Interview with Sara Laso: this is how anxiety influences us

Anxiety and stress are present in a large part of the psychological problems (pathological or not) that we suffer throughout life. Therefore, knowing its nature allows us to better manage this form of discomfort that occurs when stress accumulates too much and is counterproductive.

On this occasion we spoke with the psychologist Sara Laso for her to explain to us the key aspects to understand stress and anxiety.

• Related article: "The 7 types of anxiety (characteristics, causes and symptoms)"

Interview with Sara Laso: the influence of stress and anxiety in our lives

sara lozano She is a General Health Psychologist and practices in the city of Badalona. She is a specialist in Child and Adolescent Clinical Psychology and in General Health Psychology, and for several years caring for patients with all sorts of problems, he has come to see the different forms that anxiety and stress.

In what contexts is anxiety useful?

It is a very good question, considering that for most people, anxiety is a problem.

Anxiety is a response to a stimulus that is considered aversive, dangerous, or unpleasant. It would act as if it were an alarm, an alarm that warns us that something is not going well and for which we must find a solution.

We could say that although anxiety is considered a serious mental health problem, in my humble opinion, I believe that it is the best signal that we can have to resolve those internal conflicts that generate a deep discomfort. For this reason, I believe that anxiety can be useful in any context. However, the problem lies in its management and how to understand it. The lack of control, the feeling of incapacity when we suffer it, the symptoms we feel and a altered state of mind, is when we could affirm that we really have a serious problem solve.

Since there is a point at which stress and anxiety become a problem... Do you think that in our culture of effort we try to normalize this pathological anxiety by passing it off as a necessary evil?

It is very true that society has normalized the concept of "anxiety", as if everyone suffered from it and even as if it were normal to suffer from it. There are people who consider that we are not exempt from having it and we could even say that it is a disorder that doctors routinely diagnose daily.

Any discomfort that the person may suffer, goes through diagnoses of anxiety and overmedication, considering that anxiolytics are the best solution and in many cases, it seems that the only one. We all know someone who takes anxiolytics. If we were to take stock of our closest environment that speaks of anxiety as something normal, we would be alarmed.

What are the most frequent complaints related to stress with which patients come to your office in the first session?

The most frequent complaints are of a physical nature. They mention that they have a general malaise, chest tightness, tachycardia, a feeling of dizziness, headache, sweating, loss or increase in appetite, decreased sexual drive, fatigue and in many cases, nausea and/or vomiting.

Now, in said first session it is important to find out how they feel emotionally and how it affects them in other areas and most of them They feel feelings of hopelessness, demotivation, anguish, low mood, often accompanied by sleep problems and feeding.

And what psychotherapeutic tools are most effective to stop experiencing this discomfort?

Personally I work a lot with different relaxation and breathing techniques. Specifically, I put a lot of emphasis on diaphragmatic breathing, being one of the techniques par excellence in anxiety and/or stress disorders. It is a technique that seems simple when explained, but when it comes to practice it is where the difficulties come because when it is not done properly it can trigger symptoms of hyperventilation. For this reason it is important to train her in consultation and outside of it.

I do not want to forget that one of the techniques that I perform the most in consultation is the practice of Mindfulness. It is very suitable for anxiety and/or stress disorders. Well developed and with enough daily practice, the person experiences improvement in a very short time. There are many studies around Mindfulness that support its effectiveness.

On a cognitive level, I like to work with cognitive techniques such as Albert Ellis's ABC model, which teaches us to visualize what thoughts we have, what we feel and how we act, cognitive restructuring and the self-instructions. And finally, include work around self-esteem, generally affected by feelings of lack of self-control and resulting frustration.

• You may be interested in: "Generalized Anxiety Disorder: symptoms, causes and treatment"

Through what phases does he usually go through the process of improvement of patients?

I am going to explain the different phases that the patient goes through until his complete improvement.

The first is understanding anxiety. It is a very important phase and we could say that it is the basis of recovery. It is necessary to understand what anxiety is, why it occurs, accept it and not fight against it (the more we face it, the more we lose the battles), as well as being aware of its responsibility.

Then there is the process of working anxiety. It is important to learn to use different relaxation and breathing techniques, as well as use cognitive techniques so that those intrusive and anticipatory thoughts generated by the anxiety. We have a tendency to think beyond, we predict the future and we believe we know it, therefore it is important to use cognitive techniques to manage thought.

On the other hand we can intervene by increasing self-esteem. The patient feels a substantial improvement, his self-control capacity improves and he feels that stress and / or anxiety do not dominate him. Therefore, his self-esteem is improved.

Finally there is maintenance, the last phase of improving it. A long enough time elapses to decide that the patient is in his last maintenance phase. This is where the psychologist should help him remember the various techniques, help him not to forget the etiology of his anxiety and that his thoughts around her continue to be adaptive.

And in relation to the role of the relatives of each patient... what can fathers, mothers, siblings and the like do to support a person who has anxiety and stress problems?

The most important thing is to begin to understand what is happening. We could say that here empathy and understanding are two essential factors to be able to help the patient.

I often say that sometimes it is better to listen than not to give advice that can frustrate the patient. They should avoid saying "that's nothing", "come on, everything is going well for you", "that will go away in two days", "don't think, you'll see how it works". Such statements or advice cause frustration in the patient because he feels misunderstood.

And if you don't know what to say... Hug him and listen to him!

Beyond the measures that we can take individually to combat excess stress, how do you think society should change so that this phenomenon is not so widespread?

As we have said previously, the problem lies in the generalization and/or normalization of this phenomenon that leads us to various psychopathologies, so we should start to emphasize it, to understand that stress is not normal and therefore, there is a lot to we must change We would talk about a social change and it is where we find the greatest difficulty in modifying said situation.

If we were able to change all this, if people were able to accept that suffering from chronic and pathological stress is not normal, they would accept, at least Therefore, modify your lifestyle, your maladaptive thoughts and the way of dealing with the various problems that life puts in our lives. path.

Therefore… What should we do? Think that education not only helps us learn that 2 + 2 equals 4. Education begins to support emotional intelligence, teaches children Mindfulness techniques, relaxation and breathing techniques. Here is the key.

If since we are born and we are small, we are developing from emotional intelligence and how we should manage our emotions and our day to day, later generations would modify their way of life and this chronic and pathological stress would end up being a phenomenon of past.