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Caris Snider and Amber discuss her experience with anxiety and how she is learning to shine light in the darkness for adults, tweens, teens and children through her devotional Anxiety Elephants.

Questions Discussed During Battling Anxiety:

1. Share a little of your early faith journey with us.  When did you begin walking with Jesus?
2. I don’t know the details of your story, but what I do know sounds eerily familiar.  While mine was crying uncontrollably on the floor while my 3 year old and newborn played nearby, yours was an anxiety attack while your daughter played nearby.  Take us back to that time in your life and share what life was like and how you were coping.
3. In addition to panic attacks, you were not eating due to the anxiety and fear, which is often a symptom of anxiety far less talked about.  Will you speak to that symptom and your experience?
4. What drove you to finally seek help and whose help did you seek?
5. Seeking the help of a doctor and counselor are becoming less stigmatized, but as followers of Jesus we can still believe lies like, “I must not have enough faith” and “If I pray, this will go away.”  Did you believe those lies or others and how did you overcome them?
6. You talk a lot about the freedom that comes from speaking openly about your experience vs. hiding and I 100% agree.  It is another tool we have to fight against anxiety and depression.  Not constantly bemoaning our illness, but shining light into the darkness, so others can pray and encourage. How has speaking openly about your journey with anxiety brought freedom?
7. You’ve written Anxiety Elephants: A 31 day devotional to help stomp out your anxiety and now have a 90 day tween version for both girls and boys.  Share a bit about your journey of writing the devotional and how you’ve seen God use your experience for good.
8. If someone purchases your book, what can they expect?

Battling Anxiety Quotes to Remember:

“God just kind of reached down with His two gentle hands and said, ‘Look up, look up.’ And when I looked up, I wasn’t alone. No one rejected me. No one turned their back on me. They loved me. And they said, ‘We’re here for you.’…Anxiety is very real, it is very paralyzing. It is not looking for one certain type of person, it will come after whoever and so I knew that I needed help.”

“God gave us those emotions, we just don’t need them to control us.”

“The world, we’ve bought into this be a strong woman or be strong and have it all together, and you don’t need help….We need help. We need each other. We don’t need to do life alone.”

“When I got to the place of knowing, I don’t have to be social media, perfect. I don’t have to be all the things to all people. I just need to be who God’s created me to be. And then I can partner with other people who have those strengths, and we can lift each other up and then we become an army together for the Lord.”

“No medication is strong enough to stop God from using you.”

“If we as parents are not a safe place, they’ll go to the world.”

“When the anxiety creeps back in….[It’s been good for me] to see how God has helped me not put myself back in the shame corner, but to run to Him and say, ‘Okay, I’m struggling. Today is a hard day’.”

“When I would describe the anxiety attacks, the visual I would give would be that elephant, that heavyweight on your chest. So for those who had never experienced anxiety would realize how heavy that weight feels.”

Scripture References

• Gal. 6:2

Resources Mentioned:

• Book: Anxiety Elephants: 31 Day Devotional to Help Stomp Out Your Anxiety by Caris Snider
• Book: Anxiety Elephants for Tween Girls: 90 Day Devotional
• Book: Anxiety Elephants for Tween Boys: 90 Day Devotional 

Related Episodes:

• 63: Mazi Robinson | Managing Anxiety in the Unknown
• 166: Lori Wildenberg | Helping Children with Anxiety, Depression, and Suicidal Ideation
• 171: Nicole Zasowski | Courage to Celebrate