Common Struggles

Abortion is the deliberate termination of a pregnancy by a woman or a couple who do not desire to carry the child to a full-term birth.

Anger is a strong emotion of displeasure, agitation, and belligerence that is aroused when a person perceives a wrong suffered. Anger is a God-given emotion that signals when something is wrong.

Body image is defined as a person’s perception of their physical appearance or sexual attractiveness of their own body. Body image is greatly valued in our world today.

Codependency describes unhealthy relationships in which individuals use one another to get their own emotional needs met in a manner that harms each other and the relationship.

Control is attempting to exercise influence over circumstances, environments, events, or people to reach a preferred outcome.

Depression is defined as a persistent sad mood or loss of pleasure in normal activities. Depression is also described as an emotional heaviness that weighs the heart down.

Eating disorders are a group of conditions marked by an unhealthy relationship with food. These conditions grow beyond attempts to “eat healthy” or “lose weight” into an obsessive, controlling, preoccupation.

Fear is a strong, unpleasant emotion caused by an identified looming danger or threat, whether real or perceived. Anxiety, is lingering apprehension caused by unclear future events that seem challenging, or daunting.

Gambling is a willingness to risk something of value in the hope of getting something of greater value.

Guilt is a feeling of conviction that arises from your own sinful actions; “What have I done?” Shame is a painful feeling about who you are as a person because of your actions or the actions of others.

Overspending is when someone consistently spends money to excess. When a person routinely spends a large percentage of income on discretionary purchases, it can lead to hardship, debt, addictive spending, and sin.

People-pleasing is desiring to please others more than God.

Pornography is any material used in order to elicit sexual arousal. Pornography can include images, videos, magazines, literature, television, movies, social media, and any other source that stimulates erotic behavior.

Pride is a high opinion of one’s own dignity, importance, merit, or superiority. Pride is also a dignified sense of what is due to oneself, or one’s position, or character.

Same-Sex Attraction (SSA), or Homosexuality, is romantic attraction, sexual attraction or sexual activity between members of the same sex. God deeply loves people with same-sex attraction.

Self-injury is the practice of deliberately harming the body without suicidal intent. People self-injure in many ways to varying degrees of severity.

Sexual abuse is any sexual activity (verbal, visual, emotional, physical) engaged in without consent* (agreement), which uses one person in order to meet another person’s sexual or emotional needs.

Substance Abuse or Addiction (of alcohol, drugs, pills) is the repeated misuse and unhealthy, compulsive desire and dependency of a legal or illegal substance, which is continued by the user with disregard to negative impact.

Transgender is a term that describes people with gender dysphoria, a strong, persistent feeling of discomfort with their biological sex, or an internal sense of being male or female that does not match their biological sex.