Kasen Lee: "Mindfulness promotes psychological flexibility"

Anxiety never comes out of nowhere, it is always connected in some way to the society we live in. That is why Psychology has a lot to say about it: both when it comes to analyzing behavior patterns and interaction with the environment that generate anxiety, such as when detecting situations that generate stress and anguish.

But also, Psychology helps to adopt strategies to know how to manage and face anxiety in an adequate and functional way. The person we interviewed today, the psychologist Kasen Lee, will talk about this.

• Related article: "Types of Anxiety Disorders and their characteristics"

Interview with Kasen Lee: Strategies to cope with anxiety

Kasen Lee is an expert psychologist in therapeutic resources for anxiety management; and with consultation in Lima, Peru. He highlights his professional career supporting people belonging to minorities stigmatized by racialization or gender and sexual orientation. In this interview he speaks to us from his experience addressing psychological disorders associated with anxiety.

What aspects and dynamics of society most facilitate the appearance of anxiety problems?

The dynamics of an ever-changing and over-demanding society where things must be done perfectly and in the least amount of time because you run the risk of being labeled as "inefficient", puts us in a pilot mode automatic. This mode promotes constant action, but in a routine way where it is difficult to realize what is really happening around us and within us.

We are constantly "doing" and away from "being", which prevents us from acting with mindfulness or conscious presence. In this way, our internal experiences (thoughts, sensations and emotions) are lived through the pilot. automatic as an absolute truth fused in our mind that prevents us from having an objective look at what we it happens.

On the contrary, living in the mindfulness mode allows us to have a healthy distance from our thoughts and emotions and visualize in a closer to objective way what happens to us, allowing us to respond instead of react. That is, it allows us to realize what we feel and think and then from that recognition to be able to respond in a more regulated, quotient and compassionate way.

Are there frequent cases of people suffering from excess anxiety without knowing it, or assuming that it is normal?

More than half of the patients I see in consultation come because they want to treat problems related to anxiety. Usually the patient attends because she is having several panic attacks, circular thoughts about specific fears or because they are afraid that anxiety will prevent them from performing their activities. These reasons generate great discomfort in the patient and he seeks in therapy to find a form of relief.

Sometimes therapy is extended because symptoms have become ingrained in the patient's functioning. Likewise, there is another group of patients who come to the consultation without realizing that they experience anxiety and that is because they use avoidance strategies. They are people who are immersed in work, in alcohol or in any activity that works as a means to avoid feeling. Also, it is very difficult for them to be aware of their emotional state and therefore expressing their emotions is challenging.

What other psychological problems can arise from having an anxiety disorder?

People with anxiety disorders often develop fear of fear and / or anxiety about anxiety. They begin to anticipate and imagine that they might have a panic attack at any time and they begin to feel more anxious about the anxiety they already experience. In this way, not accepting what we feel and wanting to change the way we experience emotions and feelings only creates more suffering.

Likewise, it is common for people with anxiety disorders to begin to avoid the circumstances that affect them. generates anxiety such as meeting people or leaving their homes, producing experiential avoidance and isolation. With the passage of time, the patient who avoids experiences in a constant way and who isolates himself, does not receive incentives and could begin to lead to a possible depression.

Is it common for people to try to manage anxiety by applying strategies that alleviate at first but that in the long run exacerbate the problem?

It is very common to find that patients have developed strategies to cope with their anxiety that they work in the short term, but they do not last in time and do not align to the life they want to live.

One of the most viewed strategies in consultation is avoidance. Patients avoid feeling what seems unsustainable and intolerable at all costs, leaving aside anxiety, sadness, anger or fear. It is usual that patients have found in food a refuge that alleviates their discomfort in a way immediately and that whenever they feel emotional discomfort they resort to a dessert or a meal comforting. There are also patients who see alcohol as a way to escape from their reality, taking a large amount to stop feeling their sadness.

Likewise, a patient could be immersed in work as a way to get away from the other spheres of his life and thus avoid situations that cause discomfort. All these strategies aim to reduce immediate discomfort, but in the long term it lasts and extends over time. It is like putting a bandage on a wound that requires stitches, it will not be enough.

What are the techniques that you use the most in therapy to help those suffering from anxiety disorders?

It is important that the person attending therapy can recognize what he is feeling, on several occasions it is a great challenge because no one wants to feel bad. In addition, they constantly sell us the idea of ​​being "positive" and of smiling when we are sad.

This form of toxic positivism does not add up to any therapy that works and is even a form of avoidance of the experience. Likewise, accepting emotions and feelings is essential.

Accepting is not conforming, on the contrary acceptance is an attitude that helps us to see the present as it is without judging it in order to act. In this way, we do not waste energy denying reality and we can start to change. It is also important to have self-compassion, understanding that suffering is part of the human condition and just as the patient suffers, we all suffer at some point.

A very effective way to incorporate these elements into therapy is Mindfulness, which can be translated as "mindfulness." It is a practice that promotes psychological flexibility through constant exercise. It allows to give clarity and a more objective vision of what happens to us. It helps us to see thoughts and emotions in a healthier way and with a distance that calms us because we understand and accept that thoughts are unexpected and uncontrollable.

Likewise, it is important to explore the context in which anxiety appears in therapy and begin to reflect with him or the patient the possible antecedents to this in order to adopt changes that favor your health.

And outside the framework of psychotherapy, would you recommend certain habits that can be applied by oneself without help and that allow better management of anxiety?

The most advisable thing is to have a space of 20 to 40 minutes to meditate, this allows to have a pause and a connection with the body and the internal experience. It is a way of creating a haven of calm that can be called upon at any time.

By developing this daily practice, it is easier for the patient to use it in difficult moments where they experience high levels of anxiety and thus begin to regulate themselves.

It is also advisable to perform conscious movements or yoga that promote connection and awareness of the body. Body sensations are not always consciously explored, but they reveal much of what is happening to us.