#12681 Does Anxiety Mean Im a Bad Christian? Trust and Healing - Gregory Popcak

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Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 20 April 2026

⏱️ 55 minutes

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Summary

“Does anxiety mean I’m a bad Christian?” This question opens a discussion on the true causes of anxiety, challenging common misconceptions. Other topics include the struggle of trusting God amidst worry, the appropriateness of seeking help for anxiety, and effective therapeutic approaches for childhood wounds.

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Questions Covered:

01:55 – Most people think that anxiety comes from worrying about problems, but you say that isn’t the case. What IS the real cause of anxiety?
06:14 – Does having anxiety mean that I don’t trust God enough (or am a bad Christian)?
08:30 – I keep giving a particular situation to God, but I still keep thinking/worrying about it. What am I doing wrong?
10:35 – Am I somehow letting God down by seeking help for anxiety? What kind of help works best (counseling? medication?)
15:25 – When it comes to childhood wounds and overcoming them. What do you recommend in terms of therapy that would be effective?
19:17 – I have a lot of anxiety due to issues with my marriage and need guidance on how to overcome it.
21:32 – My husband has cancer and has caused so much anxiety. I went on a Catholic mindfulness retreat and helped so much. And communicating and praying with loved ones has helped.
29:25 – My 10-year-old has anxiety. How can I help him?
34:50 – My adult children are starting to take on leadership in our family business and are basically cutting me out. How do I overcome this anxiety and tension that’s building?
41:05 – I’m dealing with brain damage and anxiety. How do I deal with anxiety about going to confession?
45:41 – What’s the difference between secular counseling and Catholic counseling?
50:06 – How do people learn to deal with anxiety if there is no counselor?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Buying or selling your home, real estate for life can connect you with a pro-life real estate agent.
0:05.2	When Real Estate for Life receives a referral fee, they donate 65% to Catholic Answers.
0:11.5	Learn more at realestateforlife.org. Hello and welcome to Catholic Answers Live.
0:33.2	I'm Sykelet, your host.
0:34.1	Very happy to be back here on a Monday afternoon. And thank you very much for being
0:40.0	here with us. I got to say, if you had to say, what's the word that defines our times? It could
0:45.8	very well be anxiety. If you had to get it down to one word, it could be anxiety. Both the church and
0:52.0	science, very concerned, deeply concerned with the amount of anxiety and just the fact of anxiety. So that's what we're going to talk about this hour. If you want to talk about anxiety, your own or someone else's, 8883187-884, triple-8-384. Our guest, of course, if we're going to talk about a psychological
1:15.1	issue from the perspective of both faith and science, it would be Dr. Greg Popchak. He's a Catholic
1:19.6	counselor, author, speaker. He's the founder and executive director of the Pastoral Solutions
1:23.9	Institute. You can hear them each weekday on More to Life on the EWTN Global Catholic
1:29.4	Radio Network. And among his many books, Unwurried, a Life Without Anxiety, 8883-1-8-78. Dr. Greg
1:39.8	Popchek, is that really possible, a life without anxiety? Sounds crazy, right? Well, so one of the
1:46.3	things I talk about in the book is the difference between being concerned about something and being
1:51.5	anxious about it. Because there is a difference, right? So, I mean, it's perfectly normal to have
1:56.8	concerns about concerning things, right? You know, you have a problem. You should be concerned about that. But a concern enables us to see the problem, gather resources, make a plan, and address it. Whereas anxiety has us look at the problem and say, wow, that's a big problem. That problem's going to run me over. I don't know how am I going to deal with that problem. What am I going to do about the problem? And then I start to spin out. Right. And so you can't have a life without anxiety. You can't have a life without concerns, but you can have a life without anxiety because it's really all about how you approach those concerns, whether you allow the concerns to kind of roll you over and separate you from God's grace and from the supportive people in your life and the resources that God's given you to deal with things, or you are able to respond to those concerns in a thoughtful
2:37.3	intentional. and from the supportive people in your life and the resources that God's given you to deal with things, or you are able to respond to those concerns in a thoughtful, intentional, prayerful way.
2:39.4	Again, Dr. Greg Popchak, our guest, we're talking anxiety today.
2:43.1	8883187-884.
2:46.2	Most people think that anxiety and worry are either the same thing or that anxiety comes from worrying
2:52.2	about problems, but you say that's not the case. What's the real cause of our anxiety?
2:59.2	Yeah, so this is actually kind of surprising. And, you know, because we do tend to think that,
	...

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