Managing OCD With God ft. Amelie - E23 Anxious Faith

To kick off the year we’re chatting with Amelie, a university student in Sydney, Australia. Amelie’s mental health journey started during high school, with what she thought was anxiety. She experienced what she refers to as “existential dread”, and her mind was always busy with questions about her identity, who God is, and what it all means.
At first, Amelie and her family chalked her anxiety up to the usual stresses of teenagehood and highschool exams, but when it only intensified after high school, she sought professional help. It was then that Amelie was diagnosed with OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder).
Although she didn’t come from a Christian family, Amelie found God through being invited to attend a local youth group with her friends, and she leaned heavily on her faith as a source of comfort and truth as she came to terms with her new diagnosis.
Amelie now says that she’s living an answered prayer - even though her OCD hasn’t gone away. Her story is a great reminder for us all that God answering our prayers doesn’t always mean we’ll receive full healing or stop facing struggles; sometimes, His healing is about helping us learn to trust in Him more deeply, and to seek Him through our challenges.
Through her faith in God, regular visits to her psychologist and by going on medication, Amelie has been able to learn more about the way her mind works and how she can better manage her OCD. She’s able to say that God is good and just and holy, even amidst her struggles.
Amelie has also shared part of her story in a blog post for us, called With Trauma Came OCD, but Then Came Jesus. www.anxiousfai...
If anything Amelie shares brings up something difficult for you, we’d really encourage you to reach out to someone - whether that’s a friend, family member, pastor, counsellor, or your doctor. If you’re in Australia or New Zealand, you can click the link below to see a list of organisations that can help.
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[@amyk87]

Great content, so grateful for Amelie’s willingness to share. She’s so poised and wise for someone so young! A note on the audio, though. The quality was awful. Amelie was distorted a good bit of the time and James could hardly be heard. When I turned the volume up to hear him it blasted me when it would switch back to Amelie.

[@anxiousfaith]

Hey Amy, thanks so much for the feedback! We're so glad you found this episode helpful, and we agree - Amelie has a lot of wisdom to share! We're sorry about the distortion of some of the audio, and thanks for letting us know. You might notice that every episode is slightly different when recorded with our remote guests, as unfortunately we don't have control over the sound quality of each person's recording device. However, if you're after better sound quality you might like to listen to the episodes that have been recorded with guests in-studio (you'll notice these are the videos where the guest also has a navy blue background and a recording mic in front of them). Hope that helps! Thanks again.

[@MrCaprisun2099]

Wow she suffered with hocd I also suffer with this horrible theme I know my sexuality because God gave it too me I'm straight and proud of it ocd just sucks

[@NewBornNickumz]

It’s scary and upsetting when I see videos that Christian’s label or title, “Jesus saved or healed my mental illness” or ocd, or depression and or anxiety.. I’m thinking well why do I have it still!? And it makes me spiral worse!

[@anxiousfaith]

Hey Nicky, we absolutely understand that feeling - it's so hard not to compare our own journey with mental illness to others', especially the people who've received healing when we haven't! Ultimately we'll all be healed, whether it's here on earth or in heaven. God can and does heal people, but that won't be everyone's story. We find it encouraging thinking of Paul and his "thorn in the flesh" (2 Corinthians 12:7-10), which he asked God to take away from him three times. God chose not to, saying "My grace is enough for you", and Paul learned to be content with this. We hope that's an encouragement for you, too!