Anxious Faith

Hi friends, listen to this short clip or read below for an important announcement from our team! As you might know, Anxious Faith is a project run by Our Daily Bread Ministries here in Australia. We’ve been blessed to journey with this community for four years now, and we’re so thankful for where God has taken this initiative. But it’s time for a new chapter, and with that, we’re announcing that A...

As followers of Jesus, hope isn't a foreign concept. But we also know that Jesus said that a life following him wasn't going to be easy - we'd face troubles, difficulties, and challenges. What do we do when they hit? How can we have hope, when life around us may seem hopeless? This episode we speak with Katherine Catlett, an ex-cheerleader from the US, who has an incredible story of faith and find...

We’ve all heard the line before: we were made for connection. We all know how good friends can be, but for more people than we expect, friendlessness and disconnection are significant issues in their lives. How do we go about fixing that? This episode we're joined by Sheridan Voysey, founder of Friendship Lab , to look at how we can grow our friendships and connections. --  Links we mentioned:  Fr...

If you've listened to  Episode 43 Rest: How We Find Rest in God we shared some practical ways through prayer or reading the Bible to actually rest in God.  This bonus episode is designed for you to listen to when you've got a quiet place away from interruptions, and to read through Psalm 23 with us in a contemplative, meditative way. We hope it's a help!

We all recognise the importance of rest, but how often do we find ourselves indulging in mindless entertainment when only resting in God can truly satisfy? In the first episode of our new season, we'll delve into what it means to rest in God and how we can practically do that.  --  Links we mentioned:  Five-part series on Rest, written by Stephen Unwin  Sign up to the Anxious Faith mailing list to...

We’ve heard lots about anxiety; both from those who experience it, and those who help treat it. We’ve talked to doctors and pastors and counsellors and sufferers and everyone in between to find out how they experience anxiety, and what we can do about it.  But what about exploring the very concept of anxiety, as a whole, in light of God’s Word? How should Christians deal with anxiety? And why is i...

Men are notoriously bad at understanding our emotions—let alone actually sharing about them with someone else—and it’s to our detriment.  Here in Australia, it’s Movember; a month where the titular charity encourages guys to raise money for Men’s Mental Health by growing a moustache. And awareness like this is sorely needed — because men are three times more likely to die by suicide than women.  S...

Contrary to what many of us have grown up believing, porn addiction is not a “guys’ issue”. It’s a human one. Join us as we chat to Amanda Anaestad, cofounder of The Victory Collective, a ministry centred around community and resources for women struggling with a porn addiction.   Amanda was first exposed to pornography by accident in middle school, and it grew into an addiction that had a hold on...

As we began to branch out in topics here at Anxious Faith, we were surprised by the number of people who resonated with the episodes and blog posts we’ve done around OCD, or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. This often-misunderstood condition can be so hard to live with, and yet there are therapeutic approaches that can offer hope and relief for those living with OCD. One of those approaches is calle...

Self-awareness is something that we all need; in order to be healthy, loving, thriving people, we need to understand a bit about ourselves and how we interact with other people, the world around us, and even God. And, for those of us who struggle with our mental health, learning how and why we function and react to things the way we do can be a key part of working towards healing.  But is there a...

When someone is struggling with their mental health, whether that’s dealing with stress, anxiety, or a diagnosed mental health condition, it’s not just them who feel the effects of it —  there’s often a flow on effect to the people around them; their partner, children, family, friends, colleagues… The list goes on.  So what’s it like to be struggling with your mental health, only to feel the added...

CW: Keola’s story covers his struggles with self-harm and suicide ideation, so please be wise as you listen and mindful of who you’re listening with. Today we’re hearing the story of Keola, a young guy from Las Vegas in the US who thought he was living the dream — scouted out of high school for Division 1 baseball college, and on his way to making it as an athlete. But moving to that college wasn’...

“Nothing is certain except death and taxes,” or so the saying goes. But there’s something else that we’ll all face in our lives, regardless of our background, finances, upbringing or culture: suffering. Whether it’s suffering brought on by mental illness, physical illness, financial pressure, issues with relationships or family or any number of other things, at some point in our lives, things are...

Video games can be a contentious topic. There are the people who love them, and those that don’t — or simply can’t understand the appeal. And then there are the stories we hear in the media about gaming addiction, social isolation, and a growing concern for the way gaming seems to lead to a whole range of mental health challenges. So, what do we think? Does gaming affect our mental health?  Perhap...

When we think of non-physical problems that affect people, we’re pretty immediately drawn to the common ones — anxiety, depression, and the realm of mental illness. But there’s something just as insidious that can cause significant issues to our mental wellbeing, quality of life, and faith. It’s loneliness. There are some mind-boggling statistics around loneliness. One in four adults around the wo...

You think of a CEO and you probably picture someone who has it all together. They’re out there speaking in front of audiences, resolving high-level disputes, and running companies.  But what’s happening behind the scenes? Is it possible that even CEOs can wrestle with mental illness? Dr Matt Lucas is the President and Global CEO of Our Daily Bread Ministries, whom Anxious Faith is a part of — yep,...

This episode, we’re chatting with Josh, a young Aussie guy who was first exposed to pornography at the age of eight. For years, Josh’s addiction to porn grew and had a hold on his life, affecting his mental health, sense of worth, relationships with others, and faith.  Over the years, Josh tried everything to break his addiction. He sought accountability from parents, friends and pastors, met with...

Self-harm is something we’ve touched on a few times through different people’s stories, but today, it’s our main focus.  What leads someone to self-harm? Does it really feel ‘good’ at the time? And how does someone who’s been addicted to self-harm stop?  In this episode, Gabby Wilkinson from Dear God I’m Sad shares about her journey with depression, which led her to trying self-harm. Soon after, s...

We're exploring how different approaches to counselling and psychology line up with what we’re taught in the Bible. To do that, we’re chatting with Noni Potter, the Head of Undergraduate Counselling at Tabor, a Christian college in Australia. Not only is Noni a lecturer in counselling, but she’s also practised privately and has been involved in church ministry for many years. She’s passionate abou...

A common thread through many of the stories we share is our guests’ experiences of being told that their anxiety or other mental health struggles are a faith issue, not a mental one. Today we’re chatting with Lara d’Entremont, a young woman who grappled with being told that her anxiety disorder meant she was living in sin; refusing to trust in God. Lara tells her story of struggling through unhelp...

Together we’ve been exploring different diagnoses such as anxiety, depression, OCD and bipolar, and seeking to learn more and find encouragement for how those struggles don’t have to keep us from God. But what about other conditions that might impact our faith—other struggles and diagnoses Christians can wrestle with, including forms of disability or other differences like neurodivergence?  And so...

Most of the people we’ve interviewed on Anxious Faith so far are between the ages of 20 and 40. It seems a natural place to look for stories of mental health challenges; after all, we’re the age group that seem to be dealing with them—or at least, talking about them—most. But would it surprise you to know that some of the biggest sufferers of mental health challenges are people aged over 65? Conve...

We’ve shared lots of stories of people who have dealt with anxiety, and for many of them, the reality is they may always deal with anxiety. But what if you went and sought help, brought it all to God, went to regular therapy sessions and even tried medication,only for anxiety to come back, and come back stronger?  What would it be like to do all the right things, to think you had beaten anxiety, o...

Many of our guests have shared that they’ve experienced some form of anxiety since childhood. But that’s not always the case; for some people, anxiety or any other mental illness might not show up until later in life, seemingly out of nowhere. That was the case for Akos. It wasn’t until his 30’s that Akos faced anxiety for the first time, in the form of a panic attack while seated on a small aircr...

To kick off this year, we’re chatting with Amelie, a university student in Sydney. Amelie’s mental health journey started during high school, with what she thought was anxiety and experiencing a lot of existential dread. Initially she thought that the anxiety was all based around school pressure and performance, but it wasn’t long after she graduated that she realised the feelings hadn’t gone away...