Infants and children are completely helpless when they are born, and they remain helpless until they grow and learn to take care of themselves. Sometimes, they experience events in childhood when they felt very helpless, and these feelings control them even when they become adults. 

Sometimes adults feel completely overwhelmed with life, and they feel like a child again, and these feelings make them want to give up their job, their children, and their spouses. These feelings are belief-based and can be overcome using the same three steps that are used for other types of belief-based emotions.

A young man told me he was feeling overwhelmed with his new job. He had always been involved in manual labor, then he was promoted to a new position that involved writing reports and using a computer. He had always been good at what he did, but he felt very overwhelmed at the thought of having to learn how to use a computer, which he had always avoided previously, and this was placing a strain on his marriage. 

Feeling overwhelmed is usually a feeling of helplessness, which is a belief-based emotion, so I asked him if he had ever felt overwhelmed like this before (to identify the source of his emotions). He couldn’t remember ever feeling this overwhelmed but he told me that he had always avoided computers in high school and had his friends help him with reports.

I inquired more about his high school experiences, and he told me that he avoided computers because he had tried to use them once in the sixth grade, and became so aggravated and irritated when he couldn't figure it out that he wanted to cuss and throw it down. He said that everyone else could do it but he couldn’t and it made him feel very helpless and overwhelmed. This sounded like a “source” to me so I asked him to reflect on this experience and remember how he had felt, while I prayed for him. I prayed, “Lord, what do you want this boy to know about his belief that everyone else could do it but he couldn’t.” I told him to be quiet and let me know if he had any thoughts come to his mind. He said no thoughts came to his mind, but when I asked him if it still felt true he said, “No. It was just something that happened. I know I can do it; I just have to try.” I asked him to think about going to work and learning how to use the computer to do his reports and to tell me if he still felt overwhelmed. He said that he no longer felt overwhelmed or fearful that he would not be able to do the job. He was confident that he could learn how to use the computer.

I explained to this man that feeling overwhelmed was due to his belief that everyone else could do it but he couldn’t, and when I prayed for truth the Lord brought truth to his mind to set him free from his feelings of helplessness. This man had a “quiet realization of truth” that set him free. The Lord said He would send us His Holy Spirit to “guide [us] into all truth” (John 16:13) and we are instructed in James 1:5 “If any of you lacks wisdom [insight into the true nature of things], let him ask of God... and it will be given to him.” That's all we did; asked God for truth and He gave it to this man, and he was set free. 

Each believer has the Holy Spirit available to guide them into all truth and set them free from anxiety and feelings of helplessness, if they will identify the source of their feelings, identify the false belief they have, and pray for truth.

A woman became extremely anxious when she heard that her husband’s ex-wife was coming to town. The ex- had made threats against her previously, and the prospect of her coming to town made this woman very fearful, helpless, and nauseous. She begged her husband to take her away from their town where she had so many memories of abuse, but her husband insisted that she could not run from her problems.

I encouraged her to focus on her feelings of anxiety and asked her when was the first time she had felt such feelings. She said the first time was when she was a child and her father yelled at her and threatened to beat her. She felt fearful and helpless, and these bad feelings began to flood her mind, and she began to feel anger at her father and at God for allowing her to experience such terrible things as a child. I asked her if she would like to get rid of her anger and she said she would, so we made a list of her resentments toward her father and toward God. We prayed about her anger and she was able to release it, then she said she still felt fearful, so I prayed, “Lord, what is the truth that you want her to know about her belief that she is helpless, is going to be hurt, and something terrible is going to happen?”

She stated that the thoughts that came to her were, “He is here with me; He will protect me.” “Do those thoughts feel true?” I asked. She said they did. As we reviewed her emotions she indicated that she no longer felt any anger or fear about meeting her husband’s ex-wife.

The following week went well, she had no more anger toward her father or God, and she was no longer fearful of confronting her husband's ex-wife. She stated that she felt so good during the week that her husband asked her at one point, “Are you on drugs?” She laughed and said that she was not but she felt good because she had been able to resolve her anxieties and release her anger.

Helplessness, is based upon beliefs such as, “I am weak, I am powerless, I cannot do anything to resist him, I’m too small to do anything about it, I’m overwhelmed, everything is out of control, I’m trapped, and there is no way out.” These types of beliefs lead to feelings of helplessness, but once you identify the original source of these feelings, you then can express these beliefs and pray for truth, to be set free.