How dwelling on scripture ‘flicks off the worry-switch’

For World Mental Health Day, Anne Le Tissier shares her experience of battling anxiety and how she learned to go straight to the Bible for support.

Anxiety. Something familiar to many of us to one degree or another. A mild unease while waiting for a dental check-up, perhaps. Worry before sitting an exam. Gnawing dread in the run up to redundancy announcements. Sheer terror if we’re caught in the path of a hurricane.

I can relate to this scale. I’ve felt apprehensive before a smear test and battled nerves while preaching. For a few years in my twenties, I worried incessantly about gaining weight if I ate a mere morsel more than my strict (anorexia-induced) diet permitted.