Deen Talk! Islam and Mental Health - Part One: Anxiety

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ

Assalaamu alaikum everyone, and I hope this finds you well.

This is part one of a series I would like to do on Mental Health within Islam. Within the Ummah, mental health tends to be a taboo subject, possibly even more taboo than in the West itself. And while I would love to do a separate video on that subject, this video in particular has been in the works for a while and was requested of me by a sister today, so I felt it important to do this video first, before the others.

Anxiety is a very real, very tangible, and very scary thing. Those of us with anxiety disorders live in a constant state of flight or fight response. This causes many issues, from anxiety/panic attacks, to picking at skin, to being unable to leave the house, to feeling we aren't good enough for anyone, even Allah subhana w ta'ala. I've been diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder for about a decade now, and diagnosed with PTSD for half a decade. These things, before, made some parts of my life difficult - it was hard to trust people, it was hard to believe compliments and kind words, school was extremely stressful, and nightmares were a near daily occurrence. When I reverted to Islam, this changed; where on the one hand, a newfound sense of peace and happiness came over me, on the other hand my anxiety worsened. I started getting sick when going to Islamic gatherings and to school, sicknesses which we discovered to be panic attacks. It got to the point that I was afraid to go to the masjid because I was afraid I would get sick again. I couldn't go out with friends. I couldn't go to the mall with my husband. Anywhere far from my house induced an anxiety triggered nausea, shakiness, and dizziness.

When we realized that these were panic attacks, I immediately started to wear niqab. I have seen instances all over, on Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram... of girls and women who have benefited from wearing niqab. One sister, @niqabi_life on IG, started wearing full niqab to help with her social anxiety disorder. As a non-Muslim in a public high school, she donned hijab, niqab, and abaya in order to feel safe in her own skin. She is now Muslim, and still wears niqab. Another woman, who is no longer on Instagram, started to wear niqab to help manage her dermatillomania, or skin picking disorder, which is connected to anxiety. Having niqab on prevented her from picking at her face, which was the main place she targeted. For me, prior to Islam I covered my hair for religious reasons, but the more anxious I was that day, the more hair and skin I covered. Now, wearing niqab, my panic attacks stopped. I only wore it on school days. After I met with my sister from Jordan for lunch one day without niqab and had a massive panic attack afterward, I started to wear niqab more often. As of the first of the year, I made niyyah (intention) to wear niqab full time - now not out of necessity, to manage my panic attacks, but for Allah subhana w ta'ala, who gave me the niqab as a relief for my anxiety when I needed it most. Now also I wear gloves nearly full-time outside of the home and sometimes inside, in order to keep myself from picking at my skin and hurting myself.

An Islamic mindfulness skill I came up with combines measured breathing, which is a skill taught in different forms of therapy for anxiety and emotion disorders, and dhikr, or the repetition of praises of God. In order to perform measured breathing, you breathe using your diaphragm, which is below your sternum and above your stomach. You can feel your diaphragm pushing down when you breathe and work to keep your chest from moving. Your chest moving while you breathe indicates use of the lungs, while your stomach moving in and out while you breathe indicates use of the diaphragm. We want the latter.

One method of performing dhikr is to use the joints of the fingers for counting.

For me, this is the method I always use for counting tesbeh. Other people use beads. But especially when combing the method with measured breathing techniques, I think this way works best. One side of the finger is a breath in, while the other side is a breath out. In most situations I use the above dhikr of Allahu akbar x33, alhamdulillah x33, subhan'Allah x33, and then "la illaha ila Allah" once. If I am repeating "Subhan'Allah w bihawmdihi" as dhikr, I breathe every two recitations, not four. 

For me, using this method is better than anything I've ever tried when it comes to managing anxiety in the moment and throughout the day. Measured breathing by itself seems silly to me and has a tendency to just make me mad. When I was younger, I tried so many times to meditate and would fail because with anxiety disorders, your brain won't turn the worry off. But this, combining breathing techniques with dhikr, allows me to focus solely on Allah subhana w ta'ala, alhamdulillah! This slows my heart rate, opens my throat, and melts tension from my shoulders and head.

Here is a website list of different phrases to use for dhikr and their benefit/reward.

Insha'Allah this has helped! Please know that those with mental health and other health issues are constantly in my 'adiyah. May Ash-Shafi grant us all shifa. Ameen.

Jazakum Allahu khairan for reading!

Sajida.