How Can You Overcome Your Fear or Inhibition?

In our journey in overcoming fear and inhibition
we must face our fears…
and battle them with trust.

In my childhood, I was a slave to fear.

As I entered my teen years, I was a slave to fear.

Even as I became a young adult, I was still. enslaved. by fear.

This was not a once-in-a-while, facing-a-new-situation sweats, mind you. This was horrible weight-in-the-pit-of-your-stomach, the blackness-of-dread-clinging-and-smoldering-life, struggling-to-maintain-the-simplicity-of-breath kind of terror. 

The main characteristic is that it was constant. 

And it was intense. 

I faced it everyday, as I tried to overcome the crudest of tasks – going to school, going to a party, being called upon in class, being alone in a car with someone I didn’t know well and having to invent conversation, being unable to get my tasks done at the right time to the right satisfaction.

Fear of getting into a panicky situation and feeling more fear.

Having to make a decision.

Sigh.

Basically, everything.

Relative of fear, Dictionary.com defines Inhibition as “a feeling that makes one self-conscious and unable to act in a relaxed and natural way,” “a voluntary or involuntary restraint on the direct expression of an instinct,” “the action of inhibition, restricting, or hindering a process.”

When you deal with that kind of devastating fear I described on a regular basis, something new develops…

the fear of fear itself.

The fear of experiencing that same, familiar, dreaded feeling day in and day out.

As your situation escalates to that degree, worrisome over moments of undergoing that unpleasant emotion, naturally you’ll do whatever you can do to not trap yourself in the first place.

Enter inhibition.

That fear chained me in blackened fetters of anxiety along with the wardens of Identity Crisis and Low Self-esteem. My fear of man, at an astronomical level, brought me to the point where I could hardly utter a next word without wondering if I was doing it just right, how I looked, and what others thought of me.

Distinct memories lodged inside of being asked to give my opinion –

Would you like another cookie?

What would you like to play next?

Always the repeated response, Whatever. you. want.

The over-self-awareness that hinders – especially for a child, building this kind of foundation is downright destructive. I was restricted, banned from existing a complex being with natural reactions and inclinations, thoughts and desires.

Fear was erasing pieces of me

Basically, I rebranded myself a chameleon.

I remember reaching adulthood many years later and realizing just how much I tried to hide who I was from other people. My personhood I would “dumb down” in an effort to be simply “normal,” appear as all the “normal,” happy, accepted people around me and blend in.

There was no uniqueness, just the desperate reach to be accepted by others.

It wasn’t even something I consciously tried to do at that point – it was automatic for me, as everyday as inhaling my next breath.

As I journeyed the path of healing, I eventually began to catch myself doing it…I would quickly assess the person in front of me, how they acted and what they might want in another person, and then I would try to be that other person. I think I first caught the reality of my many roles when I noticed how different I was around various people.

I didn’t even know who I truly was at that point.

Inhibition at it’s ugliest.

Chronic fear leads to learned inhibition

Yet what is learned can be unlearned. 👏🏻

Welcome to your brain and the truth that we live comfortably as creatures of habit.

A visitor, a pernicious thought to bring ruin, barges through the doorway of our mind and we make up a pretty little home in our heads where they can reside. Time and again, we let those fears rest and stay, live and play upon the couches of cognition –

we fail to take every thought captive (2 Corinthians 10:5) –

and the fear and inhibition becomes ingrained as habit, as determined to stay as the permanent marker on the back of the couch, courtesy of little hands. But…

We can take those horrid habits we’ve formed for ourselves and bulldoze the house, view the rubble and clay, and put up a new, better, healthy structure in it’s place.

Here’s 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 in it’s entirety:

For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.

We don’t wage war upon our fear with sheer willpower. Rather…

We possess weapons that have divine power to destroy strongholds.

What are those weapons?

Truly, those wretched strongholds are demolished by none other than the sword of the spirit:

the Word of God.

We take those scriptures illuminating Who we’re trusting in and we cling to His character, His goodness, His great love that is for us.

By them we demolish strongholds.

If you are trapped in the snare of fear, might I ask you to consider who it is you’re trusting? 

When you get the diagnosis you didn’t want…

your children are walking down the road you didn’t choose…

or the weekly paychecks appear insufficient to cover the monthly bills…

are you putting your faith in a God who:

“works everything together for your good” (Romans 8:28)
and
“withholds no good thing from those who walk uprightly” (Psalm 84:11)? 

Fear is the absence of trust  

If you are a believer, you are not only saved by Him, but are adopted into his family, an heir to receive the blessings now and in eternity. Jesus died to break the chains of sin and death upon you, the chains of fear that so ensnare you. You were never meant to live the christian life plagued by fear and, if you are, be of good cheer –

God does not desire that you stay there. 

In the light of scripture, the prison of fear and the cell of inhibition have no resting spot. 

For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power, love and a sound mind.
-2 Tim 1:7

• If the relationship that seemed so crucial to your livelihood suddenly appears to be failing, can you let go and trust Him in it?

• If you face chronic pain every day and don’t know how you’ll make it through yet another day, can you trust that He knows and He will get you through it?

• If you don’t want to move even one more inch forward, can you let Him wrap His loving, secure arms around you as you brave ahead?

• If you’re like me and even your daily existence is gripped by fear, leading your true self to cower inside of you, can you believe He can change you as you take hold of new truths?

The thing is, if we are called to fight fear and walk hand-in-hand with Him, we won’t necessarily feel brave. 

It is our trust in Him that will carry us forward, not our emotions

We fear what we don’t know.

But we aren’t the ones who should know.

We aren’t the ones who crafted our existence from nothing, who carefully planned each day, from inception to our final breath.

We aren’t the Potter, we’re the clay.

The best news is that we have the Best Potter, who lovingly cares for His clay with amazing ability. Who promises

💕 to guide us (Isaiah 30:21)
💕 to complete the good work He began in us (Philippians 1:6)
💕 to never leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5).

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and he will make straight your paths. 
-Proverbs 3:5-6

His ways may not be our ways. But…

If we can trust that He knows best what we need and how we should be provided for, we can stop being afraid of the unknown. 

In a nutshell, the way to overcome fear or inhibition is to trust the hands that made you…take your fearful thoughts captive…lay new habits by conquering those frightened thoughts with truth of how great and capable a God we serve. Break the chains so your fear doesn’t lead to further inhibition. As you trust Him and form healthy habits, ready yourself with patience and let Him rewrite your story.

You’re building on a sure and right foundation now.

A long time ago and for far too long, I lived and breathed the dank air of that darkened prison of fear and inhibition.

Now I’m learning to see the light, and I’m finally living free.