Latest / LifeAudio / Your Hope-Filled Perspective with Dr. Michelle Ben... - Why Anxiety Feels So Powerful and How to Recognize Its Lies: Fear is a Liar pt1

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Your Hope-Filled Perspective with Dr. Michelle Ben... - Why Anxiety Feels So Powerful and How to Recognize Its Lies: Fear is a Liar pt1 · LifeAudio

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Speaker 1: Life Audio. Some of you are here smiling on the
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Speaker 1: outside and struggling on the inside. Some of you have
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Speaker 1: learned how to function while your heart is racing, your
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Speaker 1: mind is spinning, and your soul feels exhausted. Some of
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Speaker 1: you are strong for everybody else, but underneath that strength
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Speaker 1: is a quiet ache you've not known how to name.
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Speaker 1: If that is you, I want you to hear this first.
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Speaker 1: You are not alone and you are not beyond the
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Speaker 1: reach of God's peace. Today, we are going to talk
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Speaker 1: about how fear is a liar and how we can
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Speaker 1: break its grip and take back the key. Welcome back
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Speaker 1: to another episode of your hope-filled perspective, where it's always
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Speaker 1: our goal to restore hearts, renew minds, and empower listeners
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Speaker 1: to live in your God-given identity. I'm your host, Dr.
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Speaker 1: Michelle Bankson, board-certified clinical neuropsychologist, author, speaker, and fellow journeyer
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Speaker 1: in this spiritual body and emotional wellness journey. Today, we're
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Speaker 1: going to talk about what is fear, where does it
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Speaker 1: come from, and how can we take back the key?
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Speaker 1: We'll dive into that right after this brief word from
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Speaker 1: our sponsor. I want to begin by saying something very clearly.
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Speaker 1: Anxiety is not a sign that you are a bad Christian.
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Speaker 1: Anxiety is not proof that you do not love God enough.
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Speaker 1: Anxiety is not the final word over your life. It's
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Speaker 1: a struggle. Yes, it's a battle often, but it is
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Speaker 1: not your identity and it is not your destiny. I
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Speaker 1: know that both as a woman who has walked through
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Speaker 1: anxiety script personally and as a clinical neuropsychologist who has
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Speaker 1: spent decades helping thousands of others understand the brain, the body,
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Speaker 1: and the mind. I have seen the science and I
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Speaker 1: have lived the struggle. And I can tell you this
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Speaker 1: with confidence. God's word is true. God's presence is real.
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Speaker 1: And God's peace is available in the middle of your
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Speaker 1: hardest days. I want you to imagine something with me.
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Speaker 1: Close your eyes just for a moment if you feel comfortable. Now,
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Speaker 1: imagine you are standing in a large room and one
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Speaker 1: by one, people begin to walk in. At first, it's
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Speaker 1: just a handful, then a few dozen, then hundreds. Before long,
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Speaker 1: the room is so full, you can barely move. Statistically speaking,
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Speaker 1: one out of every four people in that room is
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Speaker 1: struggling with anxiety. in your mind's eye. Look around in
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Speaker 1: this room. That person sitting next to you might be
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Speaker 1: fighting thoughts they haven't told anyone about. The one who
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Speaker 1: always shows up strong for others may go home to
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Speaker 1: a mind that never quits and never quiets. Now open
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Speaker 1: your eyes. Let me make this personal because I don't
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Speaker 1: just know these statistics as a neuropsychologist. I know them
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Speaker 1: as someone who who has lived it. There was a
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Speaker 1: season in my life where anxiety didn't just visit occasionally,
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Speaker 1: it moved in. I remember lying in bed at night
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Speaker 1: completely exhausted but unable to sleep because my mind wouldn't
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Speaker 1: stop racing. Thought after thought, what if this happens? What
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Speaker 1: if I miss something? What if I'm not enough? I
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Speaker 1: drove to my private practice every day filled with anxiety.
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Speaker 1: It was like a Boulder had taken residence in the
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Speaker 1: pit of my stomach, and it felt like a mountain
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Speaker 1: of concerns were resting on my shoulders. And the hardest part?
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Speaker 1: Everything looked fine on the outside. I was functioning. I
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Speaker 1: was helping others. I was showing up. But internally, my
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Speaker 1: mind felt loud, and my body felt constantly on edge.
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Speaker 1: What I didn't understand at the time was this. My
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Speaker 1: brain was trying to protect me. My amygdala, which is
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Speaker 1: my brain's alarm system, it was doing its job, but
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Speaker 1: it had become overactive. It was sounding the alarm even
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Speaker 1: when there was no immediate danger. Now, expand that beyond
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Speaker 1: just my story. Over 40 million adults in the United
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Speaker 1: States died and over 275 million people worldwide. Friends, that's
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Speaker 1: the size of multiple countries put together. Know that same feeling.
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Speaker 1: And often women experience it twice as frequently as men.
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Speaker 1: But we've gotten to a point in our society where
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Speaker 1: anxiety is considered the common cold of mental illness. And
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Speaker 1: why is that? I don't know where you live, but here,
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Speaker 1: frequently with our erratic weather in the wintertime, we just
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Speaker 1: come to accept that the common cold is going to happen. Well, similarly,
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Speaker 1: many I know have just accepted worry, fear, or anxiety
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Speaker 1: as if it's a foregone conclusion, like we just let
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Speaker 1: it move in for a while. Hardly a week goes
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Speaker 1: by when I don't hear someone say, well, I'm just
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Speaker 1: afraid that. I'm just worried about, I'm just so anxious that,
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Speaker 1: and then their concern rolls off the tip of their
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Speaker 1: tongue without giving it further consideration. But is it true?
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Speaker 1: And furthermore, why do we have to accept it? But
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Speaker 1: here's what I don't want you to miss. If anxiety
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Speaker 1: had a sound, the room that you just pictured would
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Speaker 1: not be quiet. It would be filled with the hum
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Speaker 1: of racing thoughts, the whispers of worry, and the pounding
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Speaker 1: of hearts just trying to keep up. But instead, we
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Speaker 1: sit quietly, we smile politely, and we quickly say, I'm fine. Friends,
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Speaker 1: anxiety does have a voice. And if you have lived
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Speaker 1: with anxiety for any length of time, you know exactly
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Speaker 1: what I mean. It sounds like alarm bells going off
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Speaker 1: in your mind. It sounds like, what if? It sounds
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Speaker 1: like worst case scenarios. It sounds like constant mental rehearsals
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Speaker 1: of everything that could go wrong. And it sounds like
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Speaker 1: these thoughts. You're not safe. You're not enough. You're going
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Speaker 1: to fail. You're going to lose control. Something bad is
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Speaker 1: going to happen. Anxiety rarely announces itself as anxiety at first.
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Speaker 1: It often arrives disguised as concern, as responsibility, as vigilance,
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Speaker 1: as perfectionism, as control, as over-functioning, as people-pleasing, or as productivity.
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Speaker 1: But beneath all of that is often fear. And fear
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Speaker 1: is a liar. I want you to consider for a
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Speaker 1: moment how much of your life may have been shaped
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Speaker 1: by fear rather than by faith. How many decisions have
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Speaker 1: been driven by panic instead of peace? How many relationships
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Speaker 1: have been strained because you were trying to control the uncontrollable?
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Speaker 1: How many sleepless nights have you spent rehearsing things that
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Speaker 1: never happened? Can I tell you what began to change
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Speaker 1: things for me? It wasn't pretending that the anxiety wasn't there.
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Speaker 1: It was to learn how to respond to it, both
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Speaker 1: neurologically and spiritually. As a neuropsychologist, I began to understand.
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Speaker 1: When I slowed my breathing, I was calming my nervous system.
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Speaker 1: When I interrupted anxious thoughts, I was retraining my brain.
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Speaker 1: And as a woman of faith, I began to lean
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Speaker 1: into the truth of Psalm 56, 3. When I am afraid,
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Speaker 1: I put my trust in you. And that journey is
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Speaker 1: what led me to write my book, Breaking Anxiety's Grip,
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Speaker 1: How to Reclaim the Peace God Promises. Because I realized
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Speaker 1: something so important. Anxiety may feel powerful, but it does
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Speaker 1: not have to be permanent. And peace is not just
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Speaker 1: a nice idea in scripture or Christmas carols. It's a promise,
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Speaker 1: a promise that can be experienced even in the middle
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Speaker 1: of anxious thoughts. So today, I want to walk you
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Speaker 1: through what I've learned, both in the science of the
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Speaker 1: brain and the truth of God's word, about how we
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Speaker 1: begin to loosen anxiety's grip on our lives and reclaim
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Speaker 1: the peace God's promised. Oh, not overnight, not perfectly. but
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Speaker 1: faithfully and effectively. Because there is a way to understand
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Speaker 1: what your brain is doing, partner with how God designed it,
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Speaker 1: and step into the peace He's already made available to you.
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Speaker 1: So if you've ever thought, this is just how I am,
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Speaker 1: or this is just my personality, or I just have
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Speaker 1: to live with this, I want you to gently set
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Speaker 1: that belief down today. Because what we're about to talk
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Speaker 1: about is how you begin to take your life back.
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Speaker 1: And we will dive into that right after this brief
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Speaker 1: word from our sponsor. So let's start with this. What
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Speaker 1: is anxiety really? And why does it feel so powerful?
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Speaker 1: From a scientific standpoint, anxiety is the body's alarm system.
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Speaker 1: It's your brain's God-designated way of alerting you to danger.
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Speaker 1: When we face something truly threatening, the alarm helps us
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Speaker 1: respond quickly to run, to protect, to act. We live
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Speaker 1: in the city, but we're very close to a walking trail.
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Speaker 1: And I'm out on that trail most days of the week.
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Speaker 1: And once on that trail, I encountered a not-so-desirous species. Snake.
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Speaker 1: Many of you would ask, well, what kind of snake
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Speaker 1: was it? Well, I'm here to tell you that that
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Speaker 1: fear response kicked in and I ran as fast as
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Speaker 1: I could, as far away as I could from that snake.
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Speaker 1: I did not take the time to take a picture
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Speaker 1: or try to identify what kind of snake it was.
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Speaker 1: Because friends, as far as I'm concerned, ever since the
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Speaker 1: Garden of Eden, the only good snake is a dead snake.
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Speaker 1: But that fear response was to alert me to potential danger.
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Speaker 1: And God created that in us. Problem comes when that
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Speaker 1: alarm starts ringing for things that aren't truly life-threatening, like
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Speaker 1: the possibility of failure or rejection or loss of control
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Speaker 1: or death. an unknown future. And when that happens, our
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Speaker 1: minds can stay stuck in a state of emergency, even
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Speaker 1: when there's no real threat. Years ago, when I was
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Speaker 1: doing my fellowship at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, my
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Speaker 1: husband was working and living in Chicago. And so frequently
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Speaker 1: on weekends, one of us would drive to the other
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Speaker 1: to go see the other one. It was usually me
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Speaker 1: driving to go see him because, well, if you've ever
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Speaker 1: visited Detroit, you know, Chicago's generally a nicer place to visit.
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Speaker 1: No offense to my Detroit friends and listeners. But one
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Speaker 1: weekend I got off work and I drove to Chicago
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Speaker 1: Friday night. Well, a storm rolled in Sunday about the
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Speaker 1: time that I needed to head back to Detroit. And
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Speaker 1: in one of my less wise decisions, I decided I
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Speaker 1: was going to race the storm back and see if
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Speaker 1: I could beat it so that I would be back
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Speaker 1: in Detroit for work on Monday at the hospital. Wasn't
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Speaker 1: a smart move, even though I knew how to drive
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Speaker 1: in snow and on ice because I grew up in Michigan,
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Speaker 1: but I ended up in an automobile accident that did
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Speaker 1: severe damage to my cute little red Mazda MX-6 and
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Speaker 1: some mild damage to me. But what it did more
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Speaker 1: than anything was damage my nervous system and Much, much later,
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Speaker 1: I was visiting a friend in another state, and she
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Speaker 1: was driving, and I didn't realize it, but when she
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Speaker 1: would put on the brake, I would reflexively reach over
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Speaker 1: and hold on to the door handle.
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Speaker 2: Nope.
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Speaker 1: I'm sure that this happened multiple times because at one
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Speaker 1: point my reflexes really kicked in. And not only did
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Speaker 1: I reach for the door handle, but I put my
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Speaker 1: feet up on the dash because she had stopped a
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Speaker 1: little too quickly for my liking. My nervous system was
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Speaker 1: alerting me to potential danger, except it wasn't really a
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Speaker 1: dangerous situation. And she looked over at me and said,
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Speaker 1: are you okay? And I realized no. that I had
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Speaker 1: not yet processed from the car accident and my brain
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Speaker 1: was stuck and ready to fight. Have you ever lived
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Speaker 1: that way? Like your mind is always five steps ahead,
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Speaker 1: rehearsing potential disasters, overanalyzing every conversation, preparing for battles that
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Speaker 1: may never come. It's exhausting. Spiritually speaking, anxiety is one
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Speaker 1: of the enemy's most subtle and reliable traps. Friends, you're
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Speaker 1: not very creative. The very first example ever of FOMO
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Speaker 1: was Eve in the Garden of Eden when the enemy said, Oh,
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Speaker 1: but don't you want to be like God? Well, we
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Speaker 1: all know how that ended up. Friends, the enemy can't
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Speaker 1: steal our salvation, but he will do everything he can
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Speaker 1: to steal our peace. Why? Because peace is power. And
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Speaker 1: when we're anchored in God's peace, we think clearly, we
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Speaker 1: love deeply, we serve joyfully. But when we're anxious, our
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Speaker 1: focus narrows, our world shrinks, and we end up living
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Speaker 1: more like survivors than conquerors. John 10.10 tells us the
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Speaker 1: thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I
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Speaker 1: have come that may have life and have it abundantly.
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Speaker 1: Anxiety steals abundant life by keeping us trapped in an
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Speaker 1: imaginary future full of fear. It kills our joy by
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Speaker 1: making us live in constant dread. It destroys our peace
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Speaker 1: by convincing us that disaster is always around the corner.
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Speaker 1: And it whispers lies about who God is and who
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Speaker 1: we are in him. From a neuropsychological perspective, anxiety is
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Speaker 1: the brain's alarm system. It's designed by God to alert
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Speaker 1: us to danger. That's a gift when we're facing real threats.
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Speaker 1: But when the alarm becomes overactive, it starts firing in
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Speaker 1: situations that are truly not dangerous. The brain begins to
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Speaker 1: interpret uncertainty as threat, ambiguity as danger, and discomfort as catastrophe.
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Speaker 1: That is why anxiety can feel so convincing. It's not
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Speaker 1: always rational, but it is persuasive. It takes ordinary uncertainty
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Speaker 1: and paints it as disaster. It whispers, you don't stay
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Speaker 1: in control. Everything will fall apart. And it declares, if
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Speaker 1: you're not perfect, you won't be loved. And it tries
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Speaker 1: to convince us that if you cannot solve this by yourself,
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Speaker 1: no one can help you. But friend, those are lies.
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Speaker 1: And one of the first steps towards healing is learning
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Speaker 1: to identify the lie for what it is. I learned
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Speaker 1: this in my own life in a very personal way.
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Speaker 1: There was a season when I was doing all the
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Speaker 1: right things outwardly. I was serving. I was working. I
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Speaker 1: was helping. I was teaching. I was showing up. But inwardly,
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Speaker 1: I was anxious. I was burdened. And I was exhausted. Now,
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Speaker 1: I knew scripture. I knew theology. I knew the science
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Speaker 1: of the brain, but I also knew what it was
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Speaker 1: like to wake up with dread sitting on my chest.
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Speaker 1: And one day the Lord lovingly exposed the root of
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Speaker 1: my struggle. He showed me that I've been trying to
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Speaker 1: carry what only he could carry. I had been trying
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Speaker 1: to control outcomes, manage fear and secure peace through my
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Speaker 1: own effort. But peace is not found in control, is
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Speaker 1: found in surrender to him. That was not an easy
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Speaker 1: lesson for me because control can feel safer than surrender.
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Speaker 1: But friends, control is an illusion. We were never meant
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Speaker 1: to be sovereign over our own lives. We were created
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Speaker 1: to live under the loving sovereignty of God. I want
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Speaker 1: to say that again because some of us need to
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Speaker 1: hear it deeply. You do not have to be God
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Speaker 1: in your own life. You do not have to know everything.
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Speaker 1: You do not have to anticipate every possibility. And you
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Speaker 1: do not have to solve every problem before you can rest.
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Speaker 1: So let me ask you something very tender and very honest.
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Speaker 1: What lie has anxiety been telling you lately? Maybe it
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Speaker 1: sounds like I'm not enough. Maybe it sounds like I'm
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Speaker 1: too broken. Maybe it sounds like if I let go,
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Speaker 1: everything will fall apart. Or maybe it sounds like, yeah,
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Speaker 1: God may love others. I'm not sure he can handle me.
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Speaker 1: If any of those sound familiar, I want you to
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Speaker 1: pause for a moment and recognize that those thoughts are
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Speaker 1: not the voice of your shepherd. Jesus says in John
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Speaker 1: 10 that his sheep know his voice. That means you
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Speaker 1: are capable of recognizing the difference between his truth and
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Speaker 1: anxiety's imitation. Anxiety is loud, but it is not Lord.
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Speaker 1: Fear is intense, but it is not truthful and you
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Speaker 1: are not powerless against it. Romans 12, 2 tells us,
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Speaker 1: do not conform to the pattern of this world, but
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Speaker 1: be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Friends, that
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Speaker 1: means transformation is possible. Your mind is not fixed. Your
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Speaker 1: thought patterns can change. Your emotional responses can heal. Your
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Speaker 1: habits can be retrained because God has designed your brain
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Speaker 1: with incredible capacity for renewal. This is not just spiritual hope.
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Speaker 1: It's also a reflection of how God wired the human mind.
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Speaker 1: The brain has the ability to form new pathways through
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Speaker 1: repeated thoughts and practices. But what we focus on grows.
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Speaker 1: So when we keep rehearsing fear, we strengthen fear. But
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Speaker 1: when we keep rehearsing truth, we strengthen trust. That is
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Speaker 1: why awareness matters. You cannot interpret a lie you have
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Speaker 1: not identified. You cannot replace a thought. you've not first
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Speaker 1: noticed i want you to pay attention to the patterns
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Speaker 1: what happens in your body when anxiety rises what triggers
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Speaker 1: your fear what thoughts repeat in your mind what do
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Speaker 1: you do when you feel out of control Do you withdraw?
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Speaker 1: Do you over-function? Do you spiral? Do you numb out?
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Speaker 1: Do you obsess? I want you to consider for a
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Speaker 1: moment that some of the things you have called your
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Speaker 1: personality may actually be coping mechanisms born out of fear.
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Speaker 1: That is not to shame you. That is to free you.
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Speaker 1: Because once you can identify the pattern, you can begin
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Speaker 1: to change it. And here is the good news. You
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Speaker 1: do not have to change it alone. The Lord is
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Speaker 1: not standing over you with condemnation. He's standing beside you
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Speaker 1: with compassion. Friend, he's not asking you to perform your
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Speaker 1: way into peace. You can't. I've tried it. It doesn't work.
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Speaker 1: He's inviting you to receive it. Psalm 34 verse 4 says,
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Speaker 1: I sought the Lord and he answered me. He delivered
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Speaker 1: me from all my fears. Notice that he does not
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Speaker 1: say he delivered me from all my circumstances. It says
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Speaker 1: he delivered me from all my fears. God's deliverance though
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Speaker 1: often begins on the inside before it ever shows up
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Speaker 1: on the outside. So if anxiety has been speaking loud
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Speaker 1: in your life, I want to encourage you to start
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Speaker 1: asking better questions. Not what if everything goes wrong, but
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Speaker 1: What is true about God right now? Not what if
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Speaker 1: I fail, but what has God already said about me?
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Speaker 1: Not what if I can't handle this, but who is
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Speaker 1: with me in the middle of this? That is how
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Speaker 1: we begin to break anxiety's grip. Once we recognize the lie,
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Speaker 1: we must replace it with truth. Not vague, positive thinking,
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Speaker 1: not denial, not pretending everything is fine when it's not. Truth,
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Speaker 1: the living, breathing, unchanging truth of God's word. Jesus said
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Speaker 1: in John 8, 32, then you will know the truth
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Speaker 1: and the truth will set you free. Freedom does not
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Speaker 1: come from more information alone. It comes from truth that
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Speaker 1: is believed, received, and lived. A lot of people know
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Speaker 1: scripture in their heads, but anxiety still rules their hearts.
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Speaker 1: I understand that. I've lived that too. We can quote
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Speaker 1: verses and still spiral. We can know that God is
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Speaker 1: sovereign and still fear the future. That does not mean
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Speaker 1: the word is powerless. It means we need to move
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Speaker 1: beyond knowing truth intellectually and begin practicing it relationally. Let
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Speaker 1: me say that in another way. Your nervous system may
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Speaker 1: need what your spirit already knows. And that is why
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Speaker 1: scripture is so powerful. It speaks to the whole person.
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Speaker 1: Isaiah 41 10 says, so do not fear for I
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Speaker 1: am with you. Do not be dismayed. I love that
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Speaker 1: verse because God does not just command us not to fear.
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Speaker 1: He tells us why. I am with you. I am
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Speaker 1: your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you.
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Speaker 1: I will uphold you. That is not a distant God.
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Speaker 1: That is a present, personal, sustaining God. Fear shrinks our vision,
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Speaker 1: but truth expands it. Fear magnifies the problem. Truth magnifies
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Speaker 1: the Lord. Psalm 34 3 says, I'll magnify the Lord
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Speaker 1: with me. Let us exalt his name together. We often
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Speaker 1: magnify the wrong thing. We make the problem feel larger
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Speaker 1: than God by rehearsing it over and over in our minds.
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Speaker 1: But worship reorders perspective. When we magnify the Lord, we
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Speaker 1: don't make him bigger than he already is. We make
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Speaker 1: him bigger in our awareness than the fear that's trying
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Speaker 1: to dominate our attention. I want you to consider for
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Speaker 1: a moment what would happen if you began answering fear
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Speaker 1: with scripture. in real time. When fear says, you are
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Speaker 1: not alone, the truth of Psalm 118.6 says, the Lord
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Speaker 1: is with me. When fear says, you're not going to
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Speaker 1: make it, the truth of Psalm 46.1 says, God is
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Speaker 1: my refuge and strength and ever-present help in times of trouble.
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Speaker 1: When fear says, you're not enough, truth says, My grace
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Speaker 1: is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect
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Speaker 1: in weakness, according to 2 Corinthians 12 9. When fear
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Speaker 1: says it's hopeless, the truth of Matthew 19 26 says,
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Speaker 1: with God, all things are possible. Friends, this is not pretending.
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Speaker 1: This is warfare. This is how we take every thought
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Speaker 1: captive to make it obedience to Christ, as 2 Corinthians 10,
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Speaker 1: 5 instructs us. Our feelings are the outward manifestation of
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Speaker 1: the thoughts we believe. So that's why we have to
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Speaker 1: assess if the thoughts we are believing are truth, because
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Speaker 1: thoughts are not harmless. They shape our emotions, our choices,
25:59
Speaker 1: our relationships, even our spiritual posture. That's why we must
26:03
Speaker 1: pay attention to what we are allowing to live rent-free
26:06
Speaker 1: in our minds. One of the most practical tools I
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Speaker 1: teach people is what I call truth replacement. When you
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Speaker 1: notice an anxious thought, do not simply tell yourself to
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Speaker 1: stop thinking about it. That rarely works. That's like me
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Speaker 1: looking at the bowl of peanut M & Ms on
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Speaker 1: my kitchen counter and saying, don't eat those. No, I
26:28
Speaker 1: need to get rid of them and replace them with
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Speaker 1: something healthier. So instead of telling yourself not to think
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Speaker 1: an anxious thought, identify the lie and intentionally replace it
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Speaker 1: with a specific promise from God's word. For example, the
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Speaker 1: lie says, I'm not enough. But the truth of 2
26:48
Speaker 1: Corinthians 12 9 says, His grace is sufficient for me.
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Speaker 1: The lie says, I'll never get through this. But the
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Speaker 1: truth of Isaiah 41 says, Verse 10 says, the Lord
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Speaker 1: will strengthen me and uphold me. The lie says this
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Speaker 1: pain will define me forever. But the truth of Philippians 1,
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Speaker 1: 6 is that he who began a good work in
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Speaker 1: me will carry it on to completion. That is renewing
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Speaker 1: your mind. That is retraining your inner dialogue. That is
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Speaker 1: learning to speak louder than fear. By speaking truth. But friends,
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Speaker 1: it takes practice. I wish I could tell you that
27:35
Speaker 1: after I learned these principles, anxiety never showed up again
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Speaker 1: in my life. But that wouldn't be honest. The truth
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Speaker 1: is that fear has tried to return many times. But
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Speaker 1: now I know what to do when it does. I
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Speaker 1: don't have to obey it. I don't have to amplify it.
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Speaker 1: I do not have to give it authority. I can
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Speaker 1: notice it. I can name it and I can answer
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Speaker 1: it with the word of God. Friends, I want to
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Speaker 1: teach you how to replace fear with truth in your
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Speaker 1: daily life. So I hope that you'll join me for
28:10
Speaker 1: part two of fear is a liar, because we're going
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Speaker 1: to talk about not only how to replace fear with
28:17
Speaker 1: truth in your daily life, but we're going to learn
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Speaker 1: how to access God's peace. And the thing that most
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Speaker 1: typically trips us up, we're going to learn what to
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Speaker 1: do about that so that anxiety, worry, and fear no
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Speaker 1: longer hold a key to your heart. I hope you'll
28:37
Speaker 1: join me on the next episode of your hope-filled perspective.
28:41
Speaker 1: Until then, it's my prayer for you that you have
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Speaker 1: a hope-filled week.
28:50
Speaker 3: It is now known that depression is our greatest epidemic worldwide.
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Speaker 3: It is greater than heart disease, cancer, and AIDS all
29:00
Speaker 3: put together. Unfortunately, there is a scarcity of biblically based
29:05
Speaker 3: resources which identify the spiritual component that will help individuals
29:09
Speaker 3: cope with depression or resources for their loved ones who
29:13
Speaker 3: are trying to support them. During Dr. Bankson's 30-year career,
29:17
Speaker 3: she has treated thousands of individuals with depression and has
29:20
Speaker 3: also suffered with it herself. Because of her suffering, she
29:24
Speaker 3: has come to understand the compelling need to address the
29:27
Speaker 3: spiritual dimension of depression, along with the physiological and emotional components.
29:33
Speaker 3: In her award-winning book, Hope Prevails, Insights from a Doctor's
29:37
Speaker 3: Personal Journey Through Depression, she shares with us her experiences.
29:41
Speaker 3: She combines her decades of professional expertise in mental health
29:45
Speaker 3: with her personal insights to help you overcome depression's grip.
29:49
Speaker 3: Jan Silvius, author of Foolproofing Your Life and Same Life,
29:54
Speaker 3: New Story, said this about Dr. Bankson in her award-winning book,
29:58
Speaker 3: who prevails insights from a doctor's personal journey through depression.
30:02
Speaker 3: It is a unique position to be both the doctor
30:05
Speaker 3: and the depressed patient. Those dual experiences offer rare insight
30:10
Speaker 3: into the nuances of a very difficult journey. Dr. Michelle
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Speaker 3: Bankson has written a wonderful, hope-filled book for those who
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Speaker 3: suffer from depression and for those who love them. Because
30:21
Speaker 3: she's been in the place of the patient, her compassion abounds.
30:25
Speaker 3: Because she has been in the place of the doctor,
30:27
Speaker 3: her knowledge is spot on. Because she is a lover
30:30
Speaker 3: of God, her book offers practical, spiritual hope for anyone
30:34
Speaker 3: who is searching. I encourage you to read it. It
30:37
Speaker 3: will make you better, no matter your situation. Hope Prevails
30:41
Speaker 3: is available at Amazon.com and other fine online book retailers
30:45
Speaker 3: or through her website at DrMichelleBee.com. Obtain your copy today
30:50
Speaker 3: and begin your healing from depression. Do you appreciate the biblically-based,
30:59
Speaker 3: hope-filled perspective offered each week by Dr.
31:02
Speaker 1: Bankson?
31:03
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31:05
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31:07
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Speaker 2: know each time a.
31:21
Speaker 3: New episode is aired.
31:24
Speaker 1: I'd like to take just a second to thank the
31:26
Speaker 1: team at Life Audio for their partnership with us on
31:29
Speaker 1: this podcast. If you go to lifeaudio.com, you'll find dozens
31:33
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