The problem of poorly managed anxiety: interview with Santiago Cid

poorly managed anxiety It is one of the most frequent psychological problems. It can manifest itself as a result of many different experiences and situations, and it also feeds back on itself: the discomfort produced by anxiety is anxiety-producing.

Fortunately, more and more is known about how this psychological phenomenon affects us and how we can combat its effects and prevent it from damaging our quality of life. In this sense, the perspective that mental health professionals have on the subject is highly valued.

on this occasion We interviewed Santiago Cid, psychologist specialized in cognitive-behavioral therapy with extensive experience in treating anxiety problems at his center in Madrid.

• Related article: "What is anxiety: how to recognize it and what to do"

Putting a solution to poorly managed anxiety: interview with Santiago Cid

Santiago Cid, psychologist in charge of the Santiago Cid Psychology Center (located on Calle Santa Engracia, Madrid), is a professional in cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy with more than 12 years of experience

Caring for patients with anxiety problems. In this case, we ask about the nature of the discomfort experienced by people with pathological anxiety, and about what can be done to avoid suffering from this kind of problem.

What led you to specialize in the treatment of anxiety?

Throughout my training it was one of the topics that I found most interesting, both because of the great results offered by the therapy cognitive-behavioral in anxiety disorders as well as the growing need for treatment of these problems, since unfortunately each time affect more people.

In addition to formal training, it is clear that psychologists learn from their professional experience. Over the years, is there anything about anxiety issues that you have been surprised to discover from your therapy sessions?

Many; Actually, almost every day you find new things both at the educational level, since there are continuous advances at the level of treatment and daily clinical practice.

Of course, in these 12 years many things have surprised me, and even more so in a problem like this, in which one of its main characteristics is that loops are formed that without the help of a specialist are very, very complicated to understand and of course to sort out.

How can excessive anxiety wear our health if we don't put a stop to it?

Actually, more than pathological anxiety itself, what tends to harm health are the wrong strategies we use to try to eliminate it.

Many times we avoid playing sports or stop having a social life, for example, and this is dangerous for our health; Or we also fall into an unhealthy diet, since with pathological anxiety what the body seems to ask for are fatty foods, and these in turn put our well-being at risk.

At what point can we detect that anxiety is a problem serious enough to go to therapy?

Well, at the very moment it begins to interfere in our day to day and generate discomfort. It is especially important to go to a specialist at the first warning signs, to prevent this problem from establishing itself, since it will be much more difficult to treat later.

To summarize… What are the most common strategies used in psychotherapy to help patients with these kinds of problems?

The first step is always to carry out a rigorous evaluation, since each case is different and we must not generalize.

The techniques that have shown greater effectiveness, generally speaking, are psychoeducation, which helps to understand the problem, cognitive restructuring, which helps to work on unreasonable ideas and above all favors approaching the feared stimuli, and adequate exposure with the tools worked in therapy to external or internal stimuli feared.

What kind of instructions do you give your patients so that they can practice at home or in their day-to-day life in general between sessions?

We always send homework assignments, since the therapy consists of 55 minutes a week, the week itself has 178 hours, and if we add this to the years or months in which the problem has been taking root, it is essential to do the tasks between sessions.

Normally these exercises and routines are personalized, and some of the representative ones are: records to see how the situations that are brought to therapy are faced, psychoeducation material and tasks to generalize what learned.

Do you remember any case of a patient afflicted with anxiety whose improvement process makes you feel especially satisfied?

Each and every one of the cases that have been discharged is a satisfaction for both me and the patient, since in the end this is a team effort. Throughout these 12 years there have been many, and all have given me the same satisfaction.