Interview with Esther Blazquez, a psychologist specializing in depression, anxiety and asperger

In psychoactive today we have the pleasure of interviewing the renowned psychologist Esther Blázquez Álvarez de https: // epsibapsicologia.It is/which offers psychological services that cover from depression to anxiety disorders, encompassing different topics such as relationships, social, etc ... as well as Asperger's syndrome.  While all these mental health issues and others are very important we will focus on Depression, Anxiety and Asperger's syndrome and their relationship between them if it takes place.

First of all Esther thank you for this interview which is appreciated for our visitors. We start if you think.

What can you tell us about your work, since when do you dedicate yourself to him and where can we find you?

I decided to open the consultation in July 2017 in Salamanca

What psychological services do you offer in your consultation and in what modalities?

Because I offer different treatments based on cognitive-behavioral intervention for problems related to anxiety, phobias, for obsessive-compulsive disorder, depressive disorders, some personality disorders, addictions and eating disorders.

I offer two modalities of treatment, face-to-face and online by videoconference. For the latter I use a specific application to perform psychological therapy, OpenTherapi, makes me feel safer regarding privacy with my patients.

What services are the most commonly demanded?

The most demanded are the problems related to anxiety (adaptive disorders, phobias, TOC), depression and also those related to relationships such as ruptures or affective or emotional dependence.

What would you advise the population about going to a psychologist and promote mental health? 

I think that going to the psychologist is starting to see how something normal, at least it is what I perceive in most cases, not in all, but I think that stigma of "going to the psychologist is crazy" is being dismantled, about All in younger people.

However, despite that change that, personally, I notice and that, obviously, it seems positive, many people come when they no longer see other exit to what happens to them.

I think that going to the psychologist when one begins to experience certain doubts, some discomfort, could prevent the appearance of consolidated disorders. When we say that there is a disorder, we are really referring to the symptoms experienced by the person who pacae him, they are maladaptive to the point of interfering in different aspects of his life daily or almost daily.

I would encourage people to go to the psychologist before this problem they present aggravates and generates these interferences, because, in the end, it costs less to improve a situation when the problems do not carry them dragging with us a long time. I could summarize this advice in the saying "It is better to prevent, than cure".

Should we just go to a psychologist when we are wrong? What would you say?

It depends, I imagine that when I depend on I do not. The psychologist can go for many reasons: personal or professional orientation, skills development, adaptation problems, doubts that generate discomfort, mental or emotional disorders, etc. It is not necessary to experience enormous discomfort to go to the psychologist as I said before.

If you had not dedicated yourself to the psychology sector to which sector you would have dedicated?

Well, about 12-13 years I began to value what I wanted to devote and thought about studying Fine Arts, Journalism, Literature, etc. But shortly after, I discovered psychology and it seemed to me that all things had to do with her (in fact, I still think) and there I already fixed the idea of ​​understanding how people work ... and until today, that I continue with that Motivation and I think it will not end, the issues to be resolved are infinite.

Let's move on to previously appointed topics, if you think. What can you tell us about depression symptoms, characteristics ... and what sector of the population usually affects the most?

Depression, as we all know, is a mood disorder that not only involves that low mood. People with depression also experience other symptoms such as a low or no motivation, negative expectations towards the present or the future, have a negative perception of themselves, their actions, etc.  This mood affects all the thoughts in the person and also filters the reality that perceives by distorting it according to how it feels.

It is not easy to get out of that state for oneself, sometimes neither with the help of the people who support it since, perceiving reality as something aversive or painful, together with negative future expectations, has some consequences: people with Depression are usually focused on everything that can confirm the negative idea they have at that time about themselves or the world around them. So that there are also no opportunity to experience positive things that can distrust that vision they have from the world. They enter a loop in the prefer not to risk feeling worse, thus canceling the possibilities of feeling better too.

Within my experience I could say that the majority of people who come for the presence of these depressive symptoms, without another basic disorder, are students, people who have just finished their studies and people who face new situations. The age range where I receive consultations related to depressive symptoms would place it between 20 and 35 years.

What treatments do you offer and what can we act before a depression or before the depression of a friend or family. How should we act if we have a relative with depression and that we must take into account?

The depression treatment that I offer in my consultation has a behavioral part and another cognitive. From my point of view it is difficult to change people's cognitions if they do not test. For this reason, usually, at first, I focus more on the behavior of the person, since they normally feel stagnant, starting with something that is not difficult and that can even be "absurd" in the sense that they are things that Other people who do not have this problem would not cost them to do them because they make them automatic, such as cleaning the house, making food a couple of days a week, going the library one day, etc. It all depends on the situation in which the person is at that time. Once the person feels better to do those things that "should not cost him" and he takes some confidence, he also start working at the cognitive level.

I understand that sometimes it is difficult to help someone with depression, since attempts to help may not work. Sometimes people who try to help someone with depression try to offer them solutions directly without knowing if they are adequate for that person, which can make the person with depression feel worse by not being able to carry them out. Other times, unintentionally, they reinforce that depressive state or, on the contrary, they do not understand what it implies having depression and are too hard, we see it reflected in the typical phrase of: “What happens is that you are a vague/or, They have always given you everything done and now you are still waiting for everything to rain from heaven ”.

My recommendation, in a summary way, is that, if you see that those attempts they make to help someone with depression do not work, consult a psychologist or another professional dedicated to mental health, since each person is different and, therefore , the things that can help you also improve.

How long does a patient require in your treatment to overcome it?

It depends on the seriousness of the situation, on the circumstances surrounding the person. There are people who respond faster than others to treatment, others who have relapses during therapy, and others in which it goes well from the beginning. If we talk in time, we could say that in total the duration can vary from 4 to 12 months. The sessions are spaced over time. And, even after the end of the therapy, I continue the monitoring of each patient to see that these positive changes are maintained, especially in severe cases. I do this follow -up, either by mail, called, etc., So it is not necessary to go to the consultation unless there are indications of a relapse.

Now let's move on to anxiety. What is anxiety and how can we identify it?

Anxiety is an emotion similar to fear, the reactions it produces in our body are almost identical to we experience them when something produces terror. The difference is that we are afraid of the perception of a present danger and anxiety is based on the perception of the possible appearance of something aversive in relation to the future.

There are different disorders in which anxiety plays a key role: panic disorder, phobias, TOC, generalized anxiety disorder ... all of them have something in common: the negative attribution towards the symptoms of anxiety and, in the major part of the cases, the tendency to eliminate or avoid that anxiety.

We could say that the most common symptoms in anxiety disorders are excessive concern (1), due to the perception of occurrence of a possible negative event, uncertainty intolerance (2) the tendency to avoid (3) that this event negative becomes produced and the (3) overactivation of the autonomic nervous system, in charge of the fight-huid response, which finally generates the annoying symptoms of anxiety: tremors, sweat, alterations in breathing, tidal sensation, etc.

What treatments do you offer to overcome this disorder?

The treatment that I carry out for this type of disorders depends on the problem to which anxiety is associated, but the most common is to start by explaining the patient what anxiety consists of, explaining the role that their thoughts play in the appearance of symptoms of anxiety (the function they have, the expectations, how it relates to them, etc.), and then test the veracity of these thoughts, that is, expose themselves to those situations or mental events that generate anxiety.

We know that you are an expert both on this subject and in other psychological ones, but is anxiety the issue for which you have or is another?

Anxiety and depression are the issues that deal more. Many of the times they are related to a mixed disorder. Anxiety leads to avoidance and when it extends over time, more and more situations generate a loss of positive reinforcers, which can lead to depression.

Then we will go to the so -called Asperger Syndrome. What characteristics are presented in it to establish a diagnosis as such and what treatment does it last ... duration .. ? How is it different from other syndromes? since sometimes it can lead to mistakes for its general ignorance. Is it an issue known to society as it should or may not?

Asperger Syndrome (SA) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that mainly affects the ability to relate to others and, in general, hinders adaptation to the environment since the capabilities of these people are different when processing the information they receive. For example, they have a hard time processing a lot of information at the same time, whether visual, tactile or auditory. This many times makes them block or have emotional outbreaks due to that overestimulation. This difficulty also affects participation in conversations where there are more than two or three people, which can make people with (SA) feel that they are not part of a group, that they move away or feel alone and, of course, That negatively affects the concept they have of themselves.

I will talk about SA based on my experience in dealing with these people, since information about the diagnosis and the specific characteristics of this syndrome can be found in other places specialized in this subject and I find it interesting to comment on the difficulties that boys and girls have that come to my consultation. The patients I receive with SA are in the process of becoming adults, come to the beginning of the university or when they decide to become independent. I accompany you in this process of "new learning", they learn to develop without the support they gave them at home.

The truth would lie if I said that it is an easy process, because although most of them have already received an earlier treatment that, of course, has improved their adaptation to the environment, when they reach a new place where new people have to meet new people, manage their studies, meals, sleep schedules, etc., some see that new difficulties appear, especially at a social and organization level. This usually ends up generating anxiety problems, even depressive symptoms, because in the end they end up moving away from other people by perceiving that others do not take into account. My work with these people is mainly directed to the management and recognition of their own emotions and others, to the development of social skills and the organization and self -care. It is a process that can sometimes be frustrating for the psychologist and also for the person with SA. Many times that rigidity in the way of thinking and behaving makes it difficult to implement the changes that are practiced in therapy. In general, and based on my experience, they are people with very respectable moral values ​​and norms, but that rigidity, when something does not fit with the way they expect certain things to occur, it can cause very intense emotional changes , so it is also very important to work flexibility, frustration tolerance.

Well, these three themes: Depression, Anxiety and Asperger we would like that you will tell us what relationship if there is we can find between them and how it can affect a person, either between the three or two of them .. What patients are in your consultation the most numerous? Although we know you have many patients and also satisfied with your good job.

As a summary, the problems caused by anxiety and depression are the issues for which I receive the most, regardless of whether there is another basic disorder, such as Asperger's syndrome. I think it is normal for people to experience these symptoms throughout life, and more when certain changes occur. We can be prepared to face these circumstances, but it is not strange that certain situations do not destabilize and, before a disorder appears, as I said before, I recommend solving those "small problems" so that they do not give rise to something more serious.

By the way, what do you think psychoactive?

I like it, it seems to me that you contribute interesting and important things, in addition to the videos you offer on YouTube you connect very well with people and I think that is positive when these people normalize what happens to them and request professional help to solve The situation in which they are.

Well, thank you very much Esther, it has been a pleasure to interview one of Salamanca's psychologists with more prestige and undoubtedly won by pulse. A hug and even another Esther.