The Answer for an Anxious World

By: Chris Johnson

A few years ago, my family took a day trip to Mackinac Island, famous for its unique ban of any motorized vehicles on the island. This keeps visiting the island a quaint experience, as the only way to get around is by walking, bicycle, or the many horse-drawn carriages that make their way down the streets.

We took one of those carriages on a tour through the town and around the various points of interest on the island and it came to a stop at the stables for the island’s draft horses. This stop featured a carriage museum, horse stalls, and, of course, some incredibly large horses.

These horses are bred to work, our driver explained to us. They are calm when they’re pulling a carriage, but yet have so much energy that if they’re not worked each day, they would kick apart the stalls out of frustration.

That little factoid stuck with me. According to Genesis, human beings are made to work too. Adam’s purpose is to “work and keep” the garden. After the fall, he’s told to “be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and subdue it.”

As our technology has advanced, work – real, physical labor – has come to fill less and less of our time. In fact, if you think about it, it’s been for less than a century of human history that the average person could expect to survive day to day without having to ever kill an animal or harvest a crop.

We are walking on pretty fresh cement here in our day, not just in vaccine/medical technology as has been the focus lately, but in diet and lifestyle as well. One of the things we’re still discovering is the results of a life disconnected from what the thousands of years of humanity prior would have recognized as real labor.

Bruce Shelley, in his “Church History in Plain Language” explains the shift which only came to be in the early 1800s by the Industrial Revolution’s introduction of factories: “Life was suddenly changed. Gone, for many, was rural or small town life where the pace of work was determined by night and day, sowing and harvest. In its place, people found the precision and the regimen of the factory world. God’s sun was now hid behind the smoke and in its place was the factory whistle, a symbol of man’s time, not God’s.”

God’s sun is no longer hid by factory smoke, but by warehouses, cubical walls, and primarily just a lack of interest in seeing it as digital devices command our attention.

Even so, as meaningful work has gone the way of, well, the work horse, various methods have been adopted to expend our energy in a non-destructive – if unproductive – manner. It began harmless enough. A few generations ago, it was things like car culture and model trains that required actual knowledge and skill. Then, came the common vicarious bloodsport of professional sports. But, since society began to go digital and technical proficiency has been seen as less valuable and become far less common – video games, pornography, and social media have taken its place. These, however, once the initial thrill wears off, carry their own pressures and anxieties.

Enter the Covid-19 disaster, when all of us “work horses” were made to stay in our stalls. Not only were we kept from being productive, but we were kept from being social. Kept from being fruitful and kept from multiplying. I think it is no accident that it was that summer that the Black Lives Matter protests were allowed to happen. In fact, in some places, that was the only state-sanctioned outlet for these human needs!

Shop windows were broken, businesses were looted, and buildings were burnt down. The horses were kicking apart the stalls.

But, even after the destructive energy was expended, the frustrations and anxieties remain. And so we have this recommendation from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force: that adults under age 65 get screened for anxiety.

The Washington Post reports: “While the task force’s initial deliberations on anxiety screening predated the coronavirus pandemic, the new guidance comes at a critical time, said task force member Lori Pbert, a clinical psychologist and professor at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School in Worcester, Mass.

“‘Covid has taken a tremendous toll on the mental health of Americans,’ Pbert said. ‘This is a topic prioritized for its public health importance, but clearly there’s an increased focus on mental health in this country over the past few years.’

“In April, the task force made similar recommendations to begin anxiety screening in children and teens, ages 8 to 18. The proposal announced Tuesday focuses on young and middle-aged adults, including those who are pregnant or postpartum, citing research showing that screening and treatment can improve anxiety symptoms in those younger than 65.”

Treatment in most cases will mean the prescription of drugs which increase Serotonin levels, as the most common theory for mental disorders like anxiety and depression is that they are a result of chemical imbalance in the brain.

But, a recent comprehensive review of research into what serotonin levels might mean for an individual revealed that, “After decades of study, there remains no clear evidence that serotonin levels or serotonin activity are responsible for depression.” The researchers even found evidence that¸ “people who used antidepressants had lower levels of serotonin in their blood.”

Meanwhile, the CDC reports that “Antidepressants were the third most common prescription drug taken by Americans of all ages in 2005–2008 and the most frequently used by persons aged 18–44 years. From 1988–1994 through 2005–2008, the rate of antidepressant use in the United States among all ages increased nearly 400% …” and altogether, “About one in 10 Americans aged 12 and over takes antidepressant medication.”

And if the efforts of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force are successful, that number will only go up.

So, if antidepressants aren’t actually an effective treatment for depression and anxiety, what affect do they have?

Well, according to a study in the Journal of Affective Disorders, 46% of people treated with antidepressants – or almost half – experience what professionals call “emotional blunting.” Another study, carried out via an online survey of antidepressant users, had these results: “61% of the respondents reported at least ten of the 20 adverse effects, most commonly: ‘Feeling emotionally numb’ (reported by 71%), ‘Feeling foggy or detached’ (70%); ‘Feeling not like myself’ (66%), ‘Sexual difficulties’ (66%), ‘Drowsiness’ (63%), and ‘Reduction in positive feelings’ (60%). ‘Suicidality’ as a result of the drugs was reported by 50%….” (emphasis mine).

So, here we are, at what should be (at least in the realm of day-to-day survival) one of the least anxiety-inducing periods of human history. Yet, anxiety is at an all time high. The distractions aren’t working and the drugs are making it worse.

We are like those draft horses, made for a purpose, destructive to ourselves and others when we do not fulfill it.

Psalm 16:7-11 presents a stark contrast to the anxieties and drug-induced numbness prevalent in our world: “I bless the LORD who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.

Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.”

The answer to the Westminster Shorter Catechism’s first question, is the answer to our anxious state: Glorify God and enjoy Him, forever.

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