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May 21, 2024 16 mins
Esta enfermedad silenciosa se ha convertido en el azote de nuestra sociedad, inoculada con el virus de la prisa. Prisa por llegar a tiempo a la reunión con el jefe, por recoger a los niños del colegio, por hacer la compra antes de que nos cierren...y, en ocasiones, no nos libramos ni en nuestras ratos de ocio. Nunca habíamos vivido tantos episodios de ansiedad, y prueba de ello es que en nuestro país el consumo de ansiolíticos es de los más altos del mundo y no deja de crecer cada año. Pero también tiene su lado positivo: cumple una función muy importante y, de no ser por ella, los seres humanos nos habríamos extinguido hace mucho tiempo. Conoce sus síntomas, sus causas y cómo combatirla. Utiliza el código CIENCIADIGITAL y obtén tu descuento en Muy Interesante, sigue con este link https://bit.ly/3TYwx9a Déjanos tu comentario en Ivoox o Spotify, o escríbenos a podcast@zinetmedia.es ¿Nos ayudas? Comparte nuestro contenido en redes sociales . Texto: Laura G. de Rivera Dirección, locución y producción: Iván Patxi Gómez Gallego @ivanpatxi Contacto de publicidad en podcast: podcast@zinetmedia.es
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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
This silent illness has become the scourgeof our society, inoculated with the virus
of the rush prey, to arrivein time to the meeting with the boss,
to pick up the children from school, to make the purchase before they
close us and sometimes we did notget rid even in our leisure times we
had never experienced so many episodes ofanxiety. And proof of that is that

(00:23):
in our country the consumption of anxiolyticsis one of the highest in the world
and continues to grow every year.But it also has a positive side.
It fulfills a very important function andif it weren' t for it we
human beings would have become extinct along time ago. He knows his symptoms,
his causes, and how to fightit. The podcasts of very interesting

(00:57):
great reports of very interesting. Itpresents to the anxiety, the new epidemic
of the 21st century a text byLaurage de Rivera. At night I can

(01:18):
' t sleep all of a suddenI feel like I' m getting so
sweaty, my heart beats so fastduring the day. I' m burdened,
too. I don' t knowwhat' s wrong with me,
but I jump for anything. I' m irritable, hypersensitive. I can
' t stop worrying about all thedetails of my life like I' m
always about to have the worst.I' ve been like this for a

(01:38):
long time, months, maybe years, although there are seasons when I feel
good. He always comes back inthe end. He tells us administrative weed
of forty- two years. Itssymptoms are typical of an anxiety syndrome ailment
that affects almost two million Spaniards fourcomma one percent of the population. According
to figures of two thousand seventeen ofthe World Health Organization and the whole world

(02:00):
is equally suffering from three commas sixpercent. This is about two hundred and
sixty- four million people. Heusually makes his debut at the beginning of
adulthood and is fed with the agerange between twenty and fifty years. One
in five Spaniards has at some pointin their lives experienced severe or moderate symptoms,

(02:23):
and women suffer more than men ina ratio of two to one.
Carlos Baeza, coordinator psychologist at theAnxiety Clinic in Madrid, explains. Popular
ignorance can confuse it with being ahysterical, an agony of nerves, But
the truth is that it is adisease in all rules related to neurochemical alterations

(02:44):
in the brain so serious that theWorld Health Organization considers it today the sixth
cause of work disability in the world, and its impact on the quality of
life is superior to arthritis, diabetesand cardiac or respiratory dysfunctions. According to
the Confederation of Mental Health Spain,it can manifest itself with several faces such

(03:14):
as social or specific phobia, obsessivedisorder, compulsive disorder, panic crisis.
The case of María is a generalizedanxiety disorder that, as Rosario de maple
explains to us Head of psychiatry serviceat the Puerta de Hierro University Hospital in
Madrid, is characterized by persistent anguishin the time more than six months followed
by gastrointestinal discomfort, fatigued muscle tension, difficulty concentrating. Dizziness and tremors are

(03:39):
symptoms that complete the picture, althoughnot always present all, only three of
them are necessary to confirm the diagnosis. Anxiety is a elusive malaise that sometimes
dissipates and is confused with other healthproblems. In almost forty percent of the

(04:00):
people who go to the GP forphysical ailments, once examined and after the
relevant tests, after having passed throughthe neurologist, the specialist in digestive system,
the pulmonologist the cardiologist, it isshown that the origin of their problem
is psychosomatic related to anxiety or stressassures baeza asthma obesity in one third of

(04:24):
the cases or muscle pains are otherof their secondary symptoms to colmonos weakens,
increases lack of confidence and apprehension andlowers self- esteem, so many people
lock themselves in a vicious circle that, when they fall into depression, is
more difficult to break. According todata from the National Congress of Anxiety and

(04:46):
Comorbid Disorders, between fifty and ninetypercent of Spaniards suffering from depression suffer at
the same time anxiety. However,only one in ten people receive the right
treatment, says a national inter-national study led by the Barcelona Sea Medical
Research Hospital. After surveying more thanfifty- one thousand subjects from twenty-

(05:06):
one countries. It turned out thatonly 28 percent had been treated for the
anxiety they suffered from. Just ninecoma eight percent got the most appropriate therapy.
According to the authors in two thousandeighteen, in anangety depression but who

(05:28):
does not ever lose sleep because ofworries. Anxiety doesn' t always have
to be pathological. For example,the tension and anguish we experience before an
examination is what makes us alert andstart studying, because, within a few
limits, it is an adaptive andpositive mechanism that activates us in situations that
we consider threatening, in which wehave something to gain or to lose plays

(05:50):
a role similar to pain. Wedon' t like it. But if
it weren' t for him,the human being would have died out.
You owe us in advance that theremay be a problem, that we must
pay attention to it and that westill have to do something to fix it
says Dr. Baeza. Then,when it ceases to be normal to become

(06:16):
a disease, when the symptoms areso intense that they interfere with work performance
or family stability and are accompanied bysuffering. If it paralyzes us and prevents
us from carrying out daily duties andactivities, it is necessary to seek help.
Answer Dr maple Ni Baeza. Heagrees. Concerns are normal, motivate

(06:45):
us to seek solutions, but somethingwe are doing wrong when we are not
allowed to sleep or function normally.When they become obsessive thoughts that rob us
of time and prevent us from concentrating. As for its physiological basis, scientists
from the University of Colombia in theUnited States recently announced in the magazine Nurón

(07:06):
the finding of anxiety neurons in onepart of the hippocampus area of the brain
responsible, among other things, forregulating the mood. The experts' intention
was to find a specific receptor inanxiety neurons and then develop a drug that
would act directly on them. Intheir experiment with mice, they found that

(07:29):
this region was activated when they exposedrodents to threatening situations. On the contrary,
if they were placed in the samedangerous scenarios after they had been artificially
shut down by a technique known asoctogenetics. Animals acted without signs of fear
and why I might ask you.The answer goes through a range of causes.

(08:05):
First, studies suggest that there isa family component that predisposes us to
anxiety, and not only for thegenes responsible for the disease in thirty-
five percent, but for the environmentwe breathe at home since childhood. A
research published in and American johnal ofPsychiatry in two thousand fifteen and concluded after
analyzing a thousand families who also learnto be anxious for contagion. Character traits

(08:28):
are also influenced. According to DrArce, perfectionists or people with low self
- esteem are more vulnerable and personallabor and partner economic problems can also act
as triggers when they make us feelthreatened to our security, although not only

(08:50):
misfortunes disturb our peace of mind.Maybe you' re a winner. You
just got married to an excellent person, you bought a beautiful house and they
' re going to promote you atwork and yet you can' t sleep.
You' re always burdened, angryand so nervous that you don'
t stop sweating. As Dr Baezaindicates, this situation fits with an increasingly

(09:11):
frequent adaptive disorder of an anxious type, caused by the continuous changes that we
experience in the day- to-day workplace, which force us to adapt
quickly to situations for which we aresometimes not prepared. Point first for something.
The World Health Organization had already warneda few months ago about the alarming

(09:35):
increase in mental illness worldwide, suchas anxiety, which had grown by fifteen
percent over the previous decade. Andwhy we' re more anxious than our
grandparents before. Lisa Petro, educationconsultant and co- founder of NAO My
Wall, an organization for cultural exchangeamong students from different countries, explains this.

(10:00):
We live in an era of informationsaturation and everything is going so fast
that we can' t keep upwith it. There' s only time
to keep up. There is noplace to process the natural emotions of any
human being that are cornered until theyexplode in the form of anxiety or other
disorders. In this sense. Fourpercent of the Spaniards said they had not

(10:20):
felt stressed on the other side ofthe coin. Students, one fifty-
five coma six percent of them,those seeking their first job, one fifty
coma seven percent, and those withchildren, one sixty- one coma two
percent, are the ones who sufferthe most from these consequences. For Petro.

(10:43):
Emotional intelligence is a tool of prevention. Values such as empathy, communication,
flexibility and tolerance reduce anxiety. Butfirst we must be aware of what
we feel, why and what consequencesit brings about around us, which gives
us the possibility to change them.This ability makes us masters of our life

(11:05):
and makes it something less terrifying.More exciting, but what if we'
re already up to our necks inanxiety syndrome. Avoidance behaviour is the first
remedy adopted by the majority of thoseaffected. These escape strategies reduce the discomfort
of the moment, but they maintainfear of fear and thus give feedback to

(11:26):
anxiety. Warn Dr Baeza. Inaddition, excessive super- protection measures can
become an obsession. For example,a man drew a map every day of
hospitals on his route, every timehe drove his car in case something happened
to him at the wheel to overcomethose unfounded fears that diminish our quality of

(11:50):
life, cognitive behavioral therapy has anefficiency level of eighty percent higher. Apart
from overcoming the mental disorder and exertinga global change in the person, improving
his self- confidence, self-control and abilities to face the obstacles of
life assures. Bonifacio Sandin, Professorof Psychopathology at UNED and clinical psychologist.

(12:13):
The certainty that we are what wethink is the cornerstone of treatment, which
does not use drugs. Therefore,after a phase of psychoeducation on the physiology
of anxiety and after teaching the patientrelaxation techniques to alleviate symptoms, the most
important part of the therapy is toregulate the patterns of thought that influence the
emotional state and the behavior. Harmfulbeliefs must be deconfirmed, cognitive biases that

(12:39):
lead to fear must be exposed,and alternative ways of managing it must be
proposed, explains the expert. Anothervery useful tool is the management of concerns,
a way to face what weighs usdown. But it does hurt us.

(13:01):
If there is a subject that makesus spin it with a sense of
urgency that is not real. Itis common for automatic reminders of that problem
to be assaulted every little time.That can' t be avoided, but
it does choose when we' regoing to take care of it. Therefore,
Dr Baeza teaches his patients to bookfifteen or twenty minutes a day,
away from bedtime, to consider disturbingmatters. An idea of that sosegant can

(13:33):
rob us many times in a dayif we don' t follow the game
every time we show up and continuewith what we were doing. The sum
of the interruptions will not exceed afew minutes. If, on the contrary,
we stopped what we had in ourhands and set ourselves in turning it
around, in valuing, what wouldhappen like this, researches anticipations, possibles,
failures, etcetera. The amount oftime spent to the detriment of other

(13:56):
tasks shall be counted per hour.Warn. In addition to behavioral cognitive psychology,
anxiety can be addressed from other formsof treatment, such as autologous training,
a technique of scientific relaxation proposed bypsychiatrist Luis Rivera, director of the

(14:16):
Institute of Psychotherapy of Madrid. Weteach the patient to distance himself from his
thoughts, to relax by concentrating onhis own body. The first and most
important step in combating anxiety is learningto stay calm, which is essential for
good physical and mental health. Ifyou can integrate the idea of what happens
you can always take refuge in thestate of calm, life will be much

(14:41):
easier in every way, says Dr. Rivera. For his part, Chilean
psychiatrist Claudio Naranjo to the law ofgestalt therapy is pleca. Anxiety has a
lot to do with not being ableto choose in internal conflicts, with the
fear that if you' re wrongyou' ll spoil everything. We work
the ability to place you in abasic well- being regardless of what you

(15:05):
decide. Another option is pharmacological.For some it may be the easiest,
because the pill works without the patienthaving to make any personal effort to face
their fears, but how the psychiatristwarns. Jerónimo Saizh, head of the
psychiatric service at Ramón y Cajal UniversityHospital. It is a symptomatic treatment that

(15:28):
relieves suffering without curing the disorder.So, if we get the right therapy
and put all our willpower into it, we can get rid of anxiety.
The sooner you treat it the better. Some cases have complete cure. When
a person learns to live things differently, others learn to better handle what happens

(15:48):
to them. The key is tounderstand that this disorder does not imply a
danger of death. Understanding this realityalways reassures the patient a lot, says
the doctor and, finally, itis difficult to predict what can lead to
an episode of anxiety. But thereare four tips that seem to help in

(16:11):
most cases. Dinoa to sedentarism,practice relaxation techniques, walk through the park,
take a healthy diet, respect yourrest schedules, have goals and purposes
in life and maintain strong social ties
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