Pol Osés: "Our way of life does not help us to manage anxiety".

We interviewed psychologist Pol Osés; expert in intervention in cases of anxiety.

Anxiety is behind most of the psychological problems that people suffer from day to day; sometimes it is mixed with other disorders, and sometimes it becomes a disorder in itself.

On the other hand, there are also cases of people without diagnosable psychological disorders who, in spite of this, notice that excessive stress or anxiety does not allow them to give the best of themselves.

Due to the importance of this type of mental and physiological alterations, many psychologists specialize in supporting people with this kind of problems. On this occasion we interviewed one of them, Pol Osés, expert in the management of the anxiety..

Interview with Pol Osés: the thousand faces of anxiety

The psychologist Pol Osés specializes in providing psychological assistance to people with emotional and relational problems, and many of these have to do with poor anxiety management. In this interview he talks about his experience intervening in cases of anxious or anxious-depressive disorders in his office in Barcelona or through online sessions by video call.

What made you want to become a psychologist and why did you want to specialize in the areas you are currently working in?

Vocation. I look back with perspective and realize that I have always been interested in people's behavior, the reasons for their behaviors, the causes and their origin, especially when they are dysfunctional. This led me to constantly analyze the people around me, look for relationships, coincidences, and draw conclusions.

After studying Psychology at the University of Barcelona, the professional experience acquired over the years and my personal experiences, I became more interested in the anxiety problems that people suffer due to the demands of the society in which we live.

Sometimes people talk about anxiety as if it were just a propensity of each person's personality, but the context also has an influence. What aspects of the Spanish way of life do you think tend to make people anxious?

The scientific community points to the influence of our biology (50%) and our interaction with our environment (50%) as the cause of our behavior. In the end, these are percentages established with a more didactic than scientific approach, trying to convey the idea that both factors are equally relevant, and then it is necessary to evaluate in each particular case which has had more weight.

If we take into account the context, the interaction with reality as the axis of analysis, we will easily realize that the origin of anxiety is multifactorial in most cases, although we could find some cases in which the origin of anxiety is due to a specific stimulus.

The answer to your question is that people suffer anxiety disorders due to multiple reasons, such as exposing themselves to hypercompetitive environments, idealizing unattainable beauty canons, entering into dynamics of insatiable material ambition, the influence of social networks in the idea of building utopian "lives" or the conception of an "I" that must constantly improve and feel happy, among many others.

These are general aspects in which it is necessary to go deeper and make a personalized analysis and work for each patient.

Would you say that our way of life leads us to adopt effective anxiety management strategies? Or on the contrary, many of the things that "common sense" dictates are wrong, in this case?

The way we live in general clearly does not help us to manage anxiety. A high percentage of our daily thoughts are useless and repetitive, which leads to unwanted states of anxiety. This constant coming and going of thoughts leads us to a state of anxiety that generates a strong mental exhaustion that gradually consumes our vital energy.

As for "common sense" it is difficult to generalize, since the sense, intuition, beliefs that lead us to evaluate each of the events of our lives to make decisions constantly, is more "particular" than "common".

Anxiety, understood as an adaptive mechanism that alerts our organism to prepare us for a stressful event, yes, "common sense" in most cases leads us to make decisions that prepare us to face these, as long as we do not suffer from an anxiety disorder.

The question will depend on how we have built this system of beliefs and ideas. If there is a correct formation, we will be more effective in solving the different events of our day to day, otherwise, we could suffer an anxiety disorder.

In what aspects of life is it usually noticed in a clearer way that a person has developed anxiety?

We can detect that a person feels anxiety in different ways, depending on their mood, physiological reactions, thought patterns or life habits.

In terms of mood we will observe a feeling of nervousness, agitation or sense of danger, all in a disproportionate magnitude in relation to the specific event. At the same time there may be physiological reactions such as increased Heart rate, sweating or accelerated breathing, among others.

If we have the opportunity to analyze a little more in depth we will see that the person navigates between negative thought patterns, often threatening and that can become excluding or preponderant.

And finally we can detect unwanted states of anxiety in substance abuse behaviors, binge eating or binge eating, strong dependence on people around us or compulsive shopping among other behavioral signs that can lead us to conclude that a person suffers from an anxiety disorder.

And when it comes to offering professional support to people with these kinds of problems, what strategies tend to be most effective?

The strategies are diverse, since there are different techniques and there are people who are more or less receptive to one approach than another, in the same way that a patient may feel more comfortable working with one therapist than with another, leaving aside the knowledge that each one may have.

In my case I apply cognitive-behavioral therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Mindfulness.

What can we get from each of them to combat anxiety?

Cognitive-behavioral therapy will allow us to desensitize the person to gradually make him/her feel able to expose him/herself to the situation that generates anxiety and that this will progressively decrease. All this working in parallel with strategies for restructuring ideas, behavioral modeling, training in problem solving and relaxation and breathing techniques.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy will allow us to address anxiety through the application of strategies of distancing towards those negative feelings experienced by the person, to lose the fear of anxiety and learn to "stop thinking about" the issue that generates discomfort.

And finally, Mindfulness will allow us to work on aspects such as increasing awareness of our life experiences, working on the "now" and observing our emotions more clearly. In addition, we work on a change of metal attitude that leads us from an overly critical and controlling mind to a more compassionate and non-judgmental mind.

Do you think that, little by little, we are going to create a culture in which people are more competent at managing their anxiety states on their own?

Undoubtedly. It is in the nature of human beings to constantly strive to adapt more successfully to their environment, and this is not going to be an exception.

It is true that the rapid development in the field of technology in recent years has brought about transformations in society, in our habits, in our understanding of relationships and in our life goals. Structural aspects of our lives have been modified in less than a generation and this will continue to happen without the mind having time to assimilate all these changes.

That is why for years some changes have been implemented in our habits that allow us to deal with these anxiety generators in a more efficient way. A balanced diet, respecting sleep hours, practicing sports activities and taking care of our emotions by working with professional therapists are key to create strategies that allow us to deal with our reality in a healthier way.