From Worry to Faith
Anxiety disorders affect 40 million US adults.
Only about a third of the people with an anxiety disorder receive treatment.
31.2% of Americans experience an anxiety disorder at some point in their lifetime.
The sales of books about anxiety increased by 25% in only one year.
The most common mental disorder in the UK is a combination of anxiety and depression.
Almost 50% of people suffering from depression also suffer from an anxiety disorder.
Generalized anxiety disorders are more prevalent in wealthier countries.
Anxiety disorders incur an annual cost of over $42 billion in the US.
How can we quiet our fears and worries?
The answer is something like the new technology being developed to quiet noise in the workplace. Several companies now market headphones that emit what is called antinoise.
“The principle behind all antinoise devices is the same,” writes Philip Elmer-Dewitt in Time. “Noise is basically a pressure wave traveling through the air. Antinoise is the mirror image of that wave, an equal and opposite vibration exactly 180 degrees out of phase with the noise to be blocked. When noise and antinoise collide, they interact with what is called destructive interference, canceling each other out.”
Airport baggage handlers can now wear headphones equipped with a tiny microphone that “samples sound waves at the wearer’s ear, processes them through special circuitry, and broadcasts countertones that cancel the offending sounds in midair. Result: silence, or something close to it.”
In the same way, we can cancel worries and fears with the antinoise of God’s truth.
Devotional Life, Faith, Fear, Peace, Promises, Trust, Truth