[Darris McNeely] Apparently, the former First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, suffers from an anxiety disorder. She was recently talking with a late show television host. And she confessed that she suffers from what she said was low-grade depression and anxiety. Now, that's interesting. A lot of celebrities have echoed and spoken the same thing, apparently, in recent times, and especially with the pandemic and everything going on. But even going back before all of that. You know, anyone who's in the public eye who has to appear before people giving lines on a movie set, or on a theater stage, or in a political arena, they're going to have a bit of anxiety. They're going to be a little bit nervous.

I get nervous thinking about the next BT Daily I'm going to do. Every month when I have to write a Beyond Today television script, I get a little bit anxious. What am I going to talk about? How will I come up with material to fill nearly 30 minutes of airtime? I give sermons and I think, "What am I going to speak about?" How about you? Have you ever been anxious and a little bit concerned over a deadline? Something that you've got to produce on and you've got to accomplish, and you don't know how it's going to happen? We all do. That's called life.

There's an interesting statement in Ecclesiastes 3:22. And it says, "So what do people get in this life for all their hard work and anxiety?" It's one of those rhetorical-type questions. The writer of Ecclesiastes goes on to talk more about that. But life, hard work produces anxiety. It's a part of what we have to deal with.

You know, studies today show that anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the United States. According to Medical News Today, 40 million American adults with millennials as the most afflicted generation, suffer from what they term as certain types of mental illness, depression, anxiety diagnoses. They are increasing each year for many different reasons. And, again, the pandemic that we are coming out of has accelerated that. And we do see some very real problems with people who do need some very real help. But when you read about a celebrity, who's not missed a paycheck, who lives in the lap of luxury and for whom they've kind of skated through the pandemic and they have an anxiety disorder, or they're anxious about something, you kind of roll your eyes back a little bit on that.

What do you do? How do I deal with it? Well, look, as this Scripture says, life and hard work and just the events of everyday existence are going to produce certain types of anxiety. It's a part of life. And yes, even sometimes mild symptoms that can be clinically diagnosed as depression, if they linger for a long period of time or if we don't take the proper steps to deal with it, and there are many things that we can do, better diet, exercise, turn off some of the inputs that are coming in, whether it's music, movies, television that can be contributing to anxiety. I cut the cable. I've talked about that in the past. I cut my cable television. I don't listen to news every day that has to be just for hours on end, hammer me with negativity. I still watch the news. I still keep up with things but I control it. And I don't spend hours and hours on it. There are a lot of things that we can do to deal with this.

Probably number one at the top of your list and is at the top of my list is I always think about it is what the Bible says to take God into our lives and in some cases, put things on God's plate and let Him deal with it. First Peter 5:7 says, "Give all your worries and cares to God, for He cares for you." First Peter 5:7, "Give your cares and worries to God, for He cares for you." He does. We can't forget that. There are a lot of things that are going to happen we don't have control over. We do have one thing that we can control and that's taking God into our life and casting our cares upon Him. And then taking the proper steps and precautions and remedies in our own life to manage our lives in a positive, Godly way.

I sympathize with anyone that has anxiety and certainly worked with and tried to help people who have depression. And there are things to do. There are steps that can be taken to work with that and everyone should seek those and seek the proper, competent help to do so. But put the number one spot on your list that relationship with God and He'll help you deal with whatever it is that's creating anxiety for you.

That's BT Daily. Join us next time.