Rats and Anxiety.

I feel good when I tackle something and get it done. There is a sense of accomplishment when I learn something new and apply it. It gives me a feeling of control; like I am conquering and stretching my horizons.

Rats feel the same way. A study that was done a while ago, had anxiety induced rats housed separately. To make them anxious, they were given a small electric shock at different times, randomly. The poor rats were anxious most of the time because they never knew when and where this pain was coming from.

A few days later, a lever was added to one of the cages, and, in time, accidentally at first, whenever the rat pushed the lever, the shock would stop immediately. As the rodents began to internalize this knowledge, as soon as the first indication of a shock would start, they push the lever and the shock would stop on the spot. Their anxiety diminished tremendously, and happy rats were playing again.

Lastly, they placed the rats in another cage with a lever they could push at will, but it did nothing to stop the electric shock. The shock would stop on its own regardless of the action of pushing the lever or not. The result: the rats were happy and anxiety free.

This is just to say that when we (and rats) feel that we have a certain amount of control over a situation, even thought it is not doing anything to fix it, we feel less stressed. That small amount of control and power helps us reduce some of the cortisol production. Helplessness and hopelessness are one of the big stress producers. We as Christians have a double lever to our disposal, our intellect to apply truth to the stressful situation at hand, and a God that is bigger than any hopelessness we may have.