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 unhelpful teachings about her anxiety, and of the damage it ended up causing to both her mental health and her faith. Ultimately, Lara shares how she discovered that God’s truth does allow us to seek medica ..read more

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, with today being the International Day of Autism Awareness, we thought it would be the perfect opportunity to broaden our scope and speak to someone who’s autistic and learn a little about ..read more

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 aircraft. That seemingly isolated incident led to a second panic attack, and a third, until his anxiety worsened. Despite having a strong faith and a good understanding of mental health—Akos was working in ..read more

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, which led to a diagnosis of OCD - or obsessive compulsive disorder. Amazingly though, it was the beginning of her anxiety and mental health journey that actually led Amelie to finding God in high sc ..read more

Join James, Maddy and Ethan in our final episode of the year to take a look back on where Anxious Faith began and where we’re heading. From small beginnings in January 2023 to almost 25,000 podcast downloads and a growing online community, we’re so grateful for where God has brought us this year.  Tune in for a quick recap of all 21 episodes, as well as the team’s reflections on some key things we’ve learned through our work this year that have helped us each in our own mental health journeys. We also take a look at some highlights from the blog this year, and chat about our vision for An ..read more

OCD is made up of intrusive thoughts that you can’t control around a particular issue–that’s the “obsession”–and those thoughts cause an incredible amount of anxiety unless you complete a certain action you feel compelled to do–that’s the “compulsive” part. Within the family of OCD, there are a number of different subtypes. But what if your OCD is about your faith? This episode we’re chatting to Mary, a young woman in the UK who has religious OCD or “scrupulosity”, a type where the obsession and intrusive thoughts are all focused around religion and faith. Having grown up in a Christian family ..read more

Trauma is a big and complex thing, and a topic we want to unpack in more depth in the future; but in today’s episode, we’re sharing the story of one man’s trauma, and the addiction and mental illness it led to. Dr Mark McNear is a licensed clinical social worker in New Jersey in the US. As a child, Mark suffered significant trauma and abuse, which he did his best to numb himself from. It wasn’t until Mark was in his 50’s that his doctor noticed he’d been abusing prescription medication and referred him to a rehab centre that could help.  Mark calls that day the best and worst day of his l ..read more

This episode, we’re speaking to Dr Sarah Morris, a clinical psychologist in Melbourne, Australia. Not only is Sarah a specialist who runs her own practice, but she is also a follower of Jesus who walks the road daily in both mental health and faith spaces.  Have you ever wondered, ‘What exactly does a psychologist do?’ Or maybe you’ve heard about cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) and ‘measurement-based practice’ and have no idea what those things involve. Well, Dr Sarah is here to answer all our questions! If you’ve never had any firsthand experience of seeing a psychologist, it can somet ..read more

As our Suicide Awareness Month comes to a close, we’re taking a look at some of the bigger questions that come along with the topic, such as ‘Was this my fault?’, ‘Could I have done more?’, and ‘How could God let this happen?’.  To do that we’re hearing from Al Hsu, a writer in the US who wrote the Discovery Series When Suicide Strikes for Our Daily Bread Ministries, our parent ministry. Al sadly lost his own father to suicide when he was in his twenties, and has wrestled with each of these questions himself.  In this episode, Al unpacks the concept of “false guilt” that’s common amo ..read more

If you listened to our last episode with Pippa, you’ll know that this month we’re opening up the conversation around suicide and hearing from people with firsthand experiences of it; whether they’ve lost someone to suicide or have considered suicide themselves.  In this episode we’re hearing from Joshua, a young guy from New Zealand who suffered depression as a teen and came to the point of wanting to end his life. Joshua shares vulnerably with us about his thoughts at the time, including walking us through what was meant to be his ‘final day’ and sharing about the letter he wrote to fare ..read more