Adam and Eve: PTGD - Post Traumatic Garden Disorder
The DSM (The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) defines a general Level C anxiety disorder as:
The anxiety and worry are associated with three or more of the following six symptoms (with at least some symptoms present for more days than not for the past 6 months).
Restlessness or feeling keyed up or on edge
Being easily fatigued
Difficulty concentrating or mind going blank
Irritability
Muscle tension
Sleep disturbance (difficulty falling or staying asleep, or restless unsatisfying sleep)
Things start to get serious when they escalate to Level E on the anxiety table: The anxiety, worry, or physical symptoms cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning. For Levels E, F, and G, treatment is recommended because the anxiety impairs daily functioning. More and more people need treatment, but sadly, only an estimated 20% of people who would assess at Levels E-G currently seek help (1).
Reading through these lists, the majority of people I cross paths with these days fall under the general anxiety disorder criteria and many are tipping over into more serious anxiety disorders or even depression. The last year has done a number on mental health, and like Johnny Lee said, everyone’s “Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places.” If you search people’s eyes - really look at your loved ones, friends, strangers, maybe even yourself - do you see joy, peace and contentment or irritability, tension, and fatigue? Where are people looking for love and comfort from anxiety and worry? It’s easy to offer the platitude to “cast your cares on the Lord because he cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7) Peter’s words are true, but what does that practically look like?
If I’m looking to the Bible for the people who I presume have cause to be the most stressed out and anxious, my vote goes to Adam and Eve. Think about the first couple living in ideal fellowship with their Lord and Creator then BOOM. Talk about separation anxiety!
Next, Eve begins to experience this bizarre feeling in her belly. Not necessarily pain, but something is moving. Ladies, you can let your mind wander down the first birth experience on your own without me describing it here, but can you fathom having no one around to prepare you for that scenario! And then she actually did it a second time!!! If I were to place her on the anxiety scale, Eve definitely approaches PTSD in my book, and at some point, Eve had to shake her fist and scream, “All I did was eat a stupid piece of fruit!”
All silliness aside, when considering anxiety and depression from the beginning biblical narrative, my personal experience and how my upbringing frames sin and the nature of God contributes to my own anxiety. All my life I have been taught two conflicting versions of God. The Romans 8:38 version - Nothing can separate us from the love of God, and the Genesis 3 version of God - we sinned so we are separated from God. I hear this narrative all the time. Our sin separates us from God. But Paul says that nothing separates us from God. Does anyone else feel my stress here?
So I look back at Adam and Eve and the original story. If sin separated them from a holy and perfect God, would He have called to them in the garden? Hum...my answer to that is No. If the physical act of my sin separates me from God, then God could not have approached Adam and Eve. He could not have continued the conversation. He could not have cared for them and explained to them what was about to happen and provide for them in the land to come. What now separated - the great chasm - the KNOWLEDGE of the sin. Adam and Even now possessed the knowledge of good and evil that they did not nor would they ever have the capacity to fully comprehend. The knowledge of their own sin in their own mind drove the wedge between them and their holy creator. This knowledge drove them to shame in their nakedness and regret over their decisions. God never moved. God’s character never changed. God’s attitude toward his creation never altered. What shifted - our knowledge of good and evil - a knowledge we were never meant to possess because it takes our eyes from the only daily walk that matters.
Because I am a visual learner, I need illustrations to help me wrap my mind around concepts. Here is what I have come up with.
Our Holy Creator does not change. He always has and always will function in harmony.
He lovingly placed Adam and Eve within creation to work it and watch over it, but God understood man could not handle the knowledge of good and evil. Man was commanded to be obedient and not eat that fruit.
We all know the story...man ate. And the knowledge of good and evil has separated us from God’s perfect thoughts ever since, and we are continually crushed under the weight.
Now we are forever below the garden, crushed by the weight of the tree, looking longingly for answers, trying to sort good from evil from what we perceive as knowledge. The chasm is wide and the anxiety crushing. But our gracious Father did not leave us without hope.
I’ll pick up there in Lesson Two: Cain and Abel: Personal Choice
1. Glasofer PhD., Deborah R. Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Symptoms and Diagnosis.
Medically reviewed by Steven Gans, MD. Updated on January 05, 2021.
Comentários