Bethel’s Brian Johnson Opens Up About His Nervous Breakdown

“I had one option,” Bethel Music President and Co-Founder Brian Johnson says. “And that option was God.”

Johnson says he struggled with anxiety throughout much of his life that culminated in a six-month nervous breakdown.

The journey is chronicled in When God Becomes Real.

Though he was raised in the church and was a man of faith, Johnson still experienced debilitating panic attacks and anxiety.

“At that point in time, I quit everything, I was incapable of doing anything. About every five minutes, I was fighting off a panic attack,” Johnson tells C-Pop, the Christian pop culture podcast.

So he started pressing deeper into God, waking up before the sun to worship.

“Something changed,” Johnson said. “I literally had my landscape changed, and I felt hope come back. Even my mind was quicker. Like my mind was slowed way down [during the breakdown]. It was really fuzzy. This was really very scary and so odd. … Then my mind started getting quicker, and I could start functioning more. Within one month, I was off all the meds with the help of the doctor, but also the fact that I was able to get off was the Holy Spirit.”

Listen to the podcast to hear more of Johnson’s incredible testimony.