I was working through my daily reading list when this headline, “STATS: Americans ‘snapping’ by the millions…” caught my eye on drudgereport.com. My first thought was this might be something related to the recent bombings at the Boston Marathon. As I continued to read it was clear that the commentary had a political angle, but putting that aside, I could not stop thinking about the deeper issues outlined in the article.

“Of course, at the nuclear core of the myriad assaults on traditional America is the rejection of God and repudiation of the Judeo-Christian values that underpin Western civilization. This in turn has led to pervasive societal disintegration and a Pandora’s Box of almost unimaginable problems.”ⁱ

• Suicide has surpassed car crashes as the leading cause of injury death for Americans. Even more disturbing, in the world’s greatest military, more U.S. soldiers died last year by suicide than in combat;

• Fully one-third of the nation’s employees suffer chronic debilitating stress, and more than half of all “millennials” (18 to 33 year olds) experience a level of stress that keeps them awake at night, including large numbers diagnosed with depression or anxiety disorder.

• Shocking new research from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that one in five of all high-school-aged children in the United States has been diagnosed with ADHD, and likewise a large new study of New York City residents shows, sadly, that one in five preteens – children aged six to 12 – have been medically diagnosed with either ADHD, anxiety, depression or bipolar disorder;

• New research concludes that stress renders people susceptible to serious illness, and a growing number of studies now confirm that chronic stress plays a major role in the progression of cancer, the nation’s second-biggest killer. The biggest killer of all, heart disease, which causes one in four deaths in the U.S., is also known to have a huge stress component;

• Incredibly, 11 percent of all Americans aged 12 and older are currently taking SSRI antidepressants – those highly controversial, mood-altering psychiatric drugs with the FDA’s “suicidality” warning label and alarming correlation with school shooters. Women are especially prone to depression, with a stunning 23 percent of all American women in their 40s and 50s – almost one in four – now taking antidepressants, according to a major study by the CDC;

• Add to that the tens of millions of users of all other types of psychiatric drugs, including (just to pick one) the 6.4 million American children between 4 and 17 diagnosed with ADHD and prescribed Ritalin or similar psycho-stimulants. Throw in the 28 percent of American adults with a drinking problem, that’s more than 60 million, plus the 22 million using illegal drugs like marijuana, cocaine, heroin, hallucinogens and inhalants, and pretty soon a picture emerges of a nation of drug-takers, with hundreds of millions dependent on one toxic substance or another – legal or illegal – to “help” them deal with the stresses and problems of life.

By the way, things are no better over the pond – and may be worse, according to one major study that concluded almost 40 percent of Europeans are plagued by mental illness.

“Life is difficult,” wrote psychiatrist M. Scott Peck at the outset of his international best-seller, “The Road Less Traveled.” Stress, difficulties, disappointments, accidents, disease, misfortune, cruelty, betrayal – they’re unavoidable in this life.

Note: This report is is excerpted from the April 2013 issue of WND’s Whistleblower magazine, “STRESSED AND DEPRESSED”

Why aren’t advances in medical science and technological innovations reducing our stress and fears? Why isn’t all of the world’s knowledge, money and stuff not making us more happy? Why are more and more of us are so stressed out with life?

What is going on?

FEAR!

We are afraid! We are looking for that escape from the turbulence of life.

How do you manage fear in your life?

Here are some ways that I have learned to manage fear from my own life’s journey:

• Don’t panic. Fears are stories we tell ourselves. Not sure you’ve noticed this, but much of what we fear doesn’t actually happen.

• Confront it head on. I read in a study of Matthew 6:34 that fear robs us of our today, our tomorrow and gives victory to our past. Please exercise some common sense here!

• Don’t do life alone. Connect with others who lift you up, not take you down. Ask God to bring these people into your life.

• Have perspective. Not sure where I read this, but “Everything we fear forms the boundaries of our freedom.”

• Make a declaration. Be careful with this one, as a friend once told me, life is a simple as the declarations we make. Here is one of mine, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7)

• Don’t lose hope. My circumstances are not hopeless, and neither are yours. By the endless magnitude of His Grace and through the power of His spirit, hope does eclipse hopelessness.

• Be in relationship with God. Life is hard! When you enter into relationship with God it doesn’t make it easier, it just means that you’re doing the hard stuff with God.

The last point is the key point. I am learning that the best way to confront fear is through absolute dependence and trust in God that whatever comes your way His hand is there to guide you through and give you the resources to walk it out.

I wrote in Heartstone that, “I’m learning that it’s so much easier to run into the headwinds of life when I ask God to run the race with me than going it alone.”

God doesn’t call us to an easy life, but He does not want us to live in fear. There will always be challenges and trials around every corner, that is a promise, but we can take heart knowing that He has overcome the world (John 16:33). When we lay down our fears, we begin to recognize the Lord’s loving hold on us as we approach life’s difficulties.

We can find joy in knowing He has chosen us for such a time as this (Esther 4:14). Don’t let fear cripple you, it’s a liar. Live life with intention. Live courageously from your heart!