Is Anxiety a Spiritual Attack?
Jul 31, 2026Summary
Have you ever felt your heart racing, your thoughts spiraling, and asked yourself: is anxiety a spiritual attack? When a heavy cloud of fear traps you or your child, it is a difficult and overwhelming situation. You desperately want to know if you are dealing with a physical, biological glitch or an active attack from the adversary.
Take heart; you are in the exact right place! In this episode of the Arise Women of God podcast, host Tamara K. Anderson is joined by Licensed Clinical Social Worker Wendi Christensen to unpack the intersection of physical biology and spiritual warfare. Wendi explains how the adversary uses anxiety as a "hook, cord, and anchor" system—taking a biological stress response and exacerbating it into a false identity of shame and unworthiness.
Tamara shares a vulnerable story from the mother's frontline, revealing exactly how she physically and spiritually de-escalated a child's panic attack. Discover why you must move out of your "fight, flight, or freeze" brain to feel God's presence, how to use the emergency double-breath technique, and how to actively command the spirit of fear to leave in the name of Jesus Christ! Tune in to learn how to re-ground your nervous system and reclaim the peace of your home today.
Episode Takeaways
- The Hook, Cord, and Anchor System: Is anxiety a spiritual attack? Often, it starts as a biological response. But Satan uses it as a hook. If you believe the anxious thought, he wraps you in cords of shame ("You're a bad mom"). Eventually, you become anchored in a false identity, believing anxiety is who you are.
- The Diagnostic Test (1 Corinthians 14:33): God is not the author of confusion, but of peace. If what you are experiencing feels like sudden confusion, absolute panic, or a dark loop of shame, God is not the author of that storm!
- Regulate the Physical Body: When anxiety hits, your brain goes into fight, flight, or freeze. You cannot logically process emotions or feel God's presence in this state. You must use physical tools (like the emergency double-breath) to move into your prefrontal cortex. "Breathe in more Jesus, and exhale Satan out."
- The Spiritual Eviction: Once you physically re-ground, combine it with spiritual authority! You have the power to say, "In the name of Jesus Christ, I command the spirit of anxiety to leave, and I call in angels to shield me."
Free Resource: A Woman's Guide to Spiritual Warfare
Get our free A Mother's Spiritual Defense Guide: 6 Empowering Steps to Fortify Home & Family downloadable pdf here: https://www.womenwarriorsoflight.com/A-Mothers-Spiritual-Defense-Guide
Reflection Questions
- Think about a recent time you felt anxious. Did the adversary try to "anchor" that anxiety into your identity (e.g., making you think, "I am a failure," instead of, "I am feeling stressed")?
- When a panic attack hits you or your child, do you try to immediately fix it with logic, or do you start by regulating the physical body (breathing)?
- How can you explicitly use the name of Jesus Christ to cast out fear in your home this week?
Host & Guest
Tamara K. Anderson @tamarakanderson
Wendi Christensen @wendichristensencounseling
Transcript
00:00:00.400 - 00:02:13.230
Hey, my friend, have you ever wondered, is anxiety a spiritual attack because you or someone you love is trapped, having a racing heart, spiraling thoughts with a heavy cloud of fear, and perhaps you or they are exhausted from feeling like their mind is out of control.
Oh, this is a difficult and overwhelming situation because it may want to know if you're dealing with with a physical biological issue or an active attack from the adversary. Well, my friend, take heart. You are in the right place.
And by the end of today's episode, you'll know how to tell when the enemy is amplifying a panic loop, how to reground your nervous system, and how to invite peace back into your home. Stay tuned. Ordinary women, extraordinary faith. When God calls, we say yes. Hello and welcome to the Arise Women of God podcast.
I'm your host, Tamara Kay Henderson, and I am so thrilled to be joined by the wonderful Wendy Christensen today.
She happens to be a licensed clinical social worker who has had over 30 years of experience, and so she is more than qualified to help us unpack the intersection of physical biology and spiritual warfare as we look at anxiety. All right, here's what you can expect from today's episode. First, Wendy's going to talk about the physical versus the spiritual diagnostic.
Second, we're going to talk about the mother's front line. And I'm going to share my personal story of helping reground during a panic attack with one of my children.
Third, we're going to talk about the armor of peace and share practical steps to calm the nervous system and anchor your home in Jesus Christ. But first, let's begin by tackling the core question directly.
As a clinical therapist, Wendy sees clients every day who wonder if their anxiety is a spiritual attack. Is anxiety a spiritual attack?
Wendi Christensen
00:02:13.950 - 00:05:02.980
Yes and no. How's that?
So you have to remember the whole reason that we experience anxiety is because it's your body warning you of something that might be bad or that's tried to protect you. Something coming up. They kind of. It overlaps a lot with fear.
Fear and anxiety often go hand in hand, but anxiety is typically worrying about something in the future that's going to happen or currently. And there's different types of anxiety. We have generalized anxiety disorder, we have social anxiety that can come up.
You might not be getting something done or it's not going to be good enough or a lack of control over it. I don't have control over a situation. So anxiety might creep up and it's really your body's way of trying to protect itself. So it serves a Purpose.
But the problem is when anxiety starts shutting you down and it starts becoming something that prevents you from doing things, keeps you stuck and you can't move forward. Then I think at that point in time, it's a really easy open door for Satan to come in and attack you.
So it's almost like I see Satan using it as a hook, cordon, anchor system. Satan will throw a hook at you to bait you. So with anxiety, it's maybe it's not going to work out the way you think it is.
Maybe you're not doing it right. It's going to turn out horrible, it's going to turn out awful. So it's like this thought that he throws at you.
Then as you start believing that thought and feeding it where he's baited you, then it's like a cord that starts wrapping around you. And the cord then becomes, yeah, you're not going to be able to do it. You're not going to control the situation. It is going to become worse.
You're going to start failing at this and you're not going to be success. You're going to be a horrible mom. You're not going to. You're not a good wife. See what you're doing? Look at that.
So it just kind of starts wrapping you in these cords and this is Satan. And then when it anchors you, you've actually believed the thought, I'm a horrible mom. Look how awful I am. I cannot do and accomplish anything.
It always turns out wrong. I'm never a success. I can never do that. So then you become anchored in the complete negative thought. It becomes part of your identity.
And I think that that's how Satan uses anxiety to actually become a place where we identify as an anxious person. Not that I'm having anxious thoughts. I'm now an anxious person. And your whole identity revolves around now.
And anxiety is the thing that becomes in control of your life rather than you.
I think that's when it starts crossing the line between just regular, like just regular anxious, anxiousness and anxiety and starts moving into Satan, starting to really take a handle of it.
Tamara K. Anderson
00:05:03.540 - 00:07:12.810
That concept of Satan exacerbating what is already physically there is a massive revelation. I have struggled with anxiety for much of my life, and I also have a child who has battled it from a very young age.
I know firsthand how debilitating a panic and anxiety attack can be. The racing heart, the tight chest, and the spiraling thoughts that seem to completely overtake your mind. When anxiety strikes, it feels like chaos.
But The Scripture gives us a critical diagnostic test in First Corinthians 4, 1433. For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace.
If what you are experiencing feels like sudden confusion, panic, or a dark loop of shame, God is not the author of that storm. And when fear hits, we can declare with David in Psalm 56:3, what time am I afraid I will trust in thee.
Well, my friend, over the years I've learned how to reground myself and bring peace back into the room. When anxiety overtakes us and logical thinking completely shuts down. I found that deep breathing coupled with prayer helps reset my physical body.
Why? Just the other night, one of my children was completely overwhelmed and stressed and about a big assignment.
In that moment of intense anxiety, I noticed that they were off and I said, breathe with me really quick. And we took some deep breaths and then I had them repeat after me the cast out the adversary prayer.
We cast out the spirit of anxiety in the name of Jesus, brought in God's peace, and suddenly my child was able to finish their work from a more grounded and calm space. So my friend, this works. You have the capacity to bring peace back into your home through the name of Jesus.
Wendi Christensen
00:07:13.370 - 00:09:30.580
You're not a bad person having anxiety. It can happen to the best of us. And there are so many wonderful tools out there to help treat anxiety. So I highly encourage people.
You know, if you need medication, seek medication. If you need some help with therapy and counseling and working through mindset, do it.
That can be super helpful and it helps you to gain strength and the upper advantage of you feeling like you're in control of the anxiety again rather than the anxiety controlling you. Sometimes you might feel abandoned by God. Where is he in this with me? He's not answering my prayers.
How come he's not taking care of this and making it go away and fixing it again? I think that comes from the adversary because the Lord is always going to be there and trying to help you.
But it's hard to feel it when you're in your fight, flight or freeze mind. Anxiety triggers fight, flight or freeze.
So you want to start doing anything and everything that you can in anxiety to move to your prefrontal cortex, which is the place in your brain that processes emotions, that calms you down, that helps you to realize you're going to be okay. So what that looks like is breathing. Just take a good deep breath in just as deeply as you can and then exhale it out.
And some people, if you're really anxious, it's good to take an emergency breath, which is just two quick inhales and then exhaling out. So because when you're anxious, your breathing's usually the first thing to go. And Christ said, I am the breath of life.
Let me breathe in more, Jesus. And exhale Satan out. Because the attack can hit out of nowhere. Sometimes you might think I'm not good enough. So cast that out.
Just call it for what it is. I actually like to tell people to cast out the spirit of anxiety or the panic attack. What does that look like?
In the name of Jesus Christ, I command the spirit of anxiety to leave. I command this panic attack to be gone. I cast out the spirit of fear, shame, doubt.
And I call in my angels and my warriors of light to help shield me and protect me and help me to bring in strength, boldness, remembering who I am, remembering that I'm a daughter of God.
Tamara K. Anderson
00:09:31.060 - 00:11:31.590
I love that so much.
When you combine physical self regulation with the spiritual name of Jesus Christ, you stop fighting in your own strength and start unleashing the power of heaven.
If you or your children are struggling with anxious loops, panic or overwhelm, Wendy and I want to put a powerful practical tool directly into your hands down. In the show notes below, you can download our brand new free digital guide, A Mother's Spiritual Defense Guide.
Six Empowering Steps to Fortify Home and Family. When you get your copy, flip straight to the bonus resource section for two life changing tools. The first one is the Is it mine?
And it's a three step mental health hack. A simple flowchart to help you instantly discern whether an anxious thought is a biological glitch or a spiritual attack.
Second is the five Senses Grounding Checklist and SOS box. And this is an exact step by step instructions to help you physically de escalate a panic attack.
Coupled with our word for word cast out the Adversary prayer script to evict fear and fill your room and home and soul with peace. Grab your copy today and reclaim the peace of your household.
Oh my friend, you are a woman warrior of light and you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. May you abide in him and until next time, may you arise. Do it God's way. God strong.
If today's episode helped you feel a little closer to God, please like and subscribe. It helps us grow and ensures heaven's whispers stay at the top of your feed whenever you need them most.
