Express emotions and you can create a kind of breastplate because of the fear of
being rejected. This will make it difficult to trust others and establish intimate relationships.
It could be said that these types of individuals tend to function under thought
better not say anything, because no one is going to be there anxious attachment
also known as ambivalent attachment. An example of this type of attachment is parents
who tend to instability, who pay much attention in some moments and very little
in others, or also overprotective parents who are all concerned and transfer their own
fears to the little ones. In the first type, children will have difficulty
exploring the world, will feel insecure and will not trust their caregivers. In
the second, children are not allowed to explore and fall to rise again.
They may not have had the opportunity to learn three disorganized attachments. The one
in which the same person who has to provide the care two generates fear is
the one we see in people who have suffered serious trauma, for example,
abuse or sexual abuse. You knew that Mary Einsporth of Body' s team
helped define different ways to relate to each other, which has been called attachment
styles. In the 1960s he conducted an experiment known as a strange situation to
study the interactions that the mother or a strange adult had with the child in
a non- family environment. The importance of this study has been of such
relevance in the psychology of development that it continues to be used today to refer
to different styles of attachment. This experiment simulates situations in which the little one
is forced to leave his known field, it would be like leaving our comfort
zone and analyzing his reactions. In other words, it is a question of
observing how you move from the safe environment of the home to a less well
- known environment. First, at about twelve months old, the age at
which the relationship between the baby and the caregiver is clearly established to unknown and
stressful situations for them was exposed. They were left next to the mother in
a room full of toys. After a while a stranger entered and the mother
left the room episode of separation, leaving the little one alone with the stranger.
She stayed outside for a while and then came back in, greeted and
comforted the baby. This alternated different scenarios and evaluated the reactions and interactions between
the attachment figure and the small one. In the secure attachment it is observed
that the child is able to play and freely explore the environment in the absence
of the caregiver is distressed during the episode of separation, but when returning he
receives it enthusiastically. In the habitation attachment, the child presents little anguish during
the separation episode, but when the mother returns she tends to avoid it,
therefore, indifferent. Both in the absence and in the presence of the caregiver.
In insecure ambivalent attachment signs of distress appear throughout the experiment, the child
is angry and not comforted even when he has returned to the caregiver. What
an impact attachment types can have on how I relate to others. The style
of attachment that we have acquired in childhood is going to have an important impact
on both our friendship relationships and those of a couple and even on our sexuality,
because it is at the base of our ability to self- regulate and
to establish ties with others. Many may be surprised by this. How it
' s gonna affect me. He will say what I lived in childhood with
my parents and I don' t even remember what I experienced, because it
affects us much more than we think. Everything they did in those early years
has influenced how you interpret and know the world. These attachment patterns or styles
will have been stored in your most unconscious memory and automatic us, the one
known as implicit memory, which is launched in automated learning processes, such as
driving a car or riding a bike. Our emotional reactions also have a lot
to do with it. If we could observe it with neuroimage techniques, it
is possible that we see how the friend tends to overreact and shoot in certain
parenting styles, that is, our brain region more linked to emotions, will
have shaped its way of activating itself according to what experienced and learned in childhood.
This I usually imagine as a miniature heart that is inside our brain and
that, when we are very angry or with intense emotions, it starts to
beat out of control, as if it were a tachycardia. About sixty percent
of the population has a secure attachment and forty percent have it insecure, being
twenty percent of the preventative type. You' re not surprised by the porcentaj
pages. When I first heard it, I could not help but think that
sixty percent seemed very little to me, but it must be clarified that this
does not mean that the other forty percent is pathological, but they will have
more difficulty in the emotional and relational world. Secure attachment facilitates personal relationships,
makes us secure to love and be loved if it allows us to establish balanced
and healthy relationships. In the avoidative attachment there may be difficulties in trusting the
other, in intimate, in asking for help. In the case of anxious
or ambivalent attachment, people can live relationships with insecurity and a tendency to dependence
for fear of being abandoned. In the disorganized one there are important difficulties of
relationship. Both this last attachment and the ambivalent can be at the base of
stormy roller coaster- style relationships, those of I cannot live without you or
without you I die. In addition, people with these types of attachment find
them boring and monotonous. The relationship with people of secure attachment, however,
those comings and goings in the relationship camouflaged behind a supposed romantic crush, are
generally the origin of repeated conflicts. In examining our development under the prism of
attachment theory, it may seem that our relationship is determined forever and that we
cannot modify it. Well, although it is true that it marks us in
a very important way, we could also have had very complicated early attachment relationships,
however, have compensated or repaired them with another kind of relationships. In
fact, this is the basis of the relationship that is established with the therapist.
When you go to the query, it' s about working through the
link that' s generated with it. In nineteen hundred and fifty, effet
Alexander described therapy precisely as a corrective emotional experience. Our regulation and relationship systems
are modified and updated along the one- way wheel from meaningful experiences and relationships.
Three, that is, there may be re- learning, because the
ways of relating are also plastic, although plastic does not imply easy or effortless.
As j Boedi said, no one is immune to a positive experience.
About sixty percent of the population has a secure attachment. Finally, when we
refer to an ideal attachment style in childhood, we stick securely. We don
' t mean a perfect way to take care of ourselves. We mean a
good enough way to take care of ourselves, as we have discussed before.
Four. It' s not just about caring, either. It is about
providing security and protection through our actions and care. And this occurs primarily during
the first three years of life. You knew that a couple relationship is the
result of the interaction between two people, each with their own style of appeal
in a particular social environment. Knowing our style of attachment gives us a lot
of information about how we establish some links or others, for example, with
our relationships as a couple. I leave this scheme to an orientational relationship of
couple with someone of secure attachment, enjoy the intimacy of a relationship. He
does not live with anguish or concern that his partner may leave him. He
is able to feel reciprocated in the relationship, he is able to share time
with his partner and, at the same time, give him his space in
case of breakup. He is able to accept, despite the pain that causes
him, the loss of relationship with someone of avoidive attachment. Tends to distant
and cold relationships. He has difficulty getting involved, he has difficulty manifesting his
emotions. Independence and autonomy are for her ahead of other values and the couple
is not usually her priority. He tends to have superficial relationships and has difficulty
giving clear messages that denote his full availability as a partner with someone of anxious
or ambivalent attachment. He lives in fear of being abandoned by his partner.
He needs constant signs of love. He tends to associate happiness only with his
partner relationship. He is not able or hard to feel reciprocated in the relationship.
He needs to be with the couple continuously and spends most of his energy,
thinking about the relationship they are often dependent and jealous people. He tends
to continually interpret the acts or words of his partner, a couple' s
relationship with someone of disorganized attachment, complicated relationships, love, hate, conflict
and dramatic. Live the relationship with great unstable ability, with emotional ups and
downs. He has difficulty connecting what he does with what he feels. He
is afraid of being abandoned and, at the same time, finds it difficult
to intimate how to provide adequate answers for a secure attachment. If you'
re a mother or a father, you might have asked yourself this question.
What sensitive response should be given to provide a secure attachment or otherwise, how
you can be a good and bad mother at the same time. Naturally,
it is not a question of being perfect caregivers so that our children can develop
a secure attachment. But we can talk about patterns- generating aspects that tend
to repeat and that facilitate the task of the good enough that we talked about
before. According to psychologist Marnsworth and her collaborators, a sensitive response of attachment
to the baby includes the following characteristics. Ability to properly perceive and respond to
the baby' s demand signals, ability to respect the child' s sense
of autonomy, willingness to play with it. To provide them, the following
elements must be given empathy, ability to put themselves in the place of the
other contact, reflexive ability. A sensitive caregiver is able to calm the child
when he or she is disturbed and to provide him or her with safety while
respecting his or her autonomy. We will manifest this sensitivity both verbally and nonverbally,
in what we say and how we say it. So, for example,
if our child falls to the ground, gets hurt and comes to look
in tears for comfort, we will have to be able to calm him with
our gaze, with physical contact and with our words, without ignoring or denying
suffering, but without our emotions addressing us so inadequately. It may turn out
to be a father or a mother who does not attend to the suffering of
his little one, who is still not able to calm down just like the
one who cares for him crying and suffering more than he does. For God
' s sake, my son, you' re fine You almost scared the
shit out of me as he cries overflowing with his own emotions. A good
enough answer would be one in which the caregiver attends to the discomfort and does
not deny it, does not quarrel with the child for having fallen and does
not disproportionately distress himself. This is, he doesn' t let his emotions
get out of hand. This will provide the child with a model on how
to perceive and regulate their emotions. To provide all this to the baby is
to provide the necessary tools to give sensitive responses to others in adult life,
including to the sexual sphere. In the same way, the shortcomings in this
very key period of our life end up becoming deficiencies in adult life that are
exported to different aspects of behavior. Another very important term used in the theories
of attachment is that of synchronization, which refers to coordination very much in the
mother- baby and father- baby relationships. This synchronization is the ability to
connect, move to the son of or accompany the mental states of the other
in moments of intimacy, The fact of playing and having fun within the parent
child relationship acts as a regulator of the emotional states. More than extraordinary or
exceptional interactions. Little everyday interactions must be taken care of, because they will
allow the child to understand himself, the world and others when he comes into
adulthood. They are, therefore, the foundation of our emotional regulation and our
ability to relate to others. Some of the questions you can ask yourself to
know a little more about how you related before and how you relate today are
comfortable. When they make some positive comments, you' re overwhelmed by negatives.
You' re mad at yourself for being wrong You' re capable of
asking for help. You usually repair the needs of others. There is a
balance between taking care of yourself and helping others. You tend to crush yourself
or overcriticize yourself. After this extensive exposition on the theory of attachment, it
will be easy for the reader to understand why authors like Peter Foungian, replaced
the arch- known, I think later I exist by the thought, then
I exist a see me a little child needs to be thought and looked at
by another person. A child would never say I think later I exist,
but in any case, I am thought later I exist. To be looked
at and thought of by the other will allow to build one' s own
psyche, that which is not yet developed. In the first months and years
of life, the super power to read the mind the vast majority of us
have ever dreamed of reading the mind of others as if it were a superpower
only within the reach of fictional characters. Well, if you didn' t
know, I' ll tell you that we come with this serial superpower and
that we use it every day without just realizing the same way that we come
into the world with the machinery necessary to develop language. Our brain is endowed
with the latest technology in social relations and also has a pre- installation so
that we can develop it. As we said in previous chapters, we are
able to reproduce the emotions of the other in our own body to put ourselves
in his skin and be able to understand him. I give an example of
everyday life. You leave work and when you enter through the door of the
house, you find your partner' s socks on the floor. You don
' t say anything he or she is going to kiss you, but you
respond with very little desire and you make a charade face. Then your partner
says something' s wrong with you. You' ll say nothing while looking
at the socks, but your partner has picked up a microgest of disapproval and
understood the meaning of that nothingness. This ability to sense each other' s
point of view is what you know and give us an idea of their emotional
state I guess. What you feel is what is known as mind theory,
the latest technology in emotional predictive capacity. In reality, the theory of the
mind is only one of the components of what we know as social cognition,
which refers to the role that cognitive processes play in our social interactions. You
knew that social cognition is the emotional and cognitive processes that allow us to interpret,
analyze and understand the social world. It alludes to our ability to know
how others think and feel and how we behave. Depending on it. Social
cognition consists of the following elements. One recognition of emotions refers to the ability
to recognize emotions as they are, i e to know, to identify them,
if someone is sad, happy, etc. Two n teo s das
of the mind. It is the faculty that allows us to attribute thoughts and
intentions to other people to take into account the mental states of others. Mentalization
is the one that is involved when we make reflections of the kind I think
you believe that I believe, that is, it is the one that allows
us, for example, to infer about what we think the other thinks about
the three of us attribution, an intention is assigned to the actions or expressions
of others. Imagine that you walk down the street and come across a group
of people who are laughing. You might think they' re laughing at you.
In that case, you have assigned them one intention four. Social context
refers to tacit social norms, for example, to what is badly seen in
a society. All this will have an impact on our interpretation and prediction of
the behaviors of others through the mental states we attribute to them, but also
on our own behaviors. Moreover, it allows us to understand why a person
does not react like us to the same encouragement. Mind theory is key to
our survival. It explains behaviors like solidarity and allows us to adapt and connect
with others, but also to lie, deceive and manipulate. It will be
in our hands to make good use of it. It reaches the age of
four or five, when children move from concrete thinking to developing a more abstract
thought. Thus, even the fact of telling lies implies a minimal development of
psychic functions. For example, a two- year- old is not able
to lie if you have young children. I urge you to carry out the
experiment that I detail on these pages. You knew what you can test your
child' s mind theory with one of the following exercises. Grab a box
of cookies and ask him what you think the kid is. He' ll
pick you up cookies, then you open it and show him it' s
full of paintings you' ve put in before. Then you close the box
and ask her and if we teach Grandma what she will think there is inside
a child who does not yet have the theory of the developed mind or a
child with autistic spectrum disorder thea will answer paintings. However, one who has
developed his social cognition will tell you that cookies, as he understands that his
grandmother will be guided by what he puts in the box, as he has
not been present in the previous scene. Another classic example is Ai Sali'
s test, which is used to assess the theory of the mind in consultation.
It' s about telling this little comic book to the kid and then
asking him where he thinks you' re going to look for Sally and the
ball. When social technology fails, social cognition can also fail, for example,
when it is skewed by our emotional states. Actually, if all this
knowing, what the other person thinks and feels was as easy or accurate as
a mathematical operation, it would be most boring. You don' t think
we' re gonna assume that we' ve fallen in love with someone and
that we' re meeting for coffee. The fact that you' re not
clear about each other' s intentions doesn' t hook up. Our ability
to intuit the other person' s intentions will be fully operational. The problem
is that our fears, anxieties and expectations can alter or skew our vision.
Actually, we don' t lie to each other is that the brain works
much better with certain realities outside of emotional situations. The lack or deficit of
this capacity implies social inadequacy, difficulties in emotional expressiveness, withdrawal of psychosocial deterioration,
reduction of quality of life, stigma. Autistic spectrum disorders OTEA, for
example, are disorders characterized by difficulties in social coc nin. In fact,
people with autism fail to predict and anticipate other people’ s behaviors, which
makes them have confusing relationships and interactions. They have difficulty understanding that others may
have feelings different from their own. That' s why it' s hard
for them to lie. It is thus clear that this capacity is key to
understanding and adapting to our very complex social reality, an ambiguous reality, changing
and full of implicit and nonverbal codes. Social cognition can be trained. Working
with social cognition is one of the main therapies that are applied today to patients
with tea and some of those suffering from schizophrenia. But we can also work
them without having any deficits in it. And if I also told you that
there' s a hormone that' s very related to this, you'
ve heard of oxytocin. It is the hormone that stimulates the production of breast
milk and the link between the mother and the baby and that also receives the
name of pregnancy hormone. Well, today we know that oxytocin is a very
well preserved neuropeptide on the evolutionary scale, which plays a fundamental role in our
social behavior and is key in attachment to fidelity, generosity and trust in others.
It is, therefore, at the basis of our relationships, which are
based on mutual trust, we release it in sexual relations and in many other
situations involving physical contact, caresses, massages, etcetera, and that makes us
feel more connected and confident. Plus, it' s been shown to reduce
stress You can imagine everything we could do if we had her on pills.
Some researchers have already raised this issue and, in fact, many studies with
oxytocin and inhaled were launched, in which participants were placed in various situations.
What I know observed is that oxytocin increases confidence in others to the point that,
when we are under the influence of this hormone, we are willing to
give them our money or our most valued secrets, bearing in mind that we
know natural ways to stimulate oxytocin, sexual relations, hugs and physical contact through
the meditation body by sharing experiences. Perhaps we should think more about this when
we want to stimulate the economy. You knew we weren' t far from
getting confidence through a nasal spry. To talk about trust means to talk about
the famous oxytosin. This hormone that is produced in the hypothalamus and affects the
emotional regions of our brain. Amigdala is especially known because it is released after
delivery and during breast- feeding. However, it has many other functions,
such as strengthening the emotional ties between the mother and the baby and between the
parents themselves. In fact, from an evolutionary point of view it is often
said that if sexual desire is the one that guarantees the reproduction of the species.
Attachment is the one that will allow the couple to tolerate and endure enough
time to guarantee the upbringing of the children. I don' t mean to
take romanticism away from love, but it has always caught my attention as love
transforms over time. That is, when we have spent years with a couple,
we pass from a phase in which we do not stop releasing dopamine that
substance that we usually consider more addictive to another in which oxytocin, the calmest
love, attachment, etc are much more present. In fact, it'
s very important to know this to understand a little bit more about partner relationships.
But it is also considered that oxytocin is the social glue that contributes to
enhance social relations and promote the behaviors of closeness or proximity among unknown people.
This hormone aroused enormous interest, even among economists. When researchers like Cosfeld and
his colleagues began to study how it stimulates trust and generosity with other individuals,
in fact, they observed that people risked more in betting games that implied trust
between two people. Paul sac director of the Center for Neuroeconomic Studies at Clerman,
has researched and written a lot about it. By conducting some interesting experiments
with individuals who received oxytocin and inhaled and others who did not receive it.
He noted that the former were more generous in their economic donations when dramatic social
scenes were exposed to them. Hence, this hormone is presented as the lubricant
of the economy. Although these studies have not been without controversy, they have
opened up a very interesting way of study in the field of mental health,
especially in those disorders where the social component is compromised. But in reality,
the economy can also be stimulated by investing in everything related to mental health.
In this sense, the study of oxytocin can provide interesting advances in this field,
since the social component is one of the most committed in much of the
patients we attend in psychiatry and clinical psychology consultations. Anyway, we don'
t have to go to the consultations or to the troubles. It is enough
to review our day to day to realize the enormous application that this knowledge can
have, because let us not forget that physical contact improves life. However,
it is surprising that, if traditionally the embrace and the company have been one
of the best therapies for their psychological and tactile benefits and for their ability to
stimulate oxytocin, we hear more and more about Leave Me. I need to
be alone and we gladly reject one of the best aids. Maybe the next
time a friend or a loved one tells us something like that, we can
answer him with a let me insist. I want to be with you,
or I think I can help you Let me, unless I hug you.
We may be able to help you by decreasing your defenses, increasing your success.
Emotional contagion, the magic of mirror neurons. Emotions are spread much faster
than a virus, precisely in a matter of microseconds and fundamentally through our facial
expression, thanks to the more than thirty muscles that we have on our face.
If you smile the world smiles at you. This beautiful phrase can be
valued or criticized as banal or exponent of an easy positivism. Although it is
true that we cannot take the crack board or apply it to all situations,
it cannot be denied that there is much truth in it. To begin with,
there is even a Euroscientific explanation for it and it is in our mirror
neurons and in the effect that it causes in our mind the contraction of facial
muscles. Let' s start with the mirror neurons. They were discovered unexpectedly
by Gia' s team as Risolati five thousand, while studying the brain of
a group of monkeys. In my case, I discovered these neurons as I
trained as a specialist in psychiatry and was fascinated by their name mirror neurons.
I found that very funny, attractive and fascinating. What I didn' t
know then is that years later I would be lucky enough to meet this researcher
in person and put them in practice. Infecting me with his funny smile.
It has been observed that when we see someone performing an action, for example,
taking a glass of water, we are activated by the same motor regions
of the brain as if we were actually doing it, that is, we
reproduce in our head the scene that we are seeing to finish understanding it,
and this makes it possible. The famous mirror neurons or Mrnorans are the cells
of the nervous system that are at the base of emotional contagion and allow us
to explain phenomena as curious as the contagion of a yawn or a smile.
If you smile the world smiles at you. You knew that the gia team
like Risolati and his collaborators, the efogaz and yuve Gallese of the University of
Parma, discovered the mirror neurons when they were studying the brain of some monkeys.
They had placed electrodes in the lower frontal cortex of the macaques in order
to see how the neurons specialized in hand movements acted. The experiment consisted of
feeding one of the monkeys and seeing the neuronal response. But suddenly they observed
that when one of the animals was manipulating their food, the neurons of another
macaque were also activated. And that had no relation to food itself, but
to action itself. The latter had not moved, had no fruit in his
hand and had not imitated the gesture of the experimenting monkey. However, his
brain did produce an activity identical to that of the brain. The same brain
regions were activated as in the animal that was performing the action. Po s
P or r N. It was found that these neurons play a key role
in detecting the movements, emotions and intentions of the people with whom we interact,
because the same brain regions are activated. It was then placed in the
premotor cortex, but today we know that they are found basically in the parietal
regions and in the temporal furrow. These neurons work in such a fast and
automatic way that it is more difficult to avoid the contagion of an emotion than
to let it flow. Te. Let me give you an example. Imagine
that you come across a person that you don' t like very well,
but that outlines a big smile when you see yourself. Well, it will
cost you more to inhibit the smile than to let it out, as your
brain will act automatically thanks to these neurons. Mirror does not smile It will
require additional effort, active and conscious work, as the smile tends to spread
very quickly. But I was trying to show you that the phrase if you
smile the world smiles at you was true. There are two more arguments.
On the one hand, the theory of facial feedback that we saw in the
previous chapter. According to this theory, facial muscle movements related to a certain
emotion have an important influence on our way of experiencing it, without the need
for an intermediate cognitive process. Thus by smiling under that mechanism of active reverse
messaging in our brain. What we receive is a message from this and well,
before that the body relaxes. In addition, brain communication with the face
plays a very important role and has a greater impact than it does with the
rest of the body. Finally, we can say that it is true.
For something far less scientific than all of the above, for the simple fact
that we are attracted to the positive and if we are hooked, it is
because it gives us pleasure. When someone smiles makes us feel good, it
makes us feel comfortable if we like it there that you have more chance of
success if you smile at life than if you don' t, even when
you think you have no reason to. We could also interpret it as a
form of self- fulfilling prophecy, as an optimistic attitude always brings more benefits
than a pessimistic one. But care should never be taken to think that we
can treat certain mental health pictures. Telling the affected person who smiles at life.
It would be like thinking that the patient is going to cure arterial hypertension
just by stopping eating sweets, Although sweets can influence tension, they are just
one more ingredient of a complex picture that requires a much more complete approach.
The magic of mirror neurons to give you an idea of everything you' d
miss. If we didn' t have this advanced nervous system. Without the
mirror neurons, it would make no sense to create plays that make us cry
or movies that make us tremble. You get a sense of the scope and
impact they have. These neurons. They are responsible for emotional contagion, tuning
and empathy, and therefore play a primary role in learning. And it'
s just that we spend our lives imitating, copying. We cannot help it
since we were born our learning is either imitation or vicarious learning, as Canadian
psychologist Albert Bandura described. Mirror neurons explain much of all this and are the
ones involved in the famous empathy. They allow us to live the emotion of
the other as if it were ours and help us to understand it. We
could say that the discovery of these neurons is as relevant to the field of
mental health as that of DNA for biology. You knew that mirror neurons one
are millennial In fact, they were discovered in the decade of nine hundred and
ninety by Giacomo Risolati' s team. Two have a lot of primitive.
It is discovered NS experimenting with monkeys of the maccanemestrin type. They have an
evolutionary sense of survival. For example, if we see someone running in a
scary face, we' ll run, too. Three are very brainy.
They are located in the Cortex, in the premotor zone specialized in planning,
selecting and executing movements. They are activated quickly and automatically. Four are copious,
as they are responsible for learning, by imitation, emotional contagion and empathy.
Five are sensitive. They can be activated both through the auditory, visual
and behavioral pathways and through the execution of an action. Six are artistic.
Without them, there would be no sense in a play that makes us laugh,
a book that makes us cry or a movie that makes us shudder.
Seven are magical. They are really fascinating, because they are responsible for not
our capacity for empathy, to put ourselves in the other' s place in
their shoes. When we' re in love, imitation is much bigger.
We already know that these neurons are activated when actions are visualized. Well,
they also allow us to understand the process of action itself, as well as
the underlying motivation, the why of behavior. These neurons are therefore key in
empathy, imitation and synchrony. Something that is fascinating to observe in our body
is how we interact with other people, curiously adopting a position similar to that
of the other. Unconsciously we tend to imitate what he does or to infect
ourselves with his emotions. This is what has been called mirror infection. It
' s a way of telling the other person that we like and look like
her, naturally. If the person is attractive to us, intellectually or physically,
this contagion effect will be greater. If we were in front of two
lovers and tried to analyze their body movements, we would appreciate how their bodies
communicate and dance in a synchronized and unconscious way. Her feet and legs would
be facing each other, her torsos would not appear covered by her arms,
her eyes would meet, there would be an exchange of smiles and they would
move their hands between them as if they were hooked by threads. When we
' re in love, imitation is much bigger. So you know if you
want to know if you' re as interested as you are in paying a
little attention to how your body moves. Learning by imitation, learning vicarious will
do whatever you do, but whatever you tell them to become vicar comes from
Latin I see what it means to transport all this contagion and imitation. It
will not be surprising to us if we think of young children the tendency to
imitate others we carry it as a series of sns of our tenderest childhood.
You haven' t noticed that your child knows how to ride skateboards without you
having to teach him or that he suddenly says or repeats a mean word that
he only heard you say is the vicarial learning of imitation. Hence, your
children' s learning depends more on what you do than on what you tell
them to do our little ones learn from the older people around them, who
are called models, that is, parents, grandparents, and other adults around
them, will be the examples of behavior that they will observe and imitate learning.
From the imitation of these models it is called modeling. In other animal
species a similar type of learning is given which is called impronta or imprintin described
by the physician and zoologist with Coam Matlorenz, thanks to which the offspring are
more likely to survive. It is an innate behavior that occurs hours or days
after birth and causes the young to identify with the creatures around them and follow
their parents at all times without prompt filiality. Another side is therefore a behavior
that promotes the survival of the species humans. We observe that others make mistakes
and this allows us not to commit them ourselves, that is, not only
do we start from the results of our own conduct, but we also lead
by what we learn from others. Likewise, there are behaviors that we know
by intuition that we do not need to experiment to know their consequences. As
kids. We learn not only from our parents, but also from other people.
And what it depends on if we imitate one another more than others.
Generally, children imitate people who perceive themselves as similar, friends of their age
and gender, who generate greater interpersonal attraction or who have greater credibility and success
in their behaviors. Finally, the behaviours implemented will reinforce them negatively or positively,
which will determine that they will be maintained or repeated in the future.
For example, if the child shares one of his toys and the father tells
him well done you have been very generous, the behavior will have been reinforced
by the approval of the parent. Witnessing how they punish a classmate for misbehaving
will be another form of behavioral learning. To take note, to learn something,
it is not necessary to experience it. For example, we don'
t need to test heroin to know it' s risky behavior with negative consequences.
Much of our children' s education depends on what we do, not
what we tell them, they will do what you do, not what you
tell them to do. If you want your comasan son, do it,
you' re not guaranteed he' s going to be, too. But
if there will be a greater probability, because almost unintentionally he will have begun
to imitate you. Taking positive behaviors can help us feel better, as they
tend to radiate and imitate each other. If we appreciate a behavior in another
person that makes us feel comfortable, it is much more likely that the Reproduce
the social and its protective function can be obvious, but we are social beings
and relate is for us almost a physiological necessity. Without this tendency to form
groups or tribes we would not even have survived as a species, because our
evolutionary success is due to our ability to interact in large groups. Sometimes we
forget the fundamentals, perhaps because we live in an increasingly individualistic and faster society.
However, the pandemic has been responsible for reminding us that it has stopped
us dry when we were going at full speed. It' s been a
lesson, some say a wake- up call because we weren' t on
the right track. During house confinement we have been physically more separated, but
more united than ever in emotional terms. We' ve realized we need each
other. Today we know that social isolation has a negative impact on our physical,
cognitive, emotional and behavioral health. People with less quality social contacts,
the main component being the subjective experience of loneliness. They present greater alterations in
the immune system, higher level of stress, alterations in sleep patterns, etc.
And even casino, one of the psychologists and leading researchers in social neuroscience
emphasizes that the feeling of loneliness is something very different. Being only weakens the
subject physically and mentally. It is a state of aversive discomfort that pushes us
and mobilizes us to seek out others and relate. That is, it has
a survival function, as it leads us to want to be with other people.
On those group relationships depends our ability as a species. Social support is
one of the most powerful tools against traumatic stress experiences or everyday disagreements. Sometimes
the hug of a loved one, the contact of his hand in our lap
or his availability to listen to us is enough to calm the psychic pain.
Two studies have shown that the positive effects of social relations on health occur in
both sexes and in different races and environments, both urban and rural. Its
effect has been comparable to that of other variables, such as smoking, obesity
or physical activity. People with few social relationships are more likely to die than
those with many a trend that is analyzed by age, gender, and health
in general. What' s the point of a child learning math and history,
speaking several languages, or getting the best grades, and not being able
to regulate their emotions or manage themselves in society. This relationship between isolation and
poor health is not necessarily due to stress. There are many lonely people and
hermits who greatly enjoy their way of being. However, it has been observed
that this relationship could be mediated by lifestyle factors, such as the fact that
these people may be less likely to take medicines and more likely to eat pre
- cooked foods or to smoke in excess. In the same way that the
social acts as a protector, asking for help also does. In fact,
it is considered a coping strategy, and it is that knowing, asking for
help or learning to do so involves effort and courage. We can say that
the social and the emotional are fundamental in our ability to succeed in life or
on the road to happiness. What' s the point of a child learning
math and history, speaking several languages or getting the best grades, if he
' s not able to regulate his emotions or manage himself in society, why
do we take for granted abilities that seem increasingly absent in today' s society.
The social media trap you used to be. What you had now is
what you share. Got Fred Bogard. Social networks began to use in the
nine hundred and ninety years in the hope that they would be an opportunity for
a society that evolved towards the individuality chosen and gave signs of alarm at the
unrest generated by loneliness, something chosen by many. However, it has been
observed that passive consumption of these networks can reinforce the feeling of loneliness and disassociation,
and has even been related to the increase in depression. Social networks have
revolutionized the way we interact and conceive of our reality and have grown in a
dizzying way over the past two decades. Virtually eighty- five percent of the
population that has access to the Internet uses some social network, a percentage that
rises to ninety- three percent among young people between the ages of sixteen and
twenty- four, many of whom are digital natives, that is, they
have not had the references that may have marked those of generations prior to the
decade of nine hundred and eighty, who have grown up with one foot in
the age of perfumed paper letters and another in that of messages full of emoticons
that smile and dance. We are immersed in a revolution that has advanced so
quickly that we are not yet ready to respond to it. Many parents forbid
their children to use social media and do not know if they should let them
carry a mobile phone. One of the debates of greatest concern is that of
the optimal age for the beginning of the use of the networks. Some parents
fear that their children will be excluded from groups of friends if they do not
have a mobile phone. But let' s be honest. You' d
think the same about cannabis or other drugs. You' d really be willing
to accept your son using a drug so they wouldn' t get caught from
the group. Perhaps it is not exactly the same, but it does seem
necessary to take appropriate measures in the case of social networks, we will not
be able to try to convince them not to dare them, as we would
do with a drug, but at least to make a responsible use and wait
for the right time to allow it to be used. In case we'
re not able to wait. Some child psychiatrists and psychologists, alerted by the
flood of consultations of parents and young people who suffer from all kinds of psychological
disorders related to the use of social networks, are already recommending that parents sign
contracts of commitment and responsibility with their children. These are contracts proposed by the
Social Media Group of the National Police to have parents and children under age set
in writing basic rules on the use of mobile phones, tablets, computers or
devices connected to the Internet safe, private and respectful that they will agree with
each other. By this means. We are giving responsibility and autonomy to our
children, while alerting them and informing them of the risks involved in using electronic
devices on social networks. Life serves to show it, not to enjoy it.
Some may consider the exaggerated, an act of excessive and useless control.
Others will think that you simply don' t have to give a device until
you' re eighteen. However, the truth is that it should be something
mandatory, because if we do not inform our children of everything we already know
about mobile phones they can make pathological use of them. Besides, even if
we don' t buy your mobile phone, they' ll always have some
way to use it. In the same way that we warn you about the
risks of drug use, we can also do so about technology. In reality,
it is as if we were giving him an even smaller sophisticated scientific apparatus
that still does not have the full cognitive and moral capabilities to use it.
I am referring to those of the famous prefrontal cortex, which is not yet
sufficiently developed. We are living something unprecedented and the consequences will only be seen
in the long term. As animals, we need to be accepted into the
group. We need to belong to social media. Such acceptance is marketed in
the form of IX. I like it and what' s the problem.
They' ll say some. It is not, at the end of the
day, another form of belonging. There have always been some people more popular
than others. The problem is that now the popular and the non- popular,
belonging and rejection have no end. They can be perpetuated in a way
that we are not able to anticipate. We have no control over it,
nor can we anticipate the consequences. Both good and bad can be transformed.
The rules of the game are changing and building patterns. It gets extremely complicated.
Lives are shown that do not correspond to reality. The networks are full
of idealized Joes that only show a selected part of themselves. Life serves to
show it, not to enjoy it, and some young people surely think that
if we cannot show it, it is not a life worth living. The
social networks have come to stay, have beset or set a trap for our
brain. We' ve been hypnotized and that makes us not think, not
reflect, we don' t even have dead times to do it anymore.
The few minutes you wait in a queue go by metro for a pedestrian pass
or that is in the bathroom have become occupied by our mobile device, largely
by social networks. There is no longer any need to give bread and circus
to the population. We seek it ourselves, because now the amount of entertainment
stimuli is infinite and we would need several lives to be able to read and
see everything that circulates through the networks. Some will be thinking that perhaps it
is a very alarmist view or too dramatic. Each generation has suspected the same
with the technological development that it has had to live the same ramón and casall
Criticized the development of the high speed in the railway industry, since it considered
that moving at such speed, you could not appreciate the reality, neither build
a mental map of the trip nor contemplate the landscape. I was afraid the
consequences might be negative. What cognitive abilities, such as spatial vision, would
be diminished by atrophy. However, this time it seems different the brain areas
involved in the use of social networks are those of our most primitive brain,
those of pleasure. Therefore, the lack of control is much greater. The
most successful courses in the coming years were those that taught to disconnect from the
mobile phone and filter connected information. I' ve got it controlled just one
more scrool let' s recognize it We don' t relate like ns to
face than on screen. On social media, everything flows differently. It'
s faster, it' s shallower. The flattery becomes banal, we have
left the IX to give and false compliments to exchange everything in order to swell
a little, the ego, the narcissism. This extends to all relationships,
including loving ones. The change is such that an endless number of terms have
already emerged to designate new patterns of behavior or ways of relating ourselves. You
knew that the new way of relating through social networks has brought with it a
genuine dictionary of new terms. Let' s look at a small, distraught
display of a tendency to feel braver and bolder when we send messages that in
person Gousting ended an affective relationship, cutting off all contact with the person,
disappearing from the map liana relations, consecutive relationships without leaving time for mourning.
After the last break, sending messages of erotic content through technological devices, creat
trom Bin comes from breadham breadcrumbs is a way to keep someone else interested when
you really don' t want anything with it. The way to do this
is by sending the minimum signals so that the other person thinks that everything is
not lost and that there is hope. Gas. Lichting in Spanish, gas
light consists of making the other person doubt his own sanity to subdue her katfishing,
creating a completely new identity to start a relationship. Kervin, when it
intentionally takes longer to answer someone else' s messages in Spanish, it would
be equivalent to begging or playing the interesting Benchin when someone has you on the
bench. It' s about keeping someone' s interest alive. Something similar
to the Reatrommbin. In loving relationships we move in an ocean of opportunities and
options that generate dissatisfaction. We go into the ethereal, the ephemeral or the
liquid relationships that sigmun Bohomen says when we get bored or feel bad, we
immediately turn to the mobile phone and we mentally say just one more crowl.
This may be one of the phrases that the new generations most repeat and notice
new ones. When you lift the head of the device it' s been
30 minutes, then you look in the mirror and think why you' re
like that. That' s the effect social media has on our brain,
which makes us free a lot of drugs. Huy, I mean dopa yes,
dopamine, the main neurotransmitter of pleasure, which, when we lack abstinence,
makes the body sing that of giving me more dopa thousand dina, I
want more dopa midinina. Our relationship with social networks is similar to that of
an addiction. The networks appeal to our most primitive brain regions to those of
the reward system, in which dopamine, the neurotransmitter of pleasure, plays a
primary role. The networks provide us with an inexhaustible flow of information, interactions
with others. The IX in short, rewards. Besides, they have the
novelty factor, because we don' t know what we' re going to
find. A like, a positive comment, an interesting post, a new
photo of your croscho of the person who has caught you. This type of
variable and surprising reward makes the networks even more addictive. In other words,
here DOPA is achieved quickly and easily. Why try to get it by reading
a book or doing a more expensive task. The more time we spend on
networks, the harder it is for us to get involved in tasks that require
concentration and effort and the harder it is for us to disconnect. Although other
activities also make us free dopamine, they do so in much less amount,
so our brain keeps asking us for more of the other. All this increases
addiction, i e, increases dopamine release and, in the long term,
facilitates habit formation. While we are hypnotized by social networks, we stop getting
involved in other tasks, we give up other things because we want more DOPA.
It fulfills the addiction to social networks. Criteria for an addictive disorder.
The problems caused by the use of the mobile phone are of such magnitude that
there are already those who talk about the need to do mobile abstinences or dopamine
fasts, because they consider that the dependence and abstinence they can generate are very
similar to those of a drug. In this way, it has an impact
on the benefits of voluntary and temporary abstention from something that generates pleasure like new
technologies. It is a question of recovering our time and allowing a mind to
rest when saturated by the incessant bombardment of stimuli and accumulated microdoses of mine dopa.
But it is correct to use this terminology to refer to substanceless addictions,
such as that caused by the mobile phone. What are addiction disorders? Let
us review the main criteria. Control over the chosen activity is lost and continued
despite the negative consequences. There is an increasingly pressing need for pendency consumption and,
in this case of using the mobile diagonal bar technology you need to consume
more and more to feel good or to get the same tolerance effect It is
the effect of before I got drunk with two beers and now I need five
to catch the dot. The same applies to technologies. More and more time
is spent submerged in them. If you do not consume, symptoms of lack
of concentration, mood disturbances, restlessness or s h ns et abstinence appear,
symptoms also observed in technology addiction. All of them are met in the case
of excessive use of technology and social networks. The added problem is that it
is not socially seen and that the consequences are not as serious as the use
of cocaine, heroin or alcohol. That is why one does not have the
motivation to abandon this type of repetitive and addictive behavior, which makes them more
dangerous. Perhaps we have minimized the potential risk of these substanceless addictions because we
do not perceive an immediate negative impact on our organism and the indirect impact of
time spent on them, for example, neglecting other aspects of isolation, etc.
One of the most striking effects is how it affects our interpersonal relationships.
Here the impact is more difficult to perceive, but the consequences can be devastating
and not only on an individual level, but also as a society. Perhaps
all the time we spend on these technologies. We' re not drawing him
from our relationships with others. We are not taking it away from sharing quality
time with others. In addition, much of the time we spend using new
technologies does not take advantage of it to think and reflect. As much as
we want, our brain is not prepared for a continuous bombing of information.
If you belong to the generation of digital natives, you may not even have
had the opportunity to value other aspects. We run the risk of becoming a
society numbed and dragged by the immediate and infinite gratification of our mobile phones.
In the digital world we will always live with the sense of infinity, because
there information flows endlessly. It has even been named for purposes derived from the
use of social networks. Thus, terms like Thomo Fiorre mesenea that in Spanish
we could transur as map fear to miss something are already used colloquially. That
is why in the coming years it will be our turn to face a great
challenge. We will have to know, to resign, to know how important
it is to realize it in time, because our most precious asset is the
time worth redundancy, a time that fades away in the opening and closing of
networks. How to combat infoxication in networks. Twenty years ago, the Internet
presented itself as a way of evading from the real world. Today, the
real world, for example, nature is the way out of the Internet.
Not only are we hooked to the mobile to the point that it has become
an extension of our body. It' s just that the cell phone'
s got us caught and trapped. We' re full of information. We
received thousands of inputs a day. We do nothing but open the mobile phone
to receive basepps, notifications, e- mails, social media alerts. We
' re having a hard time disconnecting. It is like having a background noise
that leaves no time for ourselves, to settle concepts, to think, so
that our mind can discriminate and discern. We' re in the age of
multitaskin. We read the news in the bathroom at the same time as we
brush our teeth. We talk on the phone while cooking and listening to podcasts,
while we exercise. What' s next? Checking the networks while you
have sex more than one will have already done so. Too much information,
with all its accessibility and immediacy, can overflow us. The information has invaded
us and we love to consume it as if it were a drug, otherwise
we have the feeling of wasting time. We don' t let the mind
rest, we don' t paradoxically disconnect the greater the amount of data available,
the less our ability to discriminate relevant lons from the irrelevant and the greater
the uncertainty and confusion when we get carried away by the bombing the information floods.
The ship spreads. This is why this phenomenon has already been named information
fatigue syndrome, also known as infoxication or information poisoning. When it is excessive,
it undermines our ability and causes us anxiety, blockade, difficulties in concentrating
and confusion, that is, it affects our mood, generating restlessness, insomnia,
apathy and decay, among other things. You knew how to make better
use of technologies in the age of infoxication. Try to set schedule to screens,
use them a proportional part, but to be able to be small of
the time you have available and in specific preset schedules, disable notifications and activate
the limit of motionless use and tablet. Turn off your mobile when you'
re working and don' t have it in sight Scientific studies have shown that
having it visible makes concentration difficult. In the face of not having it try
to listen to news a limited time a day on social networks. Be sure
to be selective with the accounts and topics you choose. Make sure that the
mobile isn' t the first thing, that you look at raising priority other
activities, study, exercise, reading, cultural activities, socialization. In fact,
we forget that not always more information amounts to more knowledge nor does it
make us freer. This is what psychologist Bershwortz talks about in his book of
per Doux of Choes, in which he explains why less is more according to
the paradox of choice, the more diversity and greater alternatives the human being has
at his disposal, the less satisfied he feels is the sense of blocking that
we feel when, for example, we go to a store and have multiple
products to choose from. The ability to choose between so many options increases the
chances of being wrong or not choosing. What best fits certain factors, for
example, the ratio of quality, price, needs, which causes us greater
discomfort. Hence, having more options does not necessarily correspond with greater happiness.
Again, we are adding stress factors to the mind and body itself as by
dripping almost imperceptibly, but chronically and repetitively. As we have already seen,
this sustained stress that we overlook ends up manifesting in our body in one way
or another, in the form of tiredness, muscle aches, etcetera. That
is why it is important that we pay attention to these manifestations that we seek
to be of body and mind present. Most of the time we disconnect to
be able to connect more information does not amount to more knowledge and does not
make us freer without n n n s SS. Some of the most important
challenges that we have for the next of each pass by being able to do
one thing at a time go to the bathroom without the mobile phone, accept
that the messages are not answered at the moment and realize that health is not
only absence of disease, but a state of physical, mental and social well
- being. According to the WHO definition chapter nine, emotions through the body
body knots cannot be undone a knot if we do not know how it has
been made aristoteles. The relationships between the physical and the emotional are most complex.
They' re so in grenades, there' s no way to separate
them. There are many examples that tell us about it. In chapter four
we talked about touch and physical contact and in this chapter we will talk about
psychological and physical pain. Let' s start with an example. Imagine she
' s being intervened from a very painful wound because she' s infected.
How do you think your body will be, what do you think you would
do if you had a relative nearby, you' d probably be tense,
you' d contract your muscles, if you' d hold on to your
companion' s hand in a desperate, unconscious attempt to ease the pain,
as if by straining too hard, the pain would slip away. On the
other hand, it is not crazy, as more than one parturette has fractured
the hand of her partner or companion. Studies have shown that if someone holds
our hand while we are experiencing physical pain, it hurts us less, because
physical contact and emotional presence modulate pain, Although unfortunately, we have not reached
the point where physical contact and accompaniment are able to completely replace an analgesic.
This effect is at least surprising. Our bodily knots represent our mental entanglements and
what happens when those wounds are upon us to suffer in ourselves, when we
are distressed and in conflict, we manifest it not only in the psychic plane,
but also in the bodily, in the form of discomfort or pain.
When we fail to elaborate mentally, emotions can appear knots in the body.
If you think about body knots, it may come to your mind at some
time when you have felt your body contractured, for example, pain in the
cervical area, stress from exams, or a move. And I don'
t mean a contract for carrying boxes. And our body knots represent our mental
entanglements. The problem is that on many occasions these knots do not undo on
their own. If you don' t do anything, you' ll get
more crammed, you' ll get more tightly intertwined. In addition, the
more we pull one of the ends without stopping to think more will tighten as
it happens when we try to unwrap the cables of some helmets pulling only one
of the ends. Nte requires meticulousness, patience and observation. Name emotions,
identify them and recognize them in our body will be the keys to undoing these
knots. A massage will provide a momentary relief, but it will not end
them. Physical pain to calm psychic pain. Car injuries. When we feel
anxiety, anger, frustration or, ultimately, psychic conflict, we block ourselves.
We cannot think clearly and this conflict can remain in our body in the
form of accumulated tension that, as we said before, ends up forming knots
in extreme cases, when there are no more elaborate capacities available to regulate emotions,
The subject can become self- injured in a desperate attempt to recover the
internal balance and so it is, as some describe it as a relief or
a liberation. Self- injury is the act of deliberately harming one' s
own body, intentionally inflicting damage from superficial cuts, most often blows, burns
or scratches to uncontrolled consumption of alcohol and diagonal bar or drugs, a way
to damage the body significantly enough to cause injuries to body complaints and to generate
bruising, fractures, scars or marks. But how can it be how someone
can want to self- injure themselves when human instinct imposes survival It is certainly
one of the most complex phenomena that we have to evaluate and deal with in
mental health consultations. Self- harm is an alarming phenomenon that occurs more often
than we think. Studies release figures ranging from four to twenty- three percent
in the adult population to seven percent and forty- six percent in the adolescent
population. Although these figures vary according to the severity of the self- injury
and presence or not of mental disorder, that is, one in five adults
has ever done so in their lives, the problem is now much more serious
because these behaviors have spread on social networks and are already talked about online digital
self injuries. Soham is a phenomenon whose risk is much greater and which consists
of the use of Internet technology, social networks or mobile phone to share,
post or send content that includes self- injury or that is harmful or humiliating
to oneself and why it gets someone self- injured. In most cases,
they are subjects with difficulties in managing their emotions and in self- regulation.
Anxiety and discomfort are such that they do not know how to manage them in
any other way. In addition, they tend to tend to insecurity, perfectionism,
self- criticism, rigidity, intolerance, frustration, low self- esteem,
negative emotionality. In many cases difficult situations have occurred in the family nucleus
during childhood. What it has done has made this way of functioning much more
entrenched than it may seem externally. Self- harm is useful to the subject
who at that time can feel relief from the suffering and inner battle he is
waging. The motivations that can lead to self- injury may vary. However,
most patients I have been able to treat in consultation usually repeat the following
sentences. It' s a way to anesthetize me. It' s a
way to override psychic pain with physical pain. Thus the mind is distracted by
another pain. It' s a way to feel alive, to get out
of a chronic, empty feeling. It is a mode of self- punishment,
usually for feelings of guilt and shame. Let us not forget that many
of the self- injuring people have experienced traumatic experiences. It' s a
way to feel control over something intangible, a way to make it specific.
In something specific, a pain like the psychic that the person cannot locate,
becomes traceable, identifiable. Attention is redirected to the wound. It is a
way of communicating despair, anger disappointment and, at the same time, a
way of claiming support. Although there are other causes and triggers of self-
harm, there is one factor that should be highlighted. It is the fact
that the person who performs it thinks or feels that it will relieve him that
in this way he will reduce a negative emotional state. I mean, try
to air a mind that at that moment is overflowing, collapsed. The truth
is that some people experience pain attenuation, which has been related to the release
of endorphins from our endogenous opioids, that is, those responsible for producing a
calming and euphorizing effect. Therefore, the more times these car injuries have occurred,
the more likely they will be repeated. Therefore, greater will be the
risk that it becomes a habit. This does not mean that they are an
adaptive strategy. Self- injury perpetuates pain and, in the long term,
worsens the situation does not resolve it. An adaptive strategy could make me run
out when I feel like calling someone to give me a cold shower, but
not a self- injury, because it will only perpetuate the pain. In
short, although each case is unique, we are faced with a conduct that,
as we already mentioned, translates or symbolizes something very similar in all cases.
It is a way to relieve psychic pain with physical pain. Self-
harm is only the entry hole of the anthill, a social phenomenon buried behind
which there is a complex life of emotions and experiences that have not been assimilated,
confronted or internalized. These behaviors generate alarm and fear among those close to
them who do not know how to respond. Some will act as if nothing,
ignore the conduct and dare not put into words what happened, because they
have the false belief that if they do not say it is that it has
not happened. It would be a way of not getting in touch with the
pain of something that scares us, overwhelms us or displaces us. Others will
react by alarming, calling the emergency room, shouting, crying, despairing,
recriminating the injured person, and they may, without realizing it, be reinforcing
their behavior. None of these attitudes will be useful. Someone who is self
- injuring needs help and has not been able to express it in any other
way. What can we do? Listening is the best way to calm down.
It must be an active and serene listening, without alarmism, dramatism or
guilt, but without falling into denial or minimization. Someone who is getting hurt
is someone who has serious difficulty managing in life, even though he does not
always recognize it. It will be important that we propose to consult with a
specialist. If the person learns to self- regulate in healthier ways, he
will not fall into such harmful ways of turning against himself. If young people
learn to talk about emotions, their own and others, to connect with their
body, to apply stress management techniques, or to use other ways of releasing
endorphins, for example, through physical exercise, they may not have to reach
the end of the self- injury, although entering into the alternatives to self
- injury gives way to the objectives of this book. If we know how
endorphins work, we can better understand the internal mechanisms of our organism and think
of healthier options than those of injuring the body' s opium endorphins. Endorphins,
discovered in a thousand nine hundred and seventy- five by John Hus and
his collaborators, constitute a group of neuropeptides also known as endogenous opioids, so
called for their similarity to the derivatives of opium heroin and morphine in terms of
their performance and chemical composition. These neuropeptides occur in the brain region, where
the pituitary gland and the fineal gland are found, that is, in the
area in charge of regulatory functions such as metabolism, growth, maturative development,
etc. These molecules have analgesic and pleasurable properties, so they provide emotional well
- being. Their ability to inhibit pain is fascinating. We could say that
endorphins act as short- circuit security and give an adaptive response that can save
our lives. Suppose we' ve been injured by a predator and we'
re trying to escape or we' ve suffered a road accident. Our car
is on fire and we have to flee in record time at first. The
almost immediate release of endorphins will cushion the pain and allow us to escape,
because that pain does not paralyze us, it does not prevent us from fleeing.
This will only appear when the body has relaxed. I' m sure
it makes you experience a similar sensation in more everyday circumstances, like a fall
after a stumbling block, but the effects of endorphins on pain don' t
end here. Today we know that they have a fundamental role in emotional psycho
pain, that is, they also cushion the psychological pain associated with traumatic or
stressful situations, for example, sexual abuse, endorphins will inhibit pain at the
psychic level and will also block our memory. This would explain why, when
we have suffered a traumatic event, we have difficulty remembering and we have mental
gaps, or why, in certain stressful situations appear omatic symptoms, bodily manifestations
such as pain or discomfort of any kind, when the stressor has already disappeared
or the conflict has been resolved. Finally, endorphins are involved in other key
functions, such as strengthening the immune system and what natural methods are available to
stimulate endorphin generation. One of the best known and we have already discussed in
chapter seven is physical exercise, but love, sex or a good session of
laughter will also make us free them. The pain and brain of how psychic
relieves physical pain. The pain receptors are spread throughout the body and transmit their
information to the spinal cord and then reach the brain. But the brain does
not act as an exact pain meter, devoid of all its objectivity. As
if an algeometer or a painometer were involved. Pain may vary according to certain
psychological variables. For example, the reception of good news often decreases its intensity
in reverse. Psychological discomfort can make physical pain markedly worse. Examples of these
variations are found in war wounded, where the positive experience of surviving and having
suffered only one leg injury, for example, rather than a fatal injury,
was an important psychological painkiller. More everyday examples are found in sportsmen, as
endorphin endogenous opioids play a key role in their case. Who hasn' t
seen a football player suffer a major injury during a game and keep playing as
if nothing. In fact, these endorphins are the same ones that explain the
placebo effect to which we refer in chapter one. For example, administration of
an injection analgesic has been shown to have a greater placebo effect. This is
due to the release of these molecules. And proof of this is that,
if the receptors of these opioid IX are blocked, for example, with loxone,
the placebo effect does not take place to perceive rejection in the other hurts.
And pain isn' t just psychic, it' s physical body pain.
We also know that the process of acceptance lessens pain, while the tendency
to catastrophism worsens it. We cannot deny the impact of our thoughts and emotions
on our perception of pain in general, on all physical health. Finally,
there are pains that are purely of psychic origin, such as a headache after
a family conflict. In short, a wake- up call from our body
about unprocessed emotions. Therefore, on the basis of the available scientific evidence.
We can say that pain is to some extent modulating. Hence, pregnant women
are trained in breathing control so that they can mitigate pain during childbirth. Relaxation
exercises, full attention, music therapy, etc. They' re targeting that
pain reduction. Now, more still you will be thinking the same as I
blessed epidural, because I do have to give birth only with the help of
endogenous two mechanisms. Social and physical pain share neural networks. Continuing with the
pain, we cannot stop talking about the fascinating relationship that exists between social pain
and physical pain. But what you mean by social pain, you' re
wondering. I am referring to all those situations arising from interaction with others that
cause us emotional discomfort rejection. We need to be accepted into the group.
It is a survival mechanism and is part of our evolution. As a species,
perceiving rejection in the other hurts and pain is not just psychic. It
is bodily, physical pain, something that has been demonstrated by various scientific studies.
You knew that Neomi Agenrover, an American psychologist and researcher, designed an
experiment with a computer game called Sibrbal, in which a few volunteers participated.
While the brain was being examined with an MRI team, it was observed that
when one felt excluded, the anterior singulated cortex, i e, the brain
and LR region was activated in physical pain. In addition, the level of
activation was higher in those who felt most rejected. This researcher considered that the
predisposition to pain was associated with the mutation of the oprm I gene, which
is in charge of modifying our reception of the opioids and makes us more prone
to depression. That is, psychic pain is also physical, it shares brain
networks with him and has been associated with gene mutations that make us more prone
to developing depressive pictures. In fact, people with an oprm gene were more
sensitive to physical pain and, after surgery, needed higher doses of morphine.
This is not surprising, as many of the people who suffer from chronic pain
have experienced traumatic experiences in childhood, which has been strapled into difficult situations or
day- to- day discomfort. It can amplify the warning signal and put
the pain net to work. Human beings, as they evolved, created a
link in the brain between social connection and physical discomfort. Since we are mammals,
we need to be socially connected, something that is essential to be cared
for and, therefore, for our own survival. That bond has long been
in popular culture. Hence, expressions like my heart has broken or I have
sat like a punch in the stomach to describe the discomfort generated by an experience
of rejection or infidelity. Remembrance or remembrance of the situations experienced can reproduce certain
physiological states, such as, for example, that small puncture in the heart.
Some of these situations can overwhelm the person' s adaptive abilities and make
him unable to properly regulate himself. If this is maintained over time, it
can cause alterations in the immune system that, in turn, generate adverse conditions
that can be harmful to health, for example, that we are more vulnerable
to certain conditions such as dermatitis, ulcerative colitis, etc. Some authors have
observed that even infidelity, as a lack of commitment on the part of a
significant person in our life, can produce symptoms associated with post- traumatic stress
disorder, as the subject may develop a psychological state that alters the balance of
the body and manifest anxious depressive symptoms similar to those of the disorder. Perhaps
the avoidance of the pain caused by the rejection or infidelity of someone is at
the base of the liquid relationships, both loving and friendly, referred to by
the Polish sociologist Sigmund boom In, when he explains our new way of relating,
characterized by a great fragility of the bonds. This author describes them as
relationships of use and throw, in which, on the one hand, we
seek to bond, but, on the other, we prefer that the bond
be weak enough to run easily. If things don' t go well,
a way to avoid compromises, responsibilities and two pains, both psychic and physical.
Then it would make sense to take acetaminophen for social pain, either to
the surprise or not of the reader. The truth is that there are studies
that have tried to assess the effect of paracetamol on emotions and have shown that
there is a modulatory effect. Those taking acetaminophen instead of placebo saw negative images
with less intense emotional reactions. However, these results are not yet conclusive.
If today there is no painkiller that can relieve the pain of a betrayal.
Although physical and social pain share neural networks at the cerebral level, it seems
that there are differences when experiencing these pains, which also manifest in the neurophysiological
plane, for example. Among these differences, it has been observed that feelings
of social pain can be experienced again even after a long time has passed since
the event that triggered them. In fact, we are more likely to remember
the painful experiences related to intense emotions, the betrayal of a friend or a
couple than the pain generated by a fall or a physical wound, since the
latter cannot be easily revived once the painful episode disappears. On the other hand,
physical and psychic pain, in addition to activating common brain regions, also
activate other neural systems. In reviving social pain, there is a greater activity
in the regions of affective processing of anterior, dorsal and anterior simulated cortex pain,
while in the rememoration of physical pain there is a greater activity in the
sensory and discriminative system, primary and secondary omatosensory cortexs and posterior insula. In
addition, in physical pain there is a greater involvement of peripheral pathways, that
is, the part of the nerves that travel through our entire body and at
this point it is possible that it will be one of the main differences.
The body as a place of penance incorporates healthy, said juvenal in his famous
satires, in the imperial rome, that was taken as a joke. Its
original meaning is that in order to have a balanced spirit in a balanced body,
one must pray. Therefore, they have nothing to do with the sense
that nowadays is given to the phrase healthy mind in a healthy body. The
original Latin citation orándums your healthy citmen and incorporate healthy say it a few times.
Maybe it' ll help stimulate your brain synapses. Since ancient times,
the body has been the scene of sin and penance, the place where to
atone for guilt to purify the soul, for example, through asceticism. Therefore,
pleasures and the satisfaction of the needs of the body were renounced by way
of fasting, chastity, control of sexual desire and modesty before worldly facts as
a commentary on beauty. On the other hand, a close connection between beauty
wave and goodness was established in classical Greek medicine. The human being had to
be beautiful and good at the same time, as it was understood that the
body is the mirror of the soul. Thus, a body that was exercised,
well, nourished and in harmony with nature. It was a beautiful body,
as we already anticipated in one of the first chapters. The body has
two fundamental dimensions, which makes us think of it as a body scheme,
drawing or figure of the body seen from outside, something like the packaging or,
the silhouette of the subject, its spatial aspect, its three body coordinates
refers to subjective reality, the internal body, experienced and perceived from within that
of psychic life. The integration of these two dimensions is what gives us a
complete sense of ourselves. But today' s society seems to forget about one
part, because the look enters into the body scheme in the aesthetic and hedonistic
part, the one oriented to appearances, to beauty and pleasure. This can
lead to an excessive cult of the body, but only of the outside,
not of the inner body. Hence our obsession with certain beauty canons that damage
our body image and self- esteem and sometimes lead us to the limit of
the disorder. Much of the moral beauty is achieved through good actions that people
can perform. This is the foundation of a thought based on values, a
morality that exalts society and the universal as superior goods. The main damage of
the excessive cult to the body of the last decades comes through the media or
social networks that alter the pyramid of values and priorities of each one. In
addition, there are hours left to time, to reflection and to reading.
Two of the foods that nourish the body, but above all the soul.
Four of you knew what aspects to consider in the age of excessive body worship.
One. It' s not so much about changing the body as modifying
the look at this two. The image we transmit has a lot to do
with how we feel about our body, and this is one of the things
that we can work most. Three. Beauty is in the balance of the
beautiful and the good, as the Greeks said. Four, the body is
not to punish him, but to take care of him. When we don
' t like ourselves as people, we don' t feel valid, we
reproach ourselves or feel guilty. It is possible that we do not like our
body image and that this discomfort with our way of being we address the body
that represents what we do not like. This body rejection is often seen in
people with anorexia eating behavior disorders, for example. For them the body becomes
the worst enemy and in a space where to dump the discomfort, at the
same time, they can feel disconnected from it they dissociate what makes it difficult
to regulate their emotions. In these patients it will be important to seek such
reconciliation with the body, for which the distortion of the image is worked and
they are taught to regulate their emotions by having the body as an ally,
not as an enemy. The body presents itself as a place from which to
connect, where to feel safe and take care not only of the physical,
but also of the emotional. Punishment through the body eating behavior disorders tc to
tell me I feel empty, it is a way to corporalize an emotion that
we find bad, because we are not able to enjoy or feel like before
to fill that void. Some people turn to food in order to feel full,
another metaphor to describe a state of well- being and fullness in relation
to the body and food. Many times eating behavior disorders five are but a
way of saying what cannot be expressed in words, a way of fighting and
fighting from the outside when it cannot be done inside. Many of these cases
include a history of traumatic experiences, abandonment, poor family emotional management, or
other traumatic experiences. These are situations that are engraved with fire in the mind
and in the body and that can give rise to the same psychopathological phenomena.
There has been much discussion about the distortion of body image in people with eating
disorders, one of the criteria for classification of the DSM, and about the
biological causes of excess or deficit of control over food. However, today we
know that in many cases, these symptoms are secondary to a disregulation or difficulty
in emotional management that, in turn, has its roots in early life experiences.
You knew that in emotional disregulation there is an alteration in the ability to
give flexible and organized responses that are adaptive to both the internal and the external
environment. For example, when I manifest an exaggerated discomfort and end up having
an explosion of anger that I am not able to control. This emotional disregulation
can have its origin in constitutive elements, that is, biological, in inter
- current experiences that depend on how we relate to our caregivers in childhood or
on a combination of both. The ability to self- regulate is crucial for
the internal and interpersonal functioning of the individual. Most psychiatric disorders can be observed
from the prism of emotional disregulation. Both bulimia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder can
be understood from this approach. Hence the importance of external regulation in the early
stages of life. And if it has not been done well, it is
essential that we at least be able to identify the problem and work it out
in time. The voracity that can be observed in people with bulimia could translate
a need to fill a void, the feeling of emptiness that I speak of
below, so that the food of our psyche is replaced by tangible material food,
as in an attempt to satisfy a hunger of life with hunger for food
or perhaps a way to seek reward, love or affirmation through the body.
On the other hand, in people with anorexia, some authors consider that there
is an alteration that not only prevents them from distinguishing hunger and satiety, but
also their physical sensations and more intimate emotions, which are often unable to describe
lexitimia. These patients have an enormous effort to gain control over themselves, a
control that is obtained by extreme abstinence, as in an act of punishment or
penance. In fact, in other times anorexia was associated with the asceticism of
some saints, a kind of search for contact with the divine that was only
achieved with sacrifice, abstinence from pleasures, etc. That' s about apparently
opposite behaviors. Food restriction as well as muggings and vomiting seem to be associated
with an emotional evil, a negative affection and present themselves as a strategy of
distraction from a negative emotion. Both translate a difficulty in emotional regulation with a
greater tendency to less functional strategies, such as avoidance, escape or denial behaviors.
If there is one thing that became clear to me after spending several years
studying eating behavior disorders, it is that eating would be just a phenomenon of
something much more complex and that anorexia was not cured by eating or bulimia by
stopping vomiting. The therapeutic goal is much more global. Disorders of food behavior
influence both sociocultural factors as well as emotional components of personality and biological that also
vary in the course of the disease. In the image scheme, feeding would
be seen as secondary the visible part of a disorder that remains invisible. If
we look at the outline on how you can start and maintain a CT,
we can see a series of phases. The beginning of these can occur due
to the influence of current beauty canons pressure fashions, as well as as ascetic
behaviors in another patient profile. All of this, usually in more vulnerable ages,
such as adolescence, can involve the exit gun, flirting with the restriction
vomiting, etc. Added to this would be factors related to personality, emotional
factors or related to the body' s own chemistry and physiology, which would
act as a breeding ground for the maintenance and advancement of CT. Likewise,
these dietary behaviors could, at some point, function as an effective strategy of
emotional regulation reinforced in the family dynamics itself. In the last step, as
with everything that is repeated, this behavioral pattern can become habit with an addiction
- like functioning. Thus, many patients become dependent on food restriction, as
failure to respect fasting makes them feel guilty. They spend much of their time
thinking about food in what they will restrict or vomit out their lives. It
begins to revolve around the body and food, and its activities are limited.
At this point, behavior is automated and can be detached from what generated it
at its inception. This is why much of the therapies are aimed at emotional
regulation and reconnection with the body in order to integrate and elaborate certain psychological difficulties
and conflicts that are at the origin of many of these cases feelings of emptiness.
We have all ever had a sense of emptiness for not seeing the meaning
of things after the loss of something or someone loved, a family member,
a job, the person loved by our future, uncertain or by certain interpersonal
relationships. It is a feeling that invades us and that makes the body like
an empty box, it usually goes with as accompanied by spirit under feeling of
loneliness, disinterested by what once attracted us, etcetera. This feeling of emptiness
is often observed in people with limited personality disorder, a disorder characterized by poor
emotional regulation, impulsivity, instability of one' s identity, low tolerance of
frustration, etc. Although with different characteristics. In these subjects, the feeling
of emptiness acquires a chronic character and is related more to one' s identity
than to external aspects. These patients often describe it as a feeling of emptiness
in the stomach, as if it were a bottomless well that nothing could fill
it, like a black hole. This can lead them to try to fill
it or avoid risky behaviors that also often involve substance abuse, self- harming
behaviors, sex cuts, muggings, etc. As we said above, it
is a way of feeling that brings everything to the physical, regardless of the
particularities of this disorder. When we have these feelings of emptiness, the most
usual that everything is boring, that we find no pleasure in what we do,
that we feel insecure, we distance ourselves from others, that we lose
the sense of responsibility and commitment and that we fall into unhealthy behaviors, eating
compulsively, smoking non- stop, consuming toxic, etc, that can lead
us to a spiral from which it can cost us to get out. It
is important to identify these situations in order to stop them in time and learn
from them. To take note of some key aspects in the presence of feelings
of emptiness, try to analyze the situation. Try to imagine how someone else
would feel in that same situation reflect on your strengths and the tools that have
allowed you to face difficult previous situations. Push you to do things you wouldn
' t normally do. Try to get out and relate, even if you
don' t want to, like you have to go to rehab. If
you' d broken your leg, you wouldn' t go too hard,
but you would. Try to put things in perspective. Think about what'
s really important in life. Don' t try to make sense of everything
and try to appreciate the little moments. Chapter ten, disease through the body,
dangerous inertia. We' re going through fast- paced life. We
repeat that I' m stressed or I don' t have time several times
a day and we become the generators of many of our problems. That is
why the Soo movement has been so successful in the times that it has been
our turn to live. We are witnessing a rapid growth of self- help
books, focused on slowly going to courses, focused on the maininfelniz, on
contact with ourselves, on having time for me. But it turns out that
we make things even worse because we want to be alone to focus on ourselves.
I, I, repeat over and over again I have to learn to
say that I don' t have to think about myself anymore, I have
to put limits and so we isolate ourselves more and more and we value less
and less the social, without realizing the importance that others have in our well
- being and happiness. In a way, we are generating pockets of stress
that reduce our quality of life and then provide us with new needs. That
' s how we get into an endless loop. We stop walking to work,
we go by car or by electric skateboard instead of walking or cycling,
and then we sign up for the gym. We fill the time with all
kinds of activities because we are not able to be alone with ourselves to compensate
for the stress that generates us. We sign up for relaxation classes, we
do ten things at a time, because this is the age of multitasking,
high resolution, productivity, and then we pretend that our brain relaxes and turns
off to sleep as if it were a switch. If you don' t
do it the first thing we' ll think about is taking something, because
there' s no time to waste. Paradoxically, you don' t believe
the well- known. I think I exist later. We should add I
' m a paradox, then I exist. If we paid more attention to
the body and had more knowledge of how it works, perhaps we would take
it more seriously. By way of example, when our neurons are activated,
because we are reading the news on the mobile and we are subjecting them to
a constant and changing stimulus throughout the day. What we' re doing is
we' re quoting them what translates into electrical activity. They are able to
connect at great speed, but all that brain activity that we have generated we
cannot suddenly turn it off just as if a switch of a diagonal bar of
is treated to this energetic inertia of neurons are especially sensitive the cones of the
retina photosensible neurons. It' s a nice metaphor I heard once about this.
A plane takes a few minutes to take off. However, to land
it takes at least half an hour, simply because the aircraft' s engines,
due to their own inertia, need more time to brake. How emotions
are expressed in the body. All our emotions are inscribed in the body Boris
Cyrilni exhaustion is not only physical, it is also psychic. When we are
tired or psychologically exhausted, for example, because of stress, we block ourselves.
We can' t think properly. It' s hard for us to
make decisions or come to conclusions. But when we speak of exhaustion or rather
of psychic conflict, it turns out that it is not only manifested in the
psychic plane, but also through the body. We could say that the mind
speaks through it, especially to capture our attention. When we are not lending
you what we have not been able to elaborate and put into words through reason
and language. We do it through the body. The body operates on many
occasions in an automated manner and many of our battles are fought between what we
know and what we feel, perhaps not always as a disease, but as
a symptom, as a more form of language. Gastrointestinal headaches, muscle aches,
chronic tiredness. There are countless symptoms that do not have a specific cause.
Pass doctor in doctor and test until, suddenly someone suggests you go to
a psychiatrist and then horror. But if I am not crazy, many repeat
when arriving at the consultation after a time, when they begin to establish a
possible association between the physical symptoms and the purely psychic, they ask, it
will be mica. I' ll be making it up. The answer is
no. You' re not crazy and you' re not making it up,
it' s just somatizing and what that nuanced in a generic way.
This term refers to the expression or bodily manifestation of a psychic conflict. Thus,
small spasms in one eye the day before an exam or the gastric discomfort
we experience when we have problems at work are quite common. But these symptoms
can go further and lead to a somatization disorder that in the DSM five is
called a somatic symptoms disorder, which is characterized by a multiplicity of physical or
matic symptoms that cause discomfort or can cause significant problems in daily life. Moreover,
these disorders are not easy to diagnose. People who present them consult with
many specialists before reaching the psychiatrist. They go from one doctor to another because
they are convinced that they have a digestive or nervous system problem. And the
specialists themselves are trying to find some proof to ratify such intuitions. One at
the first step is to rule out what we know as organizationality, that is,
that there is not a physical illness that is causing the psychic problem two,
although we should not forget that the psychic is also real and that it
also produces physical changes. That' s why the psychiatrist' s consultation should
be taken as a further step as normal. Valuing the psychic, either as
a modulator or as a unique cause of what happens to us is fundamental,
because just knowing it will reduce our discomfort. The symptoms are there, they
are real and somatizing is not inventing anything or going crazy, but just one
more term that helps us put into words, what happens to us, what
we don' t solve in our mind, we solve in our body.
Nothing' s wrong with him. It' s psychological. It' s
all in his head. We started the first chapter by talking about phrases like
you are, in which we even occasionally fall the doctors themselves, drawing an
insurmountable wall between the psychic and the physical and taking away relevance from the former
as if this was not a matter of medicine, which indirectly would be to
say that it is not a relevant component of health. How many people will
have heard any of these sentences when they have gone to a consultation to tell
their physical symptoms and no concrete cause has been found to justify them, as
if that headache? Those gastric discomforts or that accelerated bowel that constantly makes us
go to the bathroom. They were not real as if the mind were on
the one hand and the body on the other, as if we were not
legitimized to complain or find ourselves wrong. If there is no medical cause that
can be labeled and tested. We cannot avoid this artificial division between mind and
body. And yet the body is one and the mind is also body.
We have already commented that the homeostasis of the organism is influenced by brain processing,
that is, by psychic activity. In fact, the idea that mental
life inevitably impacts physical health and determines the development of diseases exists from the dawn
of human culture. All the pathologies we see in medicine are in some way
psychosomatic, because in all our mental state influences. But there are also conditions
of presentation with physical symptoms whose main origin is in psychological factors, both in
its beginning course or treatment. Known psychosomatic disorders when doctors try to explain this
to patients who receive in consultation automatically, are assaulted with the classic question of
but then it' s all in my head. What is clear is that
if it is in the head, it is also in the body. Some
cases very well reflect this intense relationship or dependence between mind and body. States
with two vus of anxiety can manifest themselves in a wide variety of ways.
Squamoleonic anxiety can reproduce any condition and camouflage itself by taking the form of any
symptom or disease. To those of us who work on this, we are
no longer surprised that a medical student who opposes for the examination of access to
the specialty in medicine from good to first, presents a sudden blindness the days
before the exam or a picture of dizziness with falls to the ground. The
student will end up being studied in the hospital. He will be given all
kinds of tests in search of the most dramatic diagnoses, a brain tumor,
a tumor of the optic nerve, will wait as the student, enters the
door, because he will have taken care to review all the associated symptoms and
will have even manifested them, so that he himself urges the doctors to look
for the supposed tumor, the one that will never give his face, but
that will take all of the health heads, family and student. After a
few days you will be discharged, along with an appointment in psyche that this
student ends up attending our consultations. It will depend on the general culture of
mental health and the level of stigmatization. It' s quite possible he'
ll do it sooner rather than later. I' m sure that many years
later we enter here in the field of what is known as the meddling picture,
in which psychics are manifested mainly through neurological symptoms. There are striking cases
that we see in consultation, such as epileptic pseudocrisis, i e epileptic seizures,
no neurological focus, no cerebral scar, no known cause, no convulsive
waves in the electroencephalogram neurologic test in which we can study the waves of brain
activity and which is commonly used to study subjects with epilepsy, the patient becomes
convulsed and has all the symptoms of a seizure, but in a much more
contaminating and variegated way. Usually, the patient does not bite the tongue,
pee on or move the limbs in a repeated and stereotyped manner. All these
clinical clues will guide the neurologist to the psychological component of the crises and proceed
to referral to psychiatry. It can then move the body unintentionally only by a
psychic conflict. This is exactly what we see in what in many cases ends
up being catalogued as a conversive disorder neurological symptoms for which there is no medical
explanation. Let' s see how it happens under normal conditions, a physiological
process before an emotion is usually filtered by the prefrontal cortex is the one that
controls the execution of such movements in a conscious way, giving rise to motor
behavior. But when our prefrontal brain fails executive control, the control we call
top- down, the motor process can take place without a conscious process.
Finally, other striking cases that we see in consultation are those related to dermatology.
I still remember a woman attending a consultation who had lost all her hair
to the universal opez because of the stress and shock caused by the sudden loss
of her child in traumatic circumstances. In these cases, the physical appearance itself
also plays as a stressor and perpetuator of symptoms. In short, when the
mind takes over or, we should say, loses it, the consequences on
the body can be devastating. It is an excess of energy that cannot be
put into words or that it is not enough to express in that way a
surplus that needs to go out elsewhere, to explode all these cases, from
the most striking to the most subtle, we see them daily in our consultations.
Therefore, one of the first steps when treating these patients is to give
credibility to what they are telling us and validate suffering. If this is not
done, the patient will not be consulted again and the therapeutic failure will be
guaranteed. The symptoms that the patient exposes are as real as toothache from an
infection. Are we judges of the different ways of suffering? Are not all
equally valid. Who judges, who decides what is normal, that there is
no measurable physical finding means that the disease has no cause. As we have
already said, the psychic can produce physical symptoms and vice versa, and normality
is only a statistical concept that cannot clarify the difference between the physical and the
mental. You knew that there are numerous studies that have tried to find the
variables that determine psychosomatic pathologies. The most researched are set out below. One
experience that marks the most documented risk experience is physical or sexual abuse in childhood
or neglect. At this same stage it has been shown that they are a
frequent biographic history in subjects with unexplained somatic symptoms, conversion disorders or post-
traumatic stress disorder. These experiences seem to have a disorganizing effect on emotional regulation,
on the balance of the organism and on the link with the other two
structural psychological characteristics alexitinia inability to put emotions into words. People with alexithymia three
have difficulty in introspecting and putting emotions into words. In addition, they have
a limited imaginative and non- verbal communication activity. The style of conduct is
characterized by social isolation and by the tendency to action as a coping strategy,
that is, as there is difficulty to reflect internally on emotions they are taken
to action they act. This does not mean that there is an inability of
sense to empathize, as happens to subjects with p CO PSS traits, but
that the person with lexitimia does not know how to put into words their own
emotions or those of others. This makes it difficult at the emotional level and
in its ability to relate to others. In fact, close ones can have
a feeling of coldness and loneliness when they live with those who suffer from lexithynia.
In addition, individuals with lexitimia tend to run away from excessively emotional reflections,
romantic language and double senses, because their thinking tends to the concrete and
the literal, and all that makes them feel uncomfortable. Scientific studies also show
that there is a higher prevalence of allexitimic characteristics among patients with unexplained somatic symptoms,
eating behaviour disorders and consumption of psychotropic substances. Megaphone style is also known
as somatosensory style and is understood as a more temperamental psychological variable, that is,
more related to the biological and genetic component of personality. According to Barsky,
it is characterized by a tendency to excessive attention or perception and hypervigilance of
the signals coming from the body, with a predisposition to select banal and uncommon
sensations and to react to them in an alarming way. Neuroticism is a dimension
of personality that describes the tendency to respond to stimuli from the environment with intense
and lasting emotional activation. It has been related to the activation of the sympathetic
axis, the sufrarenal one of stress, so it increases the likelihood of discomfort,
anxiety and bodily symptoms, tiredness, loss of appetite, pains, etc.
It also tends to experiment with negative emotional states and mood swings like the
previous one. This is a genetically determined temperamental dimension that until recently had been
considered, based on studies, the most potent psychological variable in the prediction of
depressions, anxiety disorders and unexplained bodily symptoms. A recent in- depth analysis
has shown that it is intolerance to uncertainty that most predisposes to affective alterations four,
hostility, tendency to emotional responses of anger or anger and the display of
aggressive behaviors. This has traditionally been seen as part of what is known as
a standard pattern of behavior that had been considered a decisive determinant in the risk
of coronary pathology, for example, myocardial infarction, which is currently in question.
Hostility has also been associated with indirect psychosocial variables. For example, people
with more hostility and aggressiveness lack social support because they tend to drive people away
or are more likely to not feed well, smoke or drink too much,
all of which influence cardiac risk factors. Five negative affectivity, trait or personality
variable that speaks of a person' s predisposition to more intensely experience negative emotions.
Six. It is not a permanent condition or mental alteration, but a
trait that will influence and modulate our adaptive abilities and our greater or lesser tendency
to somatize concealing emotions does not work. People with the greatest tendency to have
psychosomatic pictures are often also those who have the most difficulty expressing their emotions.
They usually tend to cover them up, deny them, or hide them.
The only idea that the cause of how much happens to them may be of
emotional origin does not like an apex. They prefer to think that they have
a medical problem for which there will be treatment, as this is much more
tolerable to them. Trying to hide emotions, suppress them, ignore them,
or avoid them is like trying to submerge a balloon full of air under the
water. It will end up reaching the surface one way or another, so
the next time you try to drown your sorrows. Remember this phrase of frid
kahlo I tried to drown my sorrows, but they learned to swim. The
inhibition of a particular emotional state is counterproductive. Studies by James Cross, a
psychologist and researcher at Skenfored University showed how inhibition of our emotions leads to greater
activation of the sympathetic nervous system. That is, suppressing the expression of emotions
magnifies the accompanying physiological response of ordained planners. Among the most appropriate strategies are,
for example, observing, trying to regulate in its absence, accepting emotions
or thoughts. Some experiments show this, as it has been seen that people
who have a greater capacity for compassion and kindness towards themselves are less likely to
use suppression mechanisms exercises such as full attention. It is precisely in that,
not to suppress negative thoughts or emotions, but to let them flow and accept
them. We can modify our body' s response through mental exercise in order
to deal more successfully with stressful situations. When we are facing a difficult or
stressful situation, it is our body that reacts and gives us an emotionally unpleasant
feeling. Some studies show that awareness of these reactions or exercises such as full
attention reduce the peripheral response of the body and the response to stress. Walliam
James said that our best weapon against stress is our ability to choose one idea
before another, referring precisely to that ability we have to modulate the body'
s responses through the mind. While it is true that this might sound a
little fantastic. Mr. Wonderfod, we can use them as tools to prevent
stress. It can be said that when there is no fluid dialogue between the
mind and the body, this relationship is altered, becomes unbalanced, increases stress
hormones or values that indicate inflammation. The TNF or the now known PCR seven,
weakens, the immune system, etcetera. If we suddenly start with a
picture of irritable colon or accentuation of a soriasis and try to put the solution
where it is not at all. For example, by focusing only on psychic
manifestation, it is possible that the condition not only does not improve, but
is chronicled. The body mind relationship is of double direction and the balance between
the two will be key to maintaining the homeostasis state of the organism, constancy
of the properties of the internal environment of the body. The degree of affectation
of diseases such as irritable colon decreases when we are able to understand that the
mind and body do not work as autonomous or separate entities. When we understand
how our emotions manifest, how to regulate and synchronize them with our cardiovascular and
respiratory system, when we practice relaxation technique or acquire healthy, physical and mental
habits to cope with anxiety and stress. To take note, first of all,
it is important to distinguish stress from anxiety, as they are often used
interchangeably. Stress is usually of identifiable origin, a move, a divorce process,
etc. And it has an external cause, while anxiety usually has a
diffuse origin and its origin is internal. In stress the main mediator is worry,
while in anxiety it is fear. Stress, in an ideal situation,
should disappear when the stimulus that has given rise to it ceases, for example,
at the end of the move, while anxiety lengthens over time, stress
can be managed in a more immediate and accessible way, since we can put
limits to the situation that is generating it. Stress can cause anxiety, but
it can also lead to depression, dissociative pictures, etcetera. Strategies to manage
stress, care for good habits, sleep seven or eight hours, avoid toxic
consumption, exercise, etcetera. Practice acceptance. Many times we' re stressed
out because we don' t want to give up anything. We refuse to
accept that we cannot do everything and that sometimes there is nothing left but to
accept certain losses, to have clear priorities in life, to practice exercises of
relaxation and meditation, dissociation when body and mind are separated, when we are
faced with a limit situation. When we fail to adapt or face a situation
that overflows our resources, a mechanism known as dissociation can also appear, in
which our mind disconnects something like distance or separate to cushion the blow, so
as not to feel the emotional pain that can become unbearable. This process leads
us to amnes o o o or RNAr Do not remember what happened, makes
us distance ourselves or separate ourselves from what we have felt and does not allow
us to distinguish what is real from what is not. It is, therefore,
an adaptive mechanism that is activated at the unconscious level and that we observe
in situations where the person feels that he cannot escape his maximum representation. We
would find her in cases of child abuse or ill- treatment. The subject
remains paralyzed as a prey that remains motionless before its predator to prevent it from
hurting, harming and even ending its life. He is in a state of
emotional anesthesia, faced with a situation that exceeds our psychological coping resources. Our
mind, disconnects from the body, escapes from the present and reality. There
is a division of our identity that will cost to keep integrated. According to
international society for the study of trauma and dissociation, the term association refers in
particular to disconnection or lack of connection between elements that are usually so associated with
each other. Conscience, memory, perception and identity. Thus, gaps in
memory, emotional anesthesia, depersonalization and derealization can appear. In the face of
a traumatic situation, the release of endogenous opioids is triggered that will play a
key role as natural anesthetics of physical and emotional pain. It increases the stress
hormone cortisol, which can alter the functioning of the hippocampus, which is the
brain structure responsible for the various memories and which allows us to give meaning to
our life history. In addition, there seems to be a disconnect between the
brain regions responsible for our conscious behaviors, the frontal areas and the regions responsible
for the emotional limbic system. All these changes allow us to explain why in
the face of a state of dissociation, for example, after a traumatic experience,
we present gaps of memory with respect to what happened. It is difficult
for us to reconstruct history in its entirety, or we are unable to connect
with the emotions of pain. A lack of integration of different aspects of the
individual, of his emotions, of his bodily sensations, of his cognitions,
of his identity. One of the types of dissociation that we can often see
is what is known as depersonalization, in which the individual can feel like an
observer of the situation, like an automaton. You don' t feel connected
to your body, you have a feeling of strangeness about yourself. You may
feel that it is observed from the outside and does not recognize yourself or perceive
that some parts of your body are often changing co- exist with derealization,
in which you give an altered perception of the environment with a sense of unreality.
Both are experiences in which oneself or the environment appear as changed strangers,
as if we were in a movie or in a dream. The subject may
feel that he is going crazy not to understand and not be able to explain
what happens to him, although it is not serious or dangerous situations for the
person who suffers them, without being distressing, disturbing, confused and generating a
great discomfort. Hence the fear of experiencing them again. Unlike what happens in
a psychotic picture in which there is a loss of contact with the reality of
lilies or hallucinations, Here the person is aware that perception is not real in
serious cases. Failure to properly process traumatic situations can lead to post- traumatic
stress disorder, depression, anxiety disorder, dissociative personality disorder, dissociative psychosis,
etc. The elaboration of what we have not managed to process the dissociated is
a delicate and painful process that will require specialized help. However, it is
not necessary to have experienced serious trauma in our life to present moments of dissociation.
Almost half of the population has ever had dissociative experiences in high- wave
situations of anxiety or stress, for example, when we have to give a
public talk and the nervousness and fear we feel suddenly make us see ourselves talking
like an automaton without really connecting with what we are saying. In addition,
substances such as LSD and marijuana can also cause these experiences. The alter ego
and the different identities. The concept of alter ego eight has been used to
call the other self as if it were a personality modification. Unlike dissociation,
the alter ego does not imply trauma, amnesia, or significant alterations in identity,
nor does it imply a decrease in the activity of the tonsil or hippocampus.
In the alter ego, the same individual is able to experience himself in
different ways. This term has been widely used in the world of the arts,
especially in music and literature. We can find some interesting examples in the
musical arena, such as that of the famous rock singer of the sixties,
Jeanes Japlin, described as an introverted person. He was so eager to get
on stage that an alternative character named Peall was created to be able to face
the public. Pearl was very different, a wild and poorly spoken girl,
who didn' t care about criticism Yannis Joplin had suffered rejection and bullying in
childhood, something repeated a few months before her death, when, during a
school alumni meeting, she wanted to teach her former companions how she was the
rock star she had become. Surprisingly, he again suffered the same rejection he
had experienced as a child. We don' t know if it was related
to his death or not. But the truth is that a few months later
she was found dead as a result of an overdose one more star of the
27- year- old club, such as ccobn, Amy Winehouse, Jemosen,
etc. Nine David Powe developed not one but several. Alter ego at
the beginning had been described by the BBC label, with which he had tried
to get a job as a boring guy to succeed or to impact the audience.
However, Bowiy kept trying and not only got a contract, but became
an icon that transcended the musical. David Bowiy incarnated four characters that he gave
life to for years in the Segis Saras arenas in Saint Major trum of Ten
White Yout that combined the androgine and extravagance as signs of identity, although the
last one was a more measured and elegant alter ego. This is how many
artists have managed to develop and cultivate other facets that were not able to fit
and deploy from the self that they had formed over the years. A typical
example is the one we have described, in which a very introverted person can
come out of different social situations through the new character that has been created.
The alr e or becomes a way of overcoming fears or social anxiety. It
is a way to get in touch with experiences, situations and people that would
otherwise be very difficult to get to know. If this alter ego is created
from a solid and integrated self, that is, if it is able to
see and recognize itself as a complete and unique being and without split parts,
parts of oneself that are not recognized, it can enrich the person who will
be able to dare to experiment in other fields. Here the concept of identity
comes into play, that is, we have an integrated view of ourselves that
may be altered, for example, in dissociative and personality disorders. We all
have within us a potential artist or a curious divulgator who, due to the
circumstances, we have not developed, but who can always come out. Consider,
for example, a successful lawyer from a New York law firm who suddenly
decides to unleash his passion for music or a serious administration of a powerful company
that presents his works of abstract art in a street exhibition. Creating an alter
ego can be a way out of the boundaries that we set ourselves and that
are often based on our own stereotypes. Getting out of the usual self could
serve to achieve goals with less effort, like when we put on the superhero
costume as kids or when in therapy we do bodviile exercises. In colloquial terms,
it could equal the fék denhodumeket fingelo until you are. However, many
will be thinking that it is not an easy field, because in social networks
we very often see people who make up their alter ego as a character far
removed from their real self and that it is not always functional. And it
is that if this alter ego develops upon a diffuse personality with a fragile self,
as happens on many occasions, these different facets can create an even greater
void in the person. This will either hinder integration and promote personality diffusion,
all of which will generate more anxiety and confusion, as well as the feeling
of not knowing who I am. The extreme case can be seen in severe
childhood traumas that can lead to the above mentioned dissociative identity disorder known as multiple
personality disorder. How then to distinguish the alter ego from a dissociative disorder,
although they are not strictly scientific but rather features that we present as curiosity,
we could establish the following differences. First, the alter ego develops in a
conscious way, that is, the artist creates a character with a specific purpose,
for example, to behave in a more seductive and attractive way on stage
or to represent the character of a novel. Author' s alter ego.
In dissociative disorder, these processes are unconscious and the invented characters control the person.
In the dissociative disorder there is also a loss of memory amnescia with respect
to that character, which can be total or partial. In the alter ego,
the subject has consciously created a new personality and there are no memory failures,
dissociative escape episodes or lack of continuity between thought, memory and action.
It could be said that in the alter ego there is a continuity, because
the subject feels himself, while in dissociative disorders, the subject has the feeling
of being separated from himself and his emotions, or perceives the environment in a
distorted way and with a sense of unreality. Under this prism, the alter
ego could allow us to come into contact with emotions and experiences that would cost
us much longer to reach. Perhaps it can be considered a healthy and healthy
way to help some patients change like a Bob Hine. Or, on the
basis of this concept, it could be achieved that those patients who have parts
that have not been able to integrate could do so through the figure of the
alter ego of hysteria as an evil of the uterus to the functional cadres.
It is possible that, after the above, you still create confusion to some
of the terms mentioned, such as dissociation, conversion, somatization, etc.
Patients with physical and mental symptoms without organic cause have always been a great diagnostic
and therapeutic challenge for medicine. Hysteria was one of the first disorders studied and
was an account of the importance of mental conflict and body representation. It was
understood as a disorder characterized by psychic changes and emotional alterations that were accompanied by
physical pictures such as seizures and paralysis, without any apparent cause this is but
an objective medical cause. Beyond the psychological, in ancient times it was attributed
to the malfunction of the uterus. Jean Martin Charcot, father of 19th century
neurology and master of Freud, was one of the great scholars of hysteria.
In fact, he was the first to reject the hypothesis that hysteria was a
disease of the uterus and to point out that there was an underlying neurological problem
in those patients suffering from paralysis, analgesia or hypersensitivity. Likewise, Janet and
that Freud pointed out the secondary psychological harm to sexual abuse in childhood of many
of these patients. The hysteria study established very fruitful connections between neurology and psychiatry,
as it revealed the relationship between the psychic and motor conditions. But today
it is still a mysterious, complicated and difficult disease to solve. Hysteria is
considered by some as a condition that cannot be defined and will never be followed.
Hysteria is chameleonic, that is, its symptoms vary with the culture and
the time the patient has had to live. Its mutability makes it very difficult
to narrow down. It evolves according to the culture, society, fashions,
medical knowledge and attention given to it at each time. Throughout the 20th century
the classical manifestations of hysteria were decreasing in the Western world until they ended up
being replaced by those we now know as functional somatic syndromes. Fibromialge, chronic
fatigue syndrome and irritable bowel syndrome, among others, in which biological phenomena similar
to those of hysteria were observed, but transformed into their clinical expression according to
the sign of the times. The most important factors that have contributed to the
evolution of these functional syndromes are summed up very well by psychiatrist Luis Caballero in
his book A Gift from Julia Diez. On the one hand, the disassociation
of family life and the consequent loss of sense and instrumental utility of hysterical symptoms
in family psychodrama, that is, from a psychological and unconscious point of view,
the symptoms presented by the patient served him to avoid confrontations and confrontations and
so allowed him to avenge grievances. On the other hand, there is the
increasing sensitivity of the Western population to bodily discomfort, which is generally attributed to
better- accepted physical than psychological illnesses. Eleven. Today, the term hysteria
has fallen into disuse by its pejorative and sexist connotations and has been replaced by
that of histrionism, without it offering any clear advantage, either from the clinical
point of view or from the semantic point of view. In addition, the
functional term twelve is used to refer to a whole group of syndromes in which
there is an absence of identifiable medical cause. Some of the terms that continue
to be used are somatomorphic or physical symptoms that refer to bodily symptoms without psychosomatic
organic justification, which is synonymous with the former in that physical symptoms appear without
a demonstrable organic pathology. But here the symptoms are accompanied by damages of some
physiological system, e g, stomach bracelet, by conversive stress word indicating the
relationship between physical manifestations of psychic origin, but which reproduce symptoms of the order
of neurological or dissociative, term indicating that the disorder arises at an unconscious level
and that there is a disconnection of the mind with the body. However,
these terms continue to generate some confusion and are inaccurate when it comes to account
for all the factors involved in such tables. However, progress in neurosciences and
techniques that allow us to explore brain activity with extraordinary precision, for example,
functional magnetic resonance imaging has allowed us to observe that certain brain areas of patients
with hysterical paralysis are different from those of healthy subjects, who in an experiment
pretended to have that same paralysis. Perhaps if in the medical field we have
kept the functional word to refer to the symptoms ns without an organic cause identifiable
in more colloquial terms, we can continue to use somatization to encompass all of
the above and show that there are mental symptoms expressed through our body when attention
to the signs of the body is excessive. If I asked you to try
to think of a disorder where there is excessive attention to the body, it
is possible that the first thing that came to your head were eating behavior disorders,
since in these disorders an exaggerated importance is attached to the image and body
silhouette. But curiously, in these patients too we find a lack of connection
to their own body. Now I am not referring to this kind of concern,
but to the excessive tension towards the signals of the body, that is,
when the signals of the interoceptive interior are magnified, as happens in hypochondria
thirteen. In these subjects, any sign of the organism can be interpreted as
indicative of a disease. Moreover, these signs confirm a great fear of the
patient. I' m sure I can feel this burning because I' m
sick because I' ve contracted the H I. Moreover, in times of
pandemic, the term hypochondria has become fashionable, has gone viral and has started
to be used with the same lightness as we say. I' m stressed
out. We have all experienced some time of concern or concern about our health
since the outbreak of the pandemic. However, to this concern somewhat greater than
usual in the pandemic context, we might well call virochondria, but understand it
as a fear in the range of normality and proportional to the situation that we
have had to live only when that fear is irrational and excessive maintained in the
limitless time. Yes, for example, it slows me down and prevents me
from maintaining my usual daily activity. We can think in terms of a disorder
in the hypochondria about an exaggerated concern about suffering or contracting a serious illness.
The person misinterprets normal physical variations or sensations, such as the presence of all
or normal changes in heart rate. There is a misprocessing of body information accompanied
by a sense of defenselessness, which triggers anxiety for health. In addition,
uncertainty and a need for absolute certainty are often highly intolerant in these people.
When this discomfort occurs in an excessive and lasting way more than six months it
interferes with the functionality of the subject. We speak properly of disorder, but
in times of pandemic, it may be nuanced that hypochondria may appear as a
symptom associated with depressive and psychotic states. In other words, they would be
transient hypochondriac symptoms that experience subjects exposed to crisis situations. In addition, there
is another term that should be distinguished. It is lansophobia, a picture that
is easily confused with the previous one, but that belongs to the field of
phobias and has different characteristics. You knew that not all your concern for bodily
symptoms is hypochondria. Most of these symptoms will be normal, but they could
also be nosophobia. Let' s look at the differences between one and the
other to understand the subject with hypochondria We' ll call it H and densophobia.
N One H is convinced of having a serious illness. For example,
a cancer ne does not think it has the disease, but has an exaggerated
fear of contracting it. Two H. It is based on symptoms and body
sensations that it exhibits to confirm itself that it suffers from the disease in it.
He doesn' t usually have body symptoms. Three H and Peranalisa study
and interpret body symptoms. No, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no. What characterizes him is the
excessive irrationality of thought. Four hours. It cannot be removed from the head
that has contracted a terminal illness. N leads a more or less calm life,
provided it stays away from health centers that can confirm the disease. Five
hours goes from doctor to doctor Stapher Schapin waiting for one to confirm the disease.
Ne never goes to the doctor. By equivalence we could call him dapter
Boydens six h is megaphone style or amplification of symptoms and their diffusion. Or
he shares it. N is ostrich style, that is, prefers to hide
the head and live without knowing. These people are nato concealers. Seven h
is a detective. He attends talks, searches everywhere for information about the possible
disease. N is a avoider. He doesn' t see or read anything
he can identify with or remind him of illness. If you don' t
identify with either n or h you' ll just have a normal concern and
proportional to the situation I' ve touched you. Living as much as the
other limits us or in our day- to- day lives, because we
are short of time, they prevent us from being productive in our work,
they reduce our social relations in general diminish our quality of life. To take
note if you' re one of those who tends to hypochondria here you have
some healthy ways to deal with it. Try to remove yourself from the symptoms,
avoid searching for diseases on the Internet, identify the limitations it creates,
face fears and admit alternative views. Try to test reality, for example,
by writing something on the basis of information provided by professionals. The real possibilities
of our fears or worries, etcetera. Pay attention to the limitations it creates
and consult with a specialist. Chapter 11. The body and the passage of
time aging only have one body for life. Ideate it. That body struck
me, it became fragile, weakened by the passage of time, wrinkled,
bent with a decrease and slowing of the bravisinence movements of those who have suffered
hostomuscular injuries. There, in the small hall of Acts of the University of
Zaragoza, were Mario Bunge, at the age of ninety, one of the
most important contemporary philosophers. Little did he know about his philosophy at the time.
So what first caught my attention was something that seemed incongruous of that body
already punished for the years. One of the most lucid and eloquent speeches I
have ever heard came out. The words sprang up in an agile manner,
the associative capacity was overwhelming and the sense of subtle, elegant and fast humor.
At that time, I was a victim of the prejudices of my stereotypes
about the old age of Dadasism and they were very unaware of what is happening
at this stage. My work put outside in psychogeriatric consultations allowed me to realize
this reality. Today, many people over the age of 90 enjoy full cognitive
abilities. Like everything in life, old age is also relative in psychogeriatric consultations
where those over seventy- five years of age arrive. A The only ones
we consider to be elders are those of ninety- five. Upstairs, those
in the 70s or 80s are young and those in the 80s are older.
That' s what we' re talking about. Among those who dedicated ourselves
to this field has come a young patient of seventy- seven years of age
with a depressive picture. We can say that the title of elder in our
consultations is not reached until the nineties are over. In my experience in this
field there are several false myths that I hear frequently and that usually bring my
patients' relatives to consultation. With age he has lost many cognitive abilities.
Some say it' s older and it' s normal that I have some
dementia, others point and the more widespread among the patients themselves I' m
too old to do those things, or it' s too late to study
a language. Older people can not only learn new things, but must.
All these myths and false beliefs come from the negative stereotypes that exist about old
age and that imply that it is no longer considered as an expression of experience
and wisdom, but is associated with a loss of abilities and decay, so
experience loses value. Negative cliches lead to what is known as ageism or age
discrimination, a term coined in the 1960s by Robert Butlan, a type of
exclusion that makes older people have less access to jobs than young people who are
treated in a discriminatory manner or even who are treated childishly by the population.
With the latter, I mean what othertop has been called talking about childishing the
elderly person. Let' s look at an example of how these little pills
are being taken by everyone, or the healthcare professional addresses the relatives directly,
ignoring or leaving the patient in the background. Paquita is also a professor and
emeritus professor at the university and is at a time in her life when she
is able to enjoy more than ever, travel and devote time to social relations.
But she' s still treated like she' s an incompetent person.
We have this kind of stigma so internalized that some older people as soon as
certain disappointments appear or do not find the word they want to say, start
to fear that they will develop a dementia. Many times they get to consult
about it, without realizing that these memory failures are often related to an accelerated
and stressful pace of life or to having too many things in mind. When
this happens di s gno innuyes the level of attention. One of the cognitive
functions that facilitates memorization young people who feel old and old people who feel young.
The most weight factor when you think about aging is age. However,
it is important to note that there are different types of age, chronological age
that we have according to the calendar Biological age, which has the body,
which will vary according to what we have treated or cared for. Physical age,
which we appear to be by our physique, our lifestyle, etcetera.
Psychological age, which we feel, social age, which corresponds to us by
our social group, by our environment. There are very young people who surround
themselves with older people and vice versa. If there' s an age we
can change, it' s definitely the psychological age. It comes through our
attitude, well through a healthy lifestyle. It' s been s s s
s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s
s s s s s s s s Young people have more to do with
that psychological age, with continuing to be curious about things and about life,
with greed, with continuing to learn, with facing difficulties with creativity and with
moving away from the stereotypes of old age. Sometimes we strive to fight the
passage of time, against the chronological age, trying to artificially change the biological,
resorting to all kinds of aesthetic touches and even surgical interventions. We try
to patch the body and I am not trying to convince you not to resort
to these techniques, although perhaps it is worth remembering that their use must be
accompanied at least by the acceptance of the passage of time, because otherwise we
will enter into an endless struggle and without senses, entry into the external aspect
of the body, while we will forget the inner one or spend less time
with it. Having a full life and enjoying it implies enjoying the way and
accepting that the passage of time is inevitable and a complete privilege spoilers of the
eight stages of psychosocial development. We all consider anyone mortal, except ourselves Sigmund
Freud. With aging, a series of anatomical, functional and physical transformations take
place that take on the greatest importance in the person. While we said that
often the body goes unnoticed, for many elders, the body can come to
a constant presence and with a negative connotation. The body weighs or feels lacking
in energy, contact is made with the fragility of human matter. Death ceases
to be something impersonal and distant to become a real and inescapable fact, both
for others and for oneself. Other changes also pose a psychological challenge for the
older adult, a repeated loss of family and friends. Therefore, there can
be impoverishment of the relational and social fabric and a greater number of griefs for
loss of people and significant ns in life. A major change in the factors
that provided recognition, power or sense of usefulness, such as work, a
sense of defencelessness in the face of economic aspects, pensions that do not always
depend on personal effort, but on political decisions, greater institutionalization. Moves and
changes in your usual home are stress generators. There is a greater tendency for
interiority to review one' s life and seek meaning for it. The ability
to overcome these changes will depend on the acceptance of the passage of time,
as well as the ability to adapt and live a meaningful life. Some of
these aspects may vary slightly depending on the time it has come to live in
the person or culture in which he or she has grown up, since in
some Eastern cultures old age is linked to wisdom and ability to contribute to others
and older ones have authority in families in Western societies. However, this can
be seen as being provided with many of the support that it had at previous
stages. Reaching this phase of life in which they unite past and future implies
accepting and adapting to it. For much it will also be time to enjoy
relaxation, to enjoy the time to continue cultivating your passions. The way we
face this stage will depend not only on the circumstances that accompany us, but
on our attitude, on our ability to adapt to a stretch of life in
which we are forced to contemplate death closely. The renowned psychoanalyst and Erikson has
pointed out that there are eight phases in the psychosocial development of the person,
from birth to adulthood. Late. It is not my intention to carve them
all, but to emphasize one last one, that which, incidentally, we
should bear more in mind. Each of the stages described by this author is
based on the successful completion of the previous one. They are all characterized by
a psychosocial crisis of two opposing forces. If we successfully overcome these crises,
new strengths are added to our self that enable us to overcome the next stage.
Stage one, Trust in mistrust, zero to eighteen months of age.
Stage two. Autonomy in the face of shame and doubt eighteen months, three
years, stage three. Guilt initiative three to five years. Stage four,
laborious versus inferiority, five to thirteen years. Stage five. Exploring identity in
the face of the spread of identity thirteen to twenty- one years. Stage
six. Intimacy in the face of isolation, twenty- one to forty years.
Stage seven. Generativity in the face of stagnation forty to sixty years,
stage eight integrity of the self in the face of despair from the sixties.
Integrity refers to the ability to evaluate one' s life, give it meaning,
consider everything it has deserved, the worth of being lived, to take
responsibility for and accept the different experiences and to have been able to elaborate the
losses or to face with creativity the disappointments of life, all of which in
order to accept one' s own finitude and death. People who have transcended
their own being through the care of children, grandchildren or other human persons or
collectives and who have contributed something in the emotional, relational, labor, scientific,
etc field, no matter how little it has been, reach a state
of integrity and accept their life as unique and unrepeatable. However, many of
these qualities may be compromised by the subject' s physical and psychological conditions or
adverse circumstances. It will not always be easy to maintain the feeling of personal
well- being. In fact, feelings of despair may appear because of the
fear and anguish that death causes. The person may have the feeling that he
or she is not able to rework everything lost, that he or she has
no life left or time to go back, etc. The feeling of loss
is then imposed. There is no doubt that the reality of old age is
complex and sometimes they offer models of generalists and simplistics that are inadequate to address
ageing because they are based on an disproportionate cult of youth. Perhaps one of
the most important keys is to take the reins of life in time from very
soon so as not to live drifting or alien to the passage of time,
without taking responsibility or accepting the reality that is imposed on us. Knowing these
stages and knowing what is in our hands. Changing us will be a big
help. It will make us more likely to arrive with integrity at the last
stage. At the same time, becoming aware of our limits will allow us
to live more responsibly and fully with ourselves, appreciate the little things of life
and get excited about what the passage of time in our body is all about.
What really happens in our body with the passage of time, when do
we begin to age? Everything happens in a very slow way and the changes
we have to look for first in our cells, As they age, their
functioning deteriorates and in the end those aged cells will die something typical of the
functioning of our organism. There is a kind of programmed death of arachirius or
cell suicide, which we call apoptosis. Many cells are programmed for it and
this comes encoded in their genes and in turn, determined by the age of
the cell. In this way, the aged cells will die to leave room
for the new ones. Cells may also die from other factors, such as
the fact that there is an excess of cells or that some are injured by
harmful substances, such as radiation, chemotherapy drugs, free radicals, etc.
On the other hand, the cells of our null body die on their own,
because they can only divide a limited number of times that is inscribed in
their genes. When a cell can' t keep dividing, it gets bigger
and dies soon. The mechanism that limits this cell division is directly related to
a structure that we have on chromosomes and is called telomere. Telomeres are the
ends of chromosomes and are composed of short and repeated sequences of DNA that guarantee
genomic stability and that are shortened in each cell division until they become so small
that chromosomal stability is endangered, something like cellular chronometers that carry the countdown.
Over time, telomeres become so short that the cell can no longer be divided.
That' s why some talk about a programmed senescence that takes place when
the cell stops dividing. To remember it more easily, telomeres have been compared
to the ends of shoelaces. The proper functioning of our organs depends on the
proper functioning of our cells. If they age and function worse or die and
are not replaced, as in some organs, the total number of cells will
gradually decrease and alter the corresponding organ. However, not all organs age at
the same speed. In the testicles and ovaries gonads, the number of cells
decreases markedly with age. Other more exposed organs, such as the skin,
will show the first signs of aging. Passed to the twenties when the first
wrinkles appear. Most internal functions also decrease with age. Shortly before the age
of thirty, a gradual but steady decline begins. In this field, the
brain presents itself as a special organ, since here aging is much slower,
to the point that, if the person is in good health, his or
her brain can reach practically intact to the advanced adult age. When aging begins.
Strictly speaking, it could be said that we have grown old since we
arrived in the world. In fact, if we measure biomarkers like telomeres,
we will see that in the newborn they are much longer than in the young
child and that they are shortened accordingly. We' re doing years. But
this is striking and very paradoxical. Not why one would expect aging to start
just when growth ends when we finish developing. If we take into account that
the development of the brain goes in parallel with that of our superior cognitive abilities,
our reflexive, ethical and moral capacity, we could say that it coincides
with the culmination of the development of the prefrontal cortex around twenty years. It
is the moment when we have full mental powers when we can be legally held
accountable because we are held responsible for our conduct. You knew that there are
several biological markers that have been studied in relation to aging. The telomeres mentioned
above, those ends of chromosomes, whose wear indicates an increased risk of cancer
and whose shortening has been associated with aging. DNA methylation is the process by
which methyl che three groups are added to DNA, which impacts gene transcription.
For example, deactivating that geni causes patterns to form that allow us to stimulate
how quickly or slowly we age in relation to our chronological age. This process,
in fact, is the basis of the epigenetics that I will talk to
you about in the following pages. It is an important predictor of the risk
of getting neurodegenerative diseases such as alcheimer, cardiovascular diseases, or cancer. Immune
biomarkers. The presence of some specific types of our defense cells, lymphocytes,
has been associated with an acceleration or slowing of aging. Just be born.
These markers are the ones that largely determine aging, but as we turn out
to be years old, it is the ambioma that becomes heavier because of its
cumulative character. It seems logical to think that when we are just born,
it has not given us time to interact with the environment and, therefore,
almost everything depends on what we bring from factory into our genes. Fortunately,
it seems that this is reversed with age and that, therefore, we can
influence how we age, that is, that we can modulate, accelerate or
slow it down. Our lifestyle, environmental noise, pollution, food, stress,
and genetic heritage interact with each other and shape our health and quality of
life. Although there are factors beyond our control, such as having been born
in a country at war or having experienced traumatic events in it, childhood there
are other environmental variables that, if it is in our hands, change,
for example, the stress, the food, the air we breathe. In
short, what we do for our health, the brain is the New Saxy
every human being. If you propose, you can be a sculptor of your
own brain. Santiago Ramón and Cajal said that not all organs age at the
same time nor do they lose the same number of cells. The brain is
the best example. A healthy person who reaches advanced adulthood does not have to
have lost a lot of mental ability. However, in Alzheimer' s disease,
Parkinson' s disease or in a stroke or other diseases called neurodegenerative diseases,
there is a progressive loss of neurons therefore of functions. A person who
does not suffer from disease would not have to have cognitive impairment, that is,
a decline in his or her higher cognitive abilities. Language, memory,
attention, concentration, executive functions, etcetera. There' s no excuse.
We can have an old but young brain at the same time. Maybe that
' s why most people repeat I often feel the same as when I was
20 years old trapped inside a wrinkled body. The brain has more neurons than
it needs to perform most of its functions. This is called redundancy. This
property, along with the ability to establish new synaptic connections through brain cells and
the ability to neurogenesis form new neurons in some brain areas, makes the brain
able to compensate for the passage of time. In addition, the brain works
largely under the ema yus of odo to be used or disaster of it.
The more we drive this organ with new stimuli, such as the learning of
our own narrowness, the greater the number of neural synapses connections that will be
established, that is, new paths, new pathways, new paths in the
brain, brain circuits. The more we have, the greater our ability to
adapt and resolve conflicts, because we will be able to come up with different
options to solve a problem. However, if we always do the same thing
and do not introduce any new change or learning, our brain will get used
to thinking the same way, to always going the same way and as if
a path on a snowy mountain, it is. The more we go through
it, the easier it will be for us to move. As long as
we open a new path, we will have to do much more. And
here we have to talk about the famous neuroplasticity, that property that the brain
has to establish new connections, therefore, to modify and mold itself. Like
it' s made of plasticine. We could say that we have the potential
to sculpt our own brain from interaction with the environment. Our brain is not
a muscle, but it' s plastic and that' s why we can
also train it. The Nobel Prize laureate eirt tends to whom we owe this
wonderful concept. He said that our brain is constantly changing and that even the
same therapy produces brain changes. You knew our brain was much more flexible than
you think. In fact, it' s plastic or rather neuroplastic. Today
we know that the brain is able to generate new neurons in some regions and
even to modify both functionally and structurally. Neuroplasticity occurs because our neurons activate and
transmit information to each other. When this simultaneous activation is repeated, with a
certain frequency, the neurons themselves undertake an intense process of union between them by
creating neural ramifications that modify their microstructure. They will thus be much better prepared
to send information and to activate at the same time. Hence the well-
known phrase in the scientific world of nova hanstei fires and the neurons that are
activated at the same time remain connected. Neuronal plasticity therefore shows the faculty of
our brain to restructure and cope with certain cognitive impairment lesions, tumors, etc.
It will be a matter of time before knowledge of this fascinating capacity can
be used to cope with certain neurodegenerative diseases and disorders. Synaptic plasticity was demonstrated
by scientist erect Kendall, who received the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his research
on strengthening neural connections associated with long- term learning and memory formation. In
fact, it was observed that London taxi drivers learning by heart routes to obtain
the license had a higher amount of gray substance in the right hippocampus, area
related to space navigation and that, on the other hand, jugglers present more
grey substance in areas related to motor and visual activity. Similar studies are being
done with people who meditate and the findings are very promising. This neuronal plasticity
makes our ability to adapt to circumstances very high, so it' s important
to keep it in mind and not waste it. But then we can talk
about brain changes shared by all older people. Generally speaking, these people can
have the same brain performance as younger people. Differences write that older people react
and perform tasks more slowly, but if they are given a little more time,
they are able to perform them correctly. From the age of seventy,
some mental functions, such as processing speed, executives and level of attention,
may be diminished and affect other functions, such as memory, secondaryly. Hence,
as we said before, it is so common that with age people begin
to fear that they are developing dementia insofar as they are not so memory failures
that they are actually the result of other functions and not directly from memory.
Finally, neuroimage studies show a greater intervention of concomitant brain regions to achieve the
same result as if the brain had to use more resources and make a greater
effort to reach the same point. However, if they have reached adulthood safely
and have the necessary time, older people can achieve the same results as younger
ones. We must not forget that accumulated knowledge gives us another perspective and a
good associative capacity. The key is to continue to surprise us and stimulate our
brain with some of the factors that are scientifically endorsed as drivers of the table
improve our cognition, such as physical activity, cognitive enrichment and social relationships.
Aging can be slowed down. Luck favors the prepared mind. Louis paster.
Ageing is understood by most of the scientific community as a natural and inevitable process.
Large companies have launched themselves into an irrepressible race to find the elixir of
eternal youth and there are even those who see aging as a disease that can
be treated and cured. However, with data from current science, we cannot
make such an assertion about aging. Let' s just say we' re
not in a position to refute Wentston Churchill' s famous phrase. There are
only two things safe in this life, taxes and death, at least in
all its extent, as more than one uses trickery to evade taxes. Now,
if we cannot cure death, we can always delay the at least modulate
it. And to talk about this, we need to talk about epigenetics first.
What is epigenetics? We are the result of a beautiful dance between our
genes and our environment. If I asked you what you' d rather have
the genes or the environment, which one you' d choose. Genetics would
be something like the seeds that one sows under the ground to plant a tree,
while the environment would represent the land that surrounds it its geographical location,
the direct or familiar environment, where it is located, the fertilizer and care
it receives, etc. The environment represents the most moldable part, although in
the first years of life it also comes to us imposed, for example,
if we have been born in a country at war, and it will also
be decisive in the germination of those seeds. You may not see it clearly,
because it may seem as important as what we inherit on our chromosomes,
as the environment around us. Now, the genetic gene is not as immovable
as it may appear. In fact, an emotional, intense or traumatic experience
could modify our genes and reach our offspring. This is explained by epigenetics,
the science that allows us to understand why two identical monozygous twins develop different personalities
or present different medical conditions despite sharing the same DNA. The reason lies precisely
in this modulation of the expressiveness of DNA, which is mediated by the environment.
This modulation is exercised through the placement of pins on DNA and which are
known as methylation, chemical markings that, placed on the genetic material, are
capable of activating or deactivating the expression of DNA. In short, our environment
can lead to changes in ADN. From this point of view, the potential
of what surrounds us and what surrounds us is multiplied. We have the potential
to influence both what we have received by genetics and what we have had in
environmental circumstances. At least to a certain extent. You knew that epigenetics comes
from the Greek EPI which means in ozobre and genetics refers to the study of
the mechanisms that regulate the expression of genes, without there being an alteration in
the DNA sequence itself, the functioning of the cells implies that the gene sequence
can be read and transformed into proteins, which are precisely the ones that make
the cell function effective. When on this DNA we add a marker like the
known methyl groups, we can block or suppress gene expression. And these are
the epigenetic mark of how the environment influences and can modulate our DNA. A
DNA vetilation. These mechanisms are at the epicenter of many of the most novel
research in oncology and neuroscience, as we can intervene and influence the genome by
reducing the weight of the genome in our lives. In fact, there is
talk of positive or negative epigenetics. Tobacco, stress, excessive consumption of alcohol
or solar radiation are examples of a negative epigenetics, while healthy living habits,
such as physical exercise, would be a type of epigenetics that we might call
positive. Some researchers consider that progress in this field will reverse aging with what
is known as cellular reprogramming, which consists of eliminating all epigenetic markings, broaches
or methylations of DNA that we have accumulated throughout our lives. Raúl de morales.
It summarizes epigenetics in a beautiful metaphor suitable for all those scientists who lead
science to couple relationships. Which is epigenetic and you ask me. Epigenetics you
are the brain savings the elixir of eternal youth. If he' ll ask
you what your savings are? I' m sure he' ll be able
to answer me perfectly. But if I told you I meant your brain savings,
how long you' ve invested in your brain, how much you'
ve saved. If you are reading this book, it is very likely that
you are one of those who have raised this question or will raise it in
the near future. And it is that there is much talk of investments and
savings to obtain material things or to stop the external aging, that of the
body through surgeries and plastic and aesthetic interventions. But, little is said about
the reversal in neural terms, you know the concept of cognitive reserve. The
cognitive reserve is one that will allow us to cope with the passage of time
or the small aggressions that we may suffer. High blood pressure or cholesterol can
lead to small micro- infarcts of the brain that would be equivalent to the
ability of the brain to continue to function optimally. Despite the damage or injury.
In a more colloquial language, the cognitive reserve, we could call it
brain savings because they allow us to cushion the negative effects of unexpected and unexpected
damage. Today we know that in the face of a brain injury or aggression
not everyone responds the same with the same deficits and deficiencies. Imagine that we
could scan the brain of all people, for example, with an MRI and
choose an age group, say the seventy- year- old. It is
possible that we found brains rather intact and others with many microlesions, i e
microinfarctions, accumulation of amyloid, etc. Well, in case there is the
same brain damage, those people might show very different mental abilities. One would
present manifest deficits and the other would be perfect. How this is possible is
due precisely to that cognitive reserve or brain savings that we have accumulated throughout life.
In this way, the realization of activities that initiate our cognitive abilities,
reading, calculus, socialization, exercise, etc, can protect us from premature
aging and cognitive deterioration. Two types of cognitive reserve, the brain reserve or
passive model and the active model have been described. The first refers to the
anatomical substrate from which we depart, something like what we bring from factory,
since not all brains are exactly the same. The second, which is the
one that interests us the most here, is the one that refers to the
ability to adapt and the flexibility of neural networks and circuits, which is what
makes them more efficient. This brain reserve or brain savings is what we can
stimulate through physical activity, study, social relationships, etcetera. That is to
say, that is precisely what we must invest in. This requires a healthy
lifestyle, although both models will determine that we can more or less successfully compensate
for a brain injury or that we can recover from it. The second is
the most accessible. The degree of physical and cognitive stimulation that our brain receives
throughout our life is going to be in direct relation to that cognitive reserve and
what are the main ways to stimulate it. Knowledge, education, studies,
the most repeatedly mentioned factor in research as predictor of cognitive reserve, work the
more stimulating, better leisure activities and social relationships, languages, learning new rules
of language physical exercise thanks to stimulation of neurotrophic factors, food of the brain
and reduction of stress. As we saw in chapter six healthy habits. Beyond
the above, it is often said that healthy habits for the heart are also
for the brain. These healthy lifestyles are well known, balanced diet, rest,
enough hours of night sleep, physical exercise, staying intellectually active, not
consuming toxic, tobacco, alcohol, etcetera. Incorporate strategies to cope with stress,
maintain social relationships, etcetera. As they represent a global benefit that is
also in our potential hand, they will always be in our best allies.
Physical exercise, for example, has been shown to have important beneficial effects on
our brain and cognitive abilities. Some studies have even found that people at higher
risk of developing Alzheimer' s disease, carriers of the gene poe four with
exercise, acquire brain protection mechanisms that allow mitigating the sequelae of this disease.
All these habits have an element in common. They take us away from stress,
one of the greatest enemies of our balance, or or on when it
occurs in excess or surpasses us. Stress can be a great ally if it
stimulates or keeps us in tune to perform, for example, in an exam,
not to face a challenging situation. However, if we get past the
west stress it stays in time, it can get to block us. Stress
increases the release of hormones such as cortisol, two capable of weakening our immune
system and favoring our predisposition to some diseases. It acts as a virus that
is socially accepted, a virus that advances stealthily in our organism and takes away
energy vitality, ultimately physical and mental health. Some of the long- term
stress damage includes brain changes. More specifically, we have scientific evidence that stress
reduces the size of the hippocampus, the most prominent region in memory processes and
the prefrontal cortex. It directly affects the respiratory cardio system, that is,
it puts our body in an alarm situation, so it tries to distribute oxygen
more quickly throughout the body through the blood. Blood vessels will also narrow to
carry oxygen to the muscles and allow us to flee if necessary. It weakens
the immune system, which predisposes us to catch colds and any type of viral
process. It forces the liver to produce more glucose in the blood for more
energy, which has harmful effects added by the increase in the body. It
causes changes in the digestive system, poor digestion, gastric reflux, ulcers,
diarrhea, or stress. It weakens skin and hair. We have all been
able to observe as other seasons of stress, all of a sudden we present
some gray hair or a skin with a more weakened appearance that tell politicians,
which of them has not left Moncloa with the tiniest hair. In short,
stress produces all kinds of havoc in the same organism. You' re even
stressed out to read this, but be able to anticipate negative news helps us
lower your levels. In addition, we have even more powerful tools to counteract
its effects, such as the already mentioned healthy lifestyle habits that we all have
at our disposal. By the way, I have forgotten to mention an important
factor that should be included among these habits of life, hugs. These are
able to reduce our stress levels. In some studies in rats, if they
received caresses and physical contact during the early years of life, less glucocorticoids were
added to stress hormones in adulthood, which in turn had a protective effect on
aging processes. This also happens in humans, because, as we have mentioned
in chapter four, the sense of touch is impressin nle in the early stages
of existence and continues to be relevant for the rest of life. Although we
may not be able to cure aging by hugging, we do have an undeniable
potential to modulate it. Finally, being satisfied with life, accepting the passage
of time, as well as feeling respected and needed during the last stages,
will play a very important role. A matter of attitude. Aging is inevitable,
some will say, and it is true. It is an inevitable and
complex process, but on which we can influence, not only with habits,
but with our attitude. And it' s not toxic positivism. There are
studies that indicate this. Our conception of old age influences our own life expectancy.
A more positive perception is linked to an increase in the time lived seven
six years and the other variables are controlled. Stereotypes about old age begin to
acquire in the early years of life and have been seen to influence certain aspects
of older people' s mental health, so that in many people they end
up becoming self- fulfilling prophecies. The impact of these stereotypes reaches a very
interesting phenomenon that I take advantage of to tell you right here. It is
the prahaimind effect and prime influence of exposure to certain stimuli in our behavior studied
by Barbi and his collaborators, who showed as individuals who had been exposed to
words related to old age, but without being aware of it, they walked
more slowly during the minutes following the exposure than those who had been exposed to
other semantic contents. You knew that, in an experiment carried out by Johan
Bart and his collaborators, a group of young people between the ages of eighteen
and twenty were asked to form four- word phrases with a group of terms,
for example, yellow in find it instantly, but some of the young
people had been interspersed with words related to old age, oblivion, wrinkles,
desire, etc, without ever mentioning the word old age. At the terminal
they were asked to go to another room to perform another experiment in an office
that was further away to the one they would have to walk. That short
distance was precisely the objective of the experiment. As Barca had predicted, those
who had been exposed to words related to old age walked more slowly through the
lobby, that is, the set of words related to old age had enhanced
a behavior such as walking slowly, which is associated with the elderly. This
study is a classic example of how the Prahimindi effect works and how the information
received can modulate our behavior. The internalization of social stereotypes about the elderly and
negative attitudes underlying social exclusion are acquired during the early years of life. These
stereotypes and attitudes raise age as the key element of old age. In addition,
they are reinforced and supported by various groups, including health professionals through Uther
Chuck. However, today we know that the advanced age of a subject is
not a sufficient indicator to talk about his or her state of health and function,
intellectual performance, integration and adaptation to changes. Therefore, it is important
to get rid of stereotypes about old age, to understand well the effects of
the passage of time on our body and brain and to have an optimistic and
realistic view, since all this will make us live more and better. On
the other hand, studies indicate that levels of self- satisfaction do not decline
with age. The middle- aged adult usually defines himself as a healthy subject,
even if he has guidelines between three and eight, different pills put more
wrinkles into life. Try to live as if you were going to die tomorrow
and learn as if you were going to live forever. Maatma gandhy. If
we could translate with some kind of gauge the number of brain wrinkles and make
an equation, it would be something like that. Experiences experienced more knowledge,
more habits of life, equal to the number of brain wrinkles, the ability
to retreat over itself that our brain has has been related to its ability to
establish interconnections, which seems to differentiate us from other species in some way.
The more wrinkled and folded the brain, the more mental capacity it seems to
hold. So those wrinkles, both feared in other parts of the body,
turn out to be dear to our brain. Brain wrinkles, circumvolutions, and
grooves or fissures allow the brain to occupy less space. In fact, if
we could extend it, it would measure about two point, five, zero,
zero square centimeters. The size of a small table of IKEA, the
absence of brain wrinkles is what is known as licencephaly, a condition that causes
a serious cognitive and motor delay in Alzheimer' s disease, for example,
reduces brain tissue and widens the grooves. In addition, the ventricles, that
is, the chambers of the brain that contain cerebrospinal fluid are markedly enlarged.
A greater number of brain creases or wrinkles have been associated with higher cognitive abilities,
such as those of humans versus other species. However, even though the
species is considered the most intelligent, some animals have brains with a greater amount
of twists, for example dolphins, elephants, etc. What does seem clear
is that the more brain folds, the more likely there are to be synnapsis
neural connections. So you know don' t take wrinkles out of life and
put more life into giving wrinkles, because I' m sure they keep track
of everything lived, learned and enjoyed. In fact, to the rhythm that
we go with the aesthetic touches according to a whole series of very marked canons
that lead us to increasingly similar faces. In the future we will bind more
by our brain wrinkles than by the absence of facial wrinkles. Wiseness or attraction
to the intellectual will have the open way to generalize. You imagine a future
where augmented reality allows us to visualize the brain wrinkles that we face to take
note of how to get a sexy and wrinkled brain invests in your old age
and I don' t mean pension plans, but the good habits that we
' ve talked about. We are obsessed with prolonging life and yet we do
nothing but shorten it, speeding up time, taking care of it, without
knowing how to take advantage of it. If you' re still here reading
these lines, it' s already on the way to reading this is assuming
a passive role, understanding the next step is to put it into practice,
to learn it, to achieve it, imagine new situations and take them to
practice. Learn new things, practice, exercise, enhance social relationships, learn
to regulate your emotions. I' ll talk to you about it in the
next few pages. Chapter 12. Adversity as an opportunity what is your degree
of tolerance to uncertainty. The species that survives is not the strongest or the
smartest, but the species that best adapts to changes. Charles Darwin, every
time a crisis takes place, the first thing we do, besides worrying,
is anticipate. All the media are launching to send us figures, tests estimates,
statistics and forecasts about the funto a hard socio- economic. We spend
our lives planning the future and trying to predict it to control uncertainty, but
we witness illusions of prediction, as we are not able to foresee what will
happen tomorrow. In fact, if we could predict it, we' d
be continually planning white swans. Yeah, the opposite of Black Swan. If
you haven' t read the book of the same title, I invite you
to do so. The concept of Black Swan was developed by Lebanese philosopher and
researcher Nassim nechol Stallam. It refers to events of very low probability, but
of very high impact. It is a metaphor for how an unexpected or surprising
effect that is going to have great repercussions could have been anticipated. Of course
we know that later when we look back at it, it refers to signs
that would have gone unnoticed for most of the population, a real collective blindness
that would explain events such as Hitler' s rise to power, facts that
we could only see and analyze a posteriori in the logic of the Black Swan
is more important what we don' t know than what we know. So
let' s get ready between this and the I just know I don'
t know anything. I' m afraid we won' t get rich.
But imagine something worse. Think not of everything you don' t know,
but of everything you don' t know you don' t know. Tolerance
to uncertainty is associated with some traits of personality, but in it, as
in almost everything, there are degrees from those who do not tolerate it at
all to those who adopt it as a philosophy of life. Thus, while
the former use all cognitive resources to resolve uncertainty, which can lead to high
degrees of anxiety, the latter are lost in it and sometimes even sin unrealistically
If we could measure intolerance to uncertainty with a thermometer, it would be something
like what is shown in the image. Measured in rolls of toilet paper,
object that should become unit of measurement. Since the crisis of SARS Cobeit two,
the former would have the house full, while the latter would improvise and
throw napkins and what they would find at home when it ran out. That
is, while the former would have collected toilet paper, the latter would not
have been very concerned. What other characteristics are present in subjects with low uncertainty
tolerance. They need to check things over and over again. They tend to
indecision and avoidance. They have difficulty delegating. They need to have control They
overestimate the negative The probability of something bad happening. They worry too much,
they tend to anxiety if you recognize yourself in many of these definitions and feel
that your levels of uncertainty tolerance are low. Some of the suggestions I present
on this page may also be helpful to take note of accepting uncertainty as part
of life and as an opportunity to accept what cannot be changed to analyze what
leads us to experience uncertainty and differentiate it from other similar situations in our lives.
Imagine different scenarios and responses to the problematic situation. It can be done
together with a family member or friend to help us look at it with perspective.
Trying to do different things, for example, practicing a sport or a
discipline that we consider does not match our way of being can surprise us to
look at the situation with curiosity, try to live the present uncertainty, need
to believe and conspiracy theories. Uncertainty accentuates our fears, our concerns, without
our need for control. When we have no answers or explanations about what is
happening in our environment, we seek them at all costs, even when they
are most absurd, all in order to reduce uncertainty. Hence, situations such
as those of the pandemic are the ideal breeding ground for conspiracy theories to emerge,
that is, theories that go beyond empirically proven facts and data. In
a way, they resemble the delusions we see in some mental disorders, since
the content of such proposals is not part of the empirical evidence and is not
shared by most people, and the arguments against them may end up intensifying polarization.
Factors such as stress, social media and infodemia, a term coined by
the WHO to refer to the epidemic of bulls and false news in the networks
influence the increase and transmission of such conspiracy theories. These kinds of theories have
always existed and do not indicate pathology. When we find an explanation about the
world about what happens to us, we identify with it. Well, to
the greater identification of the greater motivation to defend it once we have adopted a
belief, finding contrary evidence causes us discomfort. It is what is known as
cognitive dissonance and how we overcome this dissonance by seeking information that confirms these beliefs
and allows us to reject the opposite idea. Thus, our minds will pay
more attention to what is in line with our ideas and will discard the others.
This is known as confirmation bias. Commented on in chapter five, where
I speak of cognitive biases. As we strengthen our belief and become more involved
in it, the pressure to sustain it is greater and it will cost us
more to get rid of it. If it spreads and is shared by more
people, we will feel better about fighting these kinds of beliefs. It is
not an easy task when we want to convince someone that he is wrong,
the more arguments we find him, the more we strengthen and intensify his beliefs,
since for every argument that we offer him his mind will work on one
of a contrary character, which will increase polarization. Perhaps a more effective technique
would be to ask the person to argue the ideas and reasons for his belief,
as that effort can cause him to question himself by not finding sufficient reasons
for his defense. In general terms, a broad and rich education that enhances
the development of critical thinking will help to mitigate the spread of bulls and conspiracy
theories. Usually, people who believe in conspiracy theories often believe in several at
once. It is common, for example, for such people to believe in
horoscopes, which are also based on the need to believe. It' s
what' s known as a barne effect, or a fender effect. You
knew that the horoscope has a lot of meaning, but that the one who
developed it did it as well as the one who dismantled it. Let'
s put the horoscope in the nude and see what it' s about.
You have ever heard of the foure or barnem effect occurs when we identify ourselves
with generic and vague descriptions such as those of the horoscope, that is,
descriptions that can easily be attached to all of us and that come mediated by
our expectations desires and need to give meaning to vague explanations. Here comes the
confirmation bias that takes place when we read or see something that confirms our beliefs,
gives meaning to one of our experiences or appeals to our own hopes or
illusions. Who is not for a more tired season or wants to be part
of a new project. Besides, the horoscope doesn' t clarify whether you
' re talking about a big project or a small project, so it'
s easy for everyone to have projects at any time. Another example, if
you' re down. Suddenly, the horoscope predicts that you' re going
through difficult times, but you' ll get over them. If they will
be a springboard for a new project that awaits you Who doesn' t like
to think this. This phenomenon was studied in the nine hundred and fifty years
by the American psychologist br Four, who conducted the following experiment, gave a
personality test to a group of students to whom he later gave the results with
his corresponding analysis. He gave himself to everyone, but they didn' t
know. He then asked them to give an opinion as to whether those results
really fit his personality. Zero minimum coupling, five maximum accuracy scores. Well,
the average scores were four twenty- six. In other words, most
of the students considered that the results of the test reflected very well their way
of being. What they didn' t know was that those results had been
extracted from a horoscope. In addition, some factors intensify this effect, for
example, when positive aspects are included about ourselves, when the evaluated person gives
authority to the evaluator, when, in appearance, the result is personalized.
This explains the success of certain disciplines of doubtful or no scientific evidence. It
' s not anxiety, it' s worry. The art of being wise
is the art of knowing what to go through as High William James. In
the face of uncertainty, fear is also accentuated. Worry appears, anticipatory anxiety.
These are factors that put our mind and body in check, which can
alter their state of homeostasis or balance. But what anxiety really is and what
difference there is to worry, worry is what happens when we spin something concrete.
For example, you' re worried that you won' t have time
to finish a college or work assignment. Concerns activate our resources to try to
resolve them if they are the mental component of anxiety. Anxiety, on the
other hand, is a natural adaptive mechanism that allows us to alert ourselves to
stressful events. It arises in the face of fears that we do not know
how to specify and includes both a mental element and a bodily response. We
are accelerated heart and breathing, our muscles contract, etc. That is,
while worry occurs in the mind, anxiety occurs both in the body and in
the mind. Excessive and sustained concern can cause anxiety, but both anxiety and
anxiety can be positive and adaptive. For example, moderate anxiety can help us
stay alert in an exam or in the preparation of oppositions, but if we
get over it, it can play us a bad pass, block paralysis,
etc, and cause us some of the conditions we usually see in consultation.
As the Chinese philosopher said, the or C anxiety is an excess of my
future while living in the present is living in peace. A good one.
The phrase is not exactly like that. It actually also speaks of the past,
referring to depression as an excess of the past. A nice metaphor about
some aspects of depression, but for which there is no scientific evidence, what
does seem to be something very widespread and which is a focus of repeated stress
is the fact that we live in a society that tends to forget the past
and lives continuously worried about what has not come, and that much of what
happens to us and what we fear has to do with the constant anticipation of
what has not yet happened. We get anxious, anticipate, worry, despair
and try to speed up the time running after him. However, we should
slow down more often and remember the past is our source of knowledge and learning,
the future is our source of motivation and energy, the present is our
source of reality. It' s the act and now where we really live
and we' re building memories and building the future. Maintaining a balance between
these three times is key. An excess of any one of them takes away
quality of life to understand it. Just ask yourself the next question. If
in a week I was diagnosed with a serious illness or lost to a loved
one, I would like to see myself doing what I am doing, identifying
the situations that increase our concerns and focusing and getting to work on the things
that we can change, makes the mind rest and focus on more productive tasks.
To take note of what are our best tools to deal with anxiety,
the ability to establish routines and habits because they structure and give us emotional stability,
include rests in those routines, do physical exercise, lead a balanced diet
and guarantee night rest, avoid the consumption of alcohol and other toxic agents,
cannabis, etc. Because, paradoxically, everyone can generate low mood anxiety and
insomnia. Keeping social contact, writing down on a paper what concerns us.
Using the waste time technique sets a time to think and reflect on what causes
anxiety, for example, every day from five to six in the afternoon.
Yeah, this will look artificial to you, but it works. It is
a way for circular worries and thoughts not to appear spontaneously all the time.
Avoid avoidative behaviors, accept uncertainty as part of life and as an opportunity to
engage in new activities, for example, study every day twenty minutes a new
rule language of gold, optimism and responsibility and opportunity. And all this doesn
' t work. There are many relaxation exercises that you can practice on the
net and countless of them. Deep breathing, diaphragmatic, deep inspirations over several
seconds that are followed by air retention and sound exhalations also of several seconds.
Progressive muscle relaxation of jacobson tension exercises, relaxation of the different muscle groups of
the body. If you still feel that you are not able to manage discomfort,
consult with a specialist, but above all do not meditate on your own
to avoid avoidance. This section deserves special attention. Today we know that the
mere repetition of certain behaviors modifies the relationship between them and the response or activation
of stress that occurs in our organism. A classical research with paratroopers showed that
the first time they jumped out of the plane they were terrified and this was
reflected in their body completely on the levels of noradrenaline and glucocorticoids stress molecules.
However, when they repeated the experience, several times there was a process of
habitation that limited that first response, thus reducing stress. But there' s
no need to talk about scientific studies. Most parents tell this to their children
when they want to encourage them to lose fear, to something, without needing
to know anything about psychological or physiological processes. My parents, for example,
when I was a student and I asked them my doubts about whether to choose
a surgical or medical specialty, because of how stressful operations seemed to me they
used to say to everyone they used to get used to. My father,
in particular, used to always set the same example. If one has no
choice but to work by catching crabs for the first three days he will have
a hard time, but the fourth will do the same as any other.
I liked that and have applied it all my life, although the truth is
that in the case of medicine, I ended up studying psychiatry and not surgery
coping strategies. What tools you have to solve problems on social networks. Some
joke and answer I debate myself between self- destructing me with drugs and alcohol,
starving me, eating until I burst or isolate myself from humanity. The
coping strategies are those capabilities that we set in motion when faced with a difficult
situation, challenge or problem. They are largely modulated by our experiences and by
everything we have learned throughout our lives. In a way, the more varied
and numerous these resources are, the more likely we will be to emerge successful
or strengthened from a situation so that we can adapt. However, the coping
capacity is not only about the practical resolution of the problem, but also about
our ability to manage the emotions and stress we present in the face of this
setback. In addition, we value whether the situation we face is yielding to
our resilience or our resources. Essentially, there are three types of coping strategies.
One focused on the problem. The person focuses on dealing with the situation
by analyzing it and looking for possible solutions. Two focused on emotions. The
person tries to manage the emotions triggered by the stressful situation so that they don
' t get rid of him. Three based on avoidance. The person postpones
active confrontation, avoids it and tries to do other things not to think about
it takes time. For example, a person who has suffered a couple breakup
may be drawn by discomfort, frustration, misunderstanding, impotence. While it is
true that any loss leads to mourning, some people can block themselves and get
stuck in an extreme way and fall into a rumiative and repetitive thought about the
SNS moses of the breakup. On the other hand, that person can adopt
a resilient attitude and consider handling his emotions more effectively, cognitive reassessment, seeking
the support of friends, doing some new and exciting activity, going out to
do physical exercise, etc. Careful, don' t confuse this with thinking
that going out for a run or asking for help, we can cure a
depression. Here we always refer to the preventive that, in that continuum between
the normal and the pathological, we can stop in time behaviors or patterns that,
if they happen repeatedly, can evolve towards the pathological. Resilience doesn'
t mean without scars. When we cannot change a situation, we have an
obligation to change ourselves. Victor Frantole. The term resilience is a concept that
comes from physics, from the ownership of materials to recover the initial state when
the disturbance to which it had been or was or are n two in a
living being has ceased. It is the ability to adapt to an adverse agent
or condition or situation applied to humans. It is the ability to cope with
an adverse situation and get out of that situation strengthened our ability to adapt successfully
to the stress, trauma or difficulties we may experience. It is also a
question of using such adversity as learning at the neuroscientific level. Some studies have
shown how in the brain of Visiliens, the elevated levels of adrenaline, noradrenaline
and cortisol that appear in threatening situations are quickly regulated downwards when the focus of
stress disappears. In addition, it showed higher levels of neurotransmitter dopamine of pleasure
and reward, which could facilitate regulatory processes. On the contrary, in the
brain of the less visilient people he observed the persistence of high levels of adrenaline,
nora, adrenaline and cortisol, which could explain their difficulties in regulating themselves.
You knew that some personality traits contribute to resilience, ability to self-
observ, to weigh that part of the problem we can change and that part
we don' t. Which part has to do with ourselves and which one
doesn' t. Aspect related to the control eyes mentioned below. Ability to
self- regulate openness to experience. This includes fantasy, aesthetic sensitivity, attention
to one' s own feelings, preference for variety and intellectual curiosity, curiosity
and creativity. If we are able to create and use side thinking, we
can find adaptive alternatives, self- confidence to develop vital activities, such as
decision- making, power- taking, etc. One of the key factors
in resilience is bonding, intense affectation between two people we have received in childhood.
Thus, secure relationships and a supportive social circle will stimulate a more resilient
attitude towards life and difficulties. On the other hand, those who have experienced
traumatic events at early stages will have a harder time facing the world. Seen
in this way, it might sound deterministic as if we came as a serial
with a good or bad resilience. However, we can learn and develop resilience
from new life experiences and thanks to the neuroplasticity of the brain I told you
about in the previous chapter. New situations, the question of schemes and attitudes
to which we are accustomed, among others, help us to make more visiliens.
Daniel Boleman, the great promoter of emotional intelligence, and Genyo Connomen,
psychologist and Nobel Prize winner in Economics, already pointed out that our social interactions
play a key role in the remodeling of our hebro cherry, thanks to their
neuroplastic properties, because repeated experiences are creating new synaptic connections. Our key relationships
may also be shaping certain neurological circuits. Thus, being emotionally nurtured by someone
we spend a lot of time with over the years can reconfigure our brain.
Therefore, relationships have subtle but powerful impacts, among other things, can help
us in repairing psychic damage, also translated into physical that we have suffered previously.
Eye that resilient doesn' t mean without scars we can get some,
but come out strengthened. A nice metaphor for this is found in the Japanese
art of kintsushi, in which powder, gold or silver is used to highlight
the crack or break rather than hide it, which increases the beauty and value
of the repaired object. This supports several readings. On the one hand,
when something is broken or has suffered, they become more beautiful. It is
proof of the fragility of matter, but also an example of resilience in how
to recover and become stronger. It is an invaluable experience in the construction of
the human that we should adopt as a philosophy of life to take note before
reading the factors that I expose. Then try to think about how you imagine
a resilient person and then check it out. If we have agreed on any
of these points, they accept reality, neither minimize it nor magnify it.
They maintain a positive attitude. They are optimistic, they show a willingness to
learn. They have developed a good capacity for emotional self- control. They
tend to see adverse situations as an opportunity. Persevere when faced with a goal
or a difficulty. They don' t give up, they contemplate taking risks
as a way for ab to take care of themselves, they use a sense
of humor. They know themselves. If they' re tested, they can
ask for help. Finally, a good way to train resilience is with the
superpower to do a little every day the defenselessness learned as a type of virus.
There are people who have not had the opportunity to develop resilience because they
have suffered, for example, very adverse situations in childhood. We' ve
all heard someone close to saying that there' s nothing I can do.
It' s impossible to change it. Nothing will get better. Verbalizations such
as these translate a situation known as undefense learned, that is, the person
sees no way out, sees no alternatives. It is said to be learned
because the person learns not to be able to defend himself. This defenselessness would
be related to depression and other disorders in which the nascent person lacks control over
a situation. There' s nothing I can do to change it. You
knew that Martin Seligman and his collaborators studied in nineteen hundred and sixty- seven
the defenselessness learned in an experiment with dogs. Although this study, like some
that we have already mentioned, would not meet the ethical criteria that are required
for such research today, it provided important information that is worth knowing. The
experimenters selected a group of dogs who were subjected to an annoying electric shock on
the legs through the floor of the cage where they were locked. The dogs
had the chance to escape simply by jumping into another compartment where there were no
discharges. During the experiment it was observed that some did nothing when receiving the
discharge, except groaning and waiting for the adverse stimulus to cease, that is,
they were not able to learn or adopt a simple escape response after a
specific situation discharges And precisely the dogs that did not run from the discharge were
those who had previously participated in other experiments in which there was no option to
escape the pain. Therefore, they had learned that nothing could be done to
keep trying them if they could not cope. Something similar is observed in people
exposed to a stressful situation for a long time and unable to relieve stress in
any way. If you think you do what you do, things are going
to stay the same. He ends up throwing away the towel, the subject
feels that he cannot control or predict the events of his day- to-
day life, and this has a lot to do with our learnings from the
past, which condition and modulate our attitudes and behaviors, both present and future.
In other words, this arises when the person has repeatedly faced situations in
which his acts had no effect. As a result, she has a feeling
of impotence, because she is convinced that she can do nothing to control or
modify her environment. Even if you get the desired result, you end up
thinking that it has not been the result of your actions, but pure chance.
Indefensiveness can act as a virus on our emotions and provoke a series of
internal events culminating in complete blocking and cancellation. A classic example we see in
animals that have been subjected to harsh training conditions, elephants in zoos or locked
in a cage for a long time and then no longer want to escape for
what to fight. The same is common in children who have experienced abuse,
neglect or gender- based violence. The little one learns that anticipation or change
is not possible and that he will have to live in that situation without actively
fighting or submitting or paralyzing. It is also observed when the person has been
subjected to negative assessments labels throughout its development, internalizing you are clumsy what yours
is not studies, etc. Who has been exposed to such assessments internalizes them
and will be far less likely to fight to change, than to do so.
If nothing' s going to change it. Faced with the lack of
defense learned, one tends to throw away the towel, does not feel like
fighting, decreases its proactivity and this leads to apathy and abandonment. There will
be a blockade and a freeze. Faced with sites that require rapid response.
There is a tendency to avoid uncomfortable situations, to run away from problems,
the inability to help oneself. All this leads to low self- esteem and
lack of motivation and even anxiety and depression. It can be unlearned. The
defenselessness learned, the good news is that yes, and one of the main
strategies will be to unlearn your own defenselessness. It won' t be easy,
because something we' ve developed over so many years will cost us a
lot to change. We will have to begin by detecting the beliefs and ugly
thoughts that consolidate our defenselessness. They stand out and they have us immobilized.
Detecting them and discovering their origin will cause them to lose strength. It will
try to learn alternative behaviors to those who caused the problem. To make a
note. Here are some behaviors that allow you to work and unlearn defenselessness.
Try to strengthen your self- esteem, reviewing your strengths and not just focusing
on your weaknesses. Learn to persevere in the face of adversity identifies areas where
you feel that you have control and strengthen them to serve as a springboard to
venture into others. Accept what cannot be changed. Learn that right now you
are not living the same situation as in the past. The current one is
different and you' re not the same. Ask yourself the style what happened
then, what happens now, what I was like then, what I am
now. It works on problem solving, because with each solution found and successfully
implemented increases self- confidence. With the solutions not found, a huge knowledge
is acquired in search of control madmen. Where do you have your control freaks,
oh better said, to what degrees do you feel that you have control
of what happens to you in life both in everyday situations and in major problems.
People can feel that we govern our destiny when we consider that our decisions
and abilities matter, or we can consider that we have no control over anything
and that everything is the result of external agents, such as luck, karma
or God' s command. This is known as control freaks, a term
introduced by Julian mud in nineteen hundred and sixty- six as part of his
theory of social learning. It refers, therefore, to the outcome that we
attribute externally or internally to a given situation. This will depend on very diverse
factors, such as the subject' s personality, previous experiences, expectations,
etc. In the ocus of internal control, the person attributes the success or
failure of an event to something proper to it, for example, to its
abilities and effort. That is why he understands that the result is controllable and
that it is in his power to modify it. In this way you can
motivate yourself and focus on empowering those skills that help you achieve the desired result.
There will therefore be a greater tendency to take appropriate measures to take care
of themselves, protect themselves, etc. Control freaks here work under the motto.
I have the power to influence my future or to make things happen.
On the contrary, in the case of external control locus, the subject attributes
the outcome of an event to external factors beyond his control, such as random
fate or other people' s decisions. This is how people can feel that
nothing can be done, as circumstances are beyond their control. It works under
slogans like throwing balls out. Bad things only happen to me. There'
s nothing I can do. This way of looking at things takes away responsibility
for the actions or decisions we make. Therefore, the way we perceive the
situations and the causal explanation we give them are the elements that will largely mark
the success or failure of our decisions. As in almost everything, the key
is at the middle point to be aware that we have the ability to take
the reins of life to get what we propose and be active and responsible agents
for what we do. At the same time, we must be able to
recognize that there are situations beyond our control. Troubleshooting and divergent thinking. My
life has been filled with terrible misfortunes, most of which never happened. It
is possible that if you have ever been immersed in a great dilemma that you
did not know how to solve yourself, you have posed as you might think
differently, in a generic way. We can divide thought into two types.
One On the one hand, we find a conventional thought that goes from top
to bottom and is linear. It is the vertical or convergent thought. It
is based on a sequence of ideas. It is logical and deductive thinking and
in it every step must be correct and indispensable. It is the kind of
thought with which we have been taught to study and learn. Besides, it
' s analytical thinking. Repeat known patterns and schemes, explain and interpret,
create categories and classifications. It' s replicable two. Divergent thinking goes in
other directions, can make leaps, and the ideas that arise need not appear
in the same order, nor are they indispensable as a whole. It is
the thought in which we generate several alternatives from a given information. According to
j F. Gilford, it' s thinking of new possibilities, thinking without
filters. According to some authors, it is the basis of creative thinking.
A classic example would be brainstorming or brainstorming. An exercise of putting forward all
possible options without censoring them or judging them. Unlike the previous one, it
does not create categories or, in case of having them, they are permeable
and mutable. It is a probabilistic process in which one does not always reach
a solution and always to it scientific language would not exist replicability, that is,
we would not always arrive in the same way at the same result.
I like to imagine it as the suspended particles that can be seen through the
sun rays that enter a room and that, as we move through these,
move and collide between them. From that collision would emerge ideas. Divergent thinking
is also very useful in problem solving. In the process of finding new paths,
it plays a key role in our ability to adapt to change and overcome
adversity. It turns out that we have been taught to think of the convergent
or vertical thinking model, but much less of the divergent one. That'
s why it costs us so much and it' s curious because it'
s precisely the children who use this last type of thought all the time.
However, over the years and the educational model based on the most analytical thought,
we build scaffolding and mental schemes from which we find it very difficult to
withdraw. Fortunately, there are already many schools that are paying attention to this,
trying to foster a mode of learning that favors divergent thinking through project work
and the promotion of activities such as the plastic arts, which are much more
transversal than other types of teaching. However, although creative thinking has traditionally been
associated with divergent thinking. The truth is that logical thinking also participates in this.
According to Robert daub iw Basberg Two, creative thinking also arises from essay
and error, feedback and reflection. However, to understand each other, we
will try to distinguish them. Most situations in life require much more of the
second type of thought of the divergent, which will allow us to find alternatives,
which makes it easier to think to sada he bucks or outside the box.
People who have difficulty adapting to a more closed and inflexible lifestyle have a
greater experience of injustice, greater frustration, greater stress, hostility and discomfort that
can in turn boost the depressed mood. The lack of this flexibility of thought
is what we know as cognitive rigidity, something we see in patients with autistic
spectrum disorders, such as asperger or in the evolution of some patients with schizophrenia.
They often tolerate bad changes because they make them feel insecure and can even
create anguish and anxiety. They need to have a sense of control, and
that' s why they respond badly to uncertainty, to modifications in their usual
routines, to context changes. Hence its tendency to move in monotony and its
lack of interest in introducing new activities. In fact, if we have a
familiar friend or partner with tea knowing, this will make it easier for us
to interact with him. Cognitive flexibility is therefore the human ability to maintain a
mental openness, to accept things, to observe without judging, to feel compassion,
to be here and now, to generate and acquire habits consistent with our
values and aspirations. In short, our ability to adapt, to take note.
Like almost everything in life, divergent thinking can be trained. Let'
s look at some points that can help you, for example, in troubleshooting,
save time and space to exercise it, although you can also practice it
in everyday situations. It proves to pose supposed problems or dilemmas that could occur
and thinks of more alternatives than usual. Try to divide the topic in question
into several parts so you can find other points of view. Practice these same
exercises with someone and watch their answers. It tries to assess the issue,
the situation or the problem in question from various prisms. For example, ask
yourself what I would say to a child in the same situation your teacher would
have done, as a friend would have resolved, yours tests to use support
tools, using all the senses. For example, ask yourself how you would
draw that problem or situation, what smell it would have, what music you
would put him create, imagine and play with the various situations in different environments
will be of great help. Three uses mind maps. Four are a graphic
technique where ideas are connected to one another, as if the branches of neurons
were concerned. It begins, for example, with a central idea from which
branches are emerging that revolve around that idea and after each branch new ideas are
emerging. In the end a composition is generated from which secondary ideas can most
easily emerge. Try using this template to guide you mental map add your text
emotional regulation. Emotions are like waves on a beachshore. If no one teaches
the kids how to surf them, the waves will come and they won'
t stop sinking them. Dany hel Homeostasis, the state of balance of the
body, when it has a healthy functioning, can be measured through various variables.
The glucose levels and temperature of our body. They are some of them,
but there is also a psychological homeostasis, a balance between our needs and
the satisfaction obtained between our body, our emotions and our thoughts. So when
we say I' m okay, we don' t mean being content with
a concrete emotion, but a global state that includes from emotion to our body
somatic sensations and our thoughts. The ability to regulate emotions is incorporated from our
earliest childhood, as we said in previous chapters, thanks to the light of
our caregivers and development of our limbic system or soft part of the brain,
be in coordination with the outer layer of this and more specifically, with the
deep sea of the brain. Sometimes, due to the exaggerated stress that has
been maintained for a long time, this homeostasis can break and the person is
no longer able to return to the point of equilibrium. Even if the situation
has been resolved, then the symptoms of anxiety, depression, etc appear.
We already know that emotions and feelings change our thinking. In addition, suppressing
them has an impact on the physiological level. For example, there has been
an increase in blood pressure in those who tend to suppress emotions and even changes
in the effects of a treatment due to the patient' s expectations about himself.
That' s why it' s important to learn how to regulate emotions.
I mean to regulate and not to control, because control can end up
leaking bad pasts and it doesn' t really respond to what we want to
explain here. Other verbs that we can use to refer to these processes are
to manage, modulate or transit. Emotional regulation can be defined as the set
of internal and external processes aimed at monitoring, evaluating and modifying our emotional reactions
in order to achieve our goals. Be conscious or unconscious, for example,
to reduce a negative affective state that has become very intense and lasting, we
are blocked, we feel a lot of discomfort and anger at a comment that
has been made to us by a co- worker, etcetera. But it
could also be that we had to regulate a positive affective state because of the
social context, for example, because it could be inappropriate, as it could
be if we were particularly euphoric and happy to have received good news, but
we had to accompany and support in the pain a friend who has suffered the
sudden loss of a loved one to take note. Emotional regulation encompasses the following.
Ability to inhibit inappropriate behavior due to their extremely intense pleasant or unpleasant emotions,
to decrease physiological activation, heart acceleration, breathing, sweating, etc,
derived from these emotions. Ability to reposition our attention or to direct it beyond
triggering stimuli and emotions, something like learning to diversify our attention organize emotions towards
achieving goals and long- term well- being. You knew that, in
reality, emotional regulation is a key issue in almost every aspect of life at
the brain level. It is the result of a balance between the deeper,
primitive and automatic brain regions, which, in turn, convey all the information
of the body, and the more superficial brain regions, such as the prefrontal
cortex recalls the cerebral faggot that exerts self- control by stimulating or inhibiting the
information received from the previous regions. In neuroscientific terms, one could talk about
top bland mechanisms from top to bottom in the regions of regulation of emotion,
for example, when our cerebral faggot slows us down so as not to say
a barbarity, when we get angry at the inverse of barmac mechanisms from bottom
up, when our emotions mold or nuance our thoughts. A typical example of
emotional disregulation is seen in what the neuroscientist Jos influenced to the so- called
kidnapping of the tonsil Amigdala daughter uncontrollable and excessive emotional reactions in which the brain
tonsil of our emotional brain is overactivated, takes control and command of the rest
of the brain, kidnaps it and does not let and prevents it to the
most rational part. For example, when we get very angry, we can
get to say or act disproportionately. In this type of reaction, that region
of our brain plays a key role. The amygdala belongs to the limbic system,
the middle layer of the brain attaches to that of the hot brain.
In this type of situation it is enormously complicated to activate the rational brain.
The paused and reflective, the mobcondel is blocked. We are dominated and hijacked
by our most primitive brain that passes to take the reins. It' s
like our amygdala is a runaway horse that the rider can' t control.
This can often be seen in young children when they have a tantrum. The
difference is that in his case he is a little more justified than in adults,
since his rational brain and self- control is not yet sufficiently developed.
The importance of emotional regulation lies in the fact that many of our everyday problems
have to do with a difficulty in managing our emotions. The intense emotional responses
involved in deep brain regions have played a crucial role in our survival. From
the evolutionary point of view, they have allowed us to run away when we
were facing a risk to life, for example, to flee from a predator.
The problem is that, in our time, the triggers of this alarm
system that we have are no longer threatening beasts, but in many cases our
main threat is the stress of the day to day. Not being able to
regulate or channel our emotions or be victims of this type of amygdala trappings can
be disadaptative. The knowledge and regulation of our emotions should be a compulsory subject,
such as mathematics, or taught as a subject of language classes, so
that, from a small point of view, we practice naming emotions and their
regulation through examples, experiences or stories. And all this without losing sight that
the best teaching is always the best example. I' ll leave you some
notes on how to help your children move their emotions to take note of how
to work emotional regulation with children. The game is a good opportunity to learn
about emotions, to learn, to express, to modulate and to regulate them.
You can take the opportunity to watch drawings or movies with them, continue
narrating, commenting or explaining how the characters feel. You can play giving name,
shape, color and texture to emotions, for example, how you would
describe fear is a dark color, has rough or smooth texture, stingy or
rounded shapes. You can teach her how to locate emotions in the body by
looking for physical contact, for example by putting her hand on her chest and
explaining that sometimes sadness feels there like pain or tightness in the chest. Give
an example, regulating your own emotions. If we lose control, it may
be an opportunity to explain that situation as well. Mom diagonal bar Dad was
very angry and he didn' t do well. Next time he' ll
try to do better. One way to mentalize the other, to teach about
the States we have of the others to teach them to ask forgiveness, doing
so also with them. It is often the children who correct us. Mom,
you' ve crossed the red light Take the opportunity to recognize the mistake.
I' m sorry you' re right. Mom was lost, help
them think about alternatives and choose and try one or more. For example,
if your son claims to be angry with a little friend, work with him.
The options you have you can try to ask him why he did that
which hurt you so much to invite him to snack home and talk to him.
What do you think. There are also disadaptative emotional regulation mechanisms, that
is, they do not solve the problem, but make it worse. They
don' t chronicle. For example, some people turn to alcohol or some
other toxic substance to calm down, not knowing that this supposed momentary relief will
be followed by an imploration of symptoms, as both alcohol and other toxic things
have been shown to have a direct relationship with the symptoms of anxiety and depression.
Alcohol, far from being anxiolytic that eliminates anxiety as thought, is anxiogenic,
produces anxiety, that is, it worsens it. Hence, the main
intervention when we meet someone in consultation who drinks alcohol on a regular basis,
is to stop consumption. On other occasions, people with great difficulties in emotional
management need to even take it to the body in the form of self-
harming behaviors, for example, in the form of cuts with a sharp object
in some parts of the body, a way to relieve psychic pain with physical
pain. As we already commented in chapter nine, other very inefficient mechanisms of
emotional management would be rumination, turning the head, avoiding or suppressing. They
can all be very unproductive. Therefore, in this age of so much productivity,
I like to tell my patients and friends that the most productive strategy of
all is to have good mental health. Getting in touch with emotions, putting
them into words and regulating them will be key to our adaptive ability to the
environment and the circumstances of life. Notice that it is not a matter of
giving free rein to all emotions, and more is a matter of regulating them.
But we are depressed, anxious or just tired because we have slept badly.
Our ability to regulate us can collapse or be very difficult to handle.
Some authors have compared this ability to that of a muscle that gets tired when
used in excess. After this long exhibition, there will be those who are
thinking about regulating strategies and even give us examples for the children and we do
not tell us anything, because the truth is that there are many ways to
address this issue, but undoubtedly the most effective thing is to transform everyday situations
into therapeutics. That' s why I think it might be more useful to
talk about emotional hygiene habits, which we' ll discuss in the following pages
to take note of some keys that can help you in emotional regulation. Recognize
and name emotions, learn to fit criticism and use a sense of humor,
learn to relativize. There are very few things that are so terrible to try
to put the situation in perspective. How I will feel in ten years'
time, when I think about this situation, what I would say or how
my family member or friend would feel In that same context, review our strengths
to adapt and look for your own strategies. Delaying concerns will already solve it
tomorrow, taking some time helps to see the matter with distance and to travel
the best. Physical exercise and meditation are very effective ways to regulate ourselves through
the body and mind together. Leaning on others or asking for help from a
teacher to remember that first it hurts, then it makes you angry and ends
up laughing. Thus close cycles, habits of emotional hygiene one, rest.
If it' s good to live, it' s still better to dream
and best of all, wake up. Antonio Machado. Some will be wondering
why I address the dream in this chapter. Night rest is one of the
main factors of emotional disregulation. A good nemonic rule so as not to forget
about it is the following. Insomnia produces the five irritability, impulsivity, inattention,
instability and inability to make decisions. So having the dream controlled will be
an essential element in our ability to self- regulate that we do not forget.
The day doesn' t start to count in the morning when we get
up. It starts at night when we go to bed. When we talk
about how we spent the day, we usually refer to the hours we have
been awake and forget about the hours of sleep. However, the day we
sleep very well is almost certain to have a good day. Looks like we
could do without sleeping. The dream has passed to the background and if we
have to take time away from something, we take it to sleep without any
fuss and so we go through life derelict, always tired instead of repairing.
We need to sleep to stay awake. Sleep is a physiological necessity and today
we know it plays a key role in immune memory functions. Being a baby,
let' s review here what we will henceforth call enemies of the alcohol
dream. Even if it looks like it helps us sleep. Alcohol only causes
drowsiness and sedation and alters the rhythms and phases of deep sleep. Various studies
have shown that altered brain activity makes us wake up or have difficulty sleeping deeply,
so our sleep will not be repairing and we will be tired during the
day. Scythants, caffeine, protein, etc. They are in a wide
variety of drinks and make it difficult to reconcile sleep. That is why we
must avoid them from midday onwards technology. Blue light and continuous mobile stimulation,
tablets, etcetera, alter sleep reconciliation. This artificial light emitted by electronic devices
has been shown to alter our circadian rhythm. Noise seems obvious, but we
often forget that there are different types of noise beyond physical, mental, worry
and visual. A messy room, for example, when you sleep with the
messy room, that' s the last image you have left in your retina
before you close your eyes, and that image will make your mind a little
harder to fall asleep. Lack of or fixed. If we go to bed
every day at an hour, we' ll be making it very difficult for
the body and it won' t be able to sleep. We have some
biological clocks inside us that set a pace for us. If we alter them,
it will be much harder for us to sleep hyperproductively. That not being
able to stop that feeling of wasting time is a mental trap. We believe
that we can do ten things at once without exhausting ourselves, when the truth
is that every stimulus, every shift in focus that we impose on the brain,
involves a wear and tear, something similar to the ant decisions that we
talk about in chapter five. Falling in love is a major cause of insomnia.
But if you have to jump into any enemies of sleep, please let
it be this one, you knew that remember to take the train of sleep
always at the same time. Why, then, because of the rhythms,
not the Latin rhythms, but those that are known as ultra- dial rhythms,
one less known rhythms than the circadians of twenty- four hours. These
are cycles of minutes and hours of less than twenty hours, instead of twenty
- four hours of circadian rhythm, which takes place both at vigil and in
sleep. His discoverer, Nethine Heimen, called it the basic cycle of activity
rest. These cycles explain why in a few moments we are alert and lucid
at a time, tired and numb when this happens. It' s because
we' ve gone from an activity cycle to a rest cycle. These cycles
tend to repeat every ninety minutes, so pay attention, because we can make
them predictable and synchronize them for our benefit. If you always sleep in the
same time slot, for example, between eleven and twelve at night, your
body will get used to it and make the rest phase always start at the
same time, so it will be easier for you to fall asleep. So
you know, try to tune in to your ultra- dainy rhythms. Finally,
always have at hand a notebook and a pen, not to write down
your dreams, but to record your worries, things pending, etcetera. Sometimes,
when we lay down as we' re relaxed, we remember we didn
' t send the e- mail. We haven' t called, because
don' t get up and write it down in that notebook two. Physical
exercise. This is my favorite. There is no doubt that physical exercise is
one of the best emotional regulators and one of the best preventions in mental health,
as it decreases the stress factors that act as triggers for many of the
cadres we attend. Psychiatrists and psychologists, among other professionals. It could almost
be said that sport is the best anxiolytic, but above all of a preventive
nature, because it helps us that this anxiety does not appear. It is
not so easy to become physical exercise once it has appeared. Physical exercise is
also one of the best euphorizers ahead of any pill or drug, because it
lacks the side effects of the former or the negative health consequences of the latter.
The important nuance is that we are not saying that we can solve a
mental disorder based on physical exercise, but it is one of the most effective
tools to prevent some of these triggers and to help us maintain our state of
balance or physical and mental homeostasis such physical exercise. I have already spoken a
lot to you in previous chapters, so I will no longer insist on it
three, the social and regulation through the other. As I mentioned in previous
chapters, we are social beings and without the social we could not live at
birth our capacity for emotional self- regulation is very limited. It is our
attachment figures that will help us to console ourselves and calm us straight regulation.
When a young child is playing, for example, in a park and falls
to the ground or gets scared by something, he immediately runs to seek comfort
from his parents, sometimes it' s a matter of seconds until the child
calms down and runs out again to keep playing. As we become adults and
learn to self- regulate we forget that not everything is self- regulation,
but we continue to regulate ourselves in part through our peers. Emotional regulation is
a balance between self- regulation and co- regulation through the other. When
we talk to others and explain our concerns. We are regulating ourselves through the
active listening of others, through their gazes, their body and verbal language,
the consideration of other points of view. However, asking for help costs us
a great deal. We live it as a failure, as an incapacity,
and we often prefer to isolate ourselves or keep everything silent, perhaps relying on
the false belief that if I don' t say so, it doesn'
t exist. Sometimes we prefer not to talk to ourselves. But, as
we said in chapter ten, what the mind silences very often is expressed by
the body. Asking a family member, friend or professional for help is already
a strategy of emotional regulation. So if you feel overflowing and you can'
t move forward. Keep this tool in mind four, forgive yourself and forgive
you, anger resentment, frustration, impotence. It' s emotions we'
ve all had when we' ve been hurt or betrayed by someone. Emotions
that we feel throughout our body and generate a major psychological discomfort when we are
harmed are linked to the other person by the consequences of the offense in a
relationship that is clearly asymmetric, one feels going to or resenting the victim and,
in ideal terms, the other feels guilty the aggressor. In the most
everyday confrontations or grievances, we can observe that many times we were caught up
in that emotional relationship for years, we felt chained and perpetuated the cycle of
resentment with unproductive and harmful ruminations for our psyche in the aggressor relationship. The
first would have some authority over the second. In this context, it is
up to the victim to end the asymmetrical relationship by exculpating it. We could
say that in the act of forgiveness a hybrid is produced among the following five
- one mechanisms. By forgiving we give permission to the other person to clean
up and make a new account to resume the relationship from neutrality. I forgive
you and I free you from the blame. I give you permission to treat
me again as before. That' s what we could call a managerial pardon
two. The victim is also engaged from scratch. He promised me to stop
feeling angry, so what you did to me is what we would call a
compromise pardon. In that ideal situation, the important thing is to start from
scratch and not use forgiveness as a weapon to manipulate the other. Some time
later, when we forgive the victim, the one who has suffered the wrong
is released, regardless of the intention or attitude of the other. Forgiveness could
result in adaptive neurophysiological changes that would ultimately result in the extinction of rabies.
Six. While there is a wide collection of studies that observe the brain changes
related to the act of forgiveness, they are not exempt from important limitations,
so it is necessary to continue to delve into the issue anyway at the clinical
level and perhaps refer only to the most everyday grievances, if one seems to
appreciate an improvement in physical and mental health, an increase in empowerment and a
learning in the sense of hope and positive change. From this point of view,
we could say that forgiveness does not make you weaker, but more free.
Forgiveness can free us from the heavy chains of resentment and we must bear
in mind that the process of forgiveness does not have to involve a process of
reconciliation with the aggressor, but rather of personal liberation. Notice that, as
the reader will already be anticipating, this can be very complicated when faced with
serious situations involving major conflict or trauma. In these cases, the path of
psychotherapy will be fundamental to taking note there are many ways to forgive. Here
are some steps that can help you do this. Decide a concrete moment to
forgive and try to forget or park the damage, accept the damage they caused
you, reduce the urge for revenge or punishment, increase compassion towards the situation.
Forgiveness, stop feeling resentful of wanting to retaliate. It would be a
question of not expecting anything from each other. We can write you a letter
that we don' t necessarily have to send. But not only does forgiveness
of neighbor have health benefits. So does forgiving ourselves. In fact, this
is the basis of therapies such as the twelve steps of alcoholism or acceptance and
commitment. Sometimes we have to apologize to ourselves because we become our greatest enemies,
for example, when we demand too much for being very perfectionist or when
we do not forgive ourselves or maintain a tight control over the body and food,
as in the case of patients with anorexia. Guilt can limit us,
prevent us from learning and moving on with our lives. If we accept ourselves
with our imperfections, treat ourselves in a kind and affectionate way and forgive ourselves,
we can put the blame aside and feel valuable and worthy of respect.
Five, changing so that you don' t repeat the madness is doing the
same thing over and over again hoping to get different results. Albert Thinsein,
if you don' t change everything repeats itself. The philosopher and psychologist Powatsoe
who spoke of the effect more of the same to explain the behavior of people
who embitter the life entering an incessant loop of failed repetitions, in a situation
that never fruitifies. These people always respond in the same way when they try
to solve it and even increase the intensity of their response, rather than considering
that if their approach does not work, they should not persevere in it,
but change their plan. Hence it is so important to explore in consultation the
solutions tried by the patient to be able to recognize them. If you don
' t incur more of the same. Every recurring situation is an opportunity to
do something different. Then why is it so hard for us to change you
and not the other. When we talk about change, we refer not only
to aspects that may have to do with our achievements, but also to interpersonal
relationships. Sometimes we obsess about wanting to change others. Which makes us frustrated.
Trying to change others is the best way not to move forward. Why
don' t you focus on what you can change. Imagine you were a
drop of water and you wanted to change an ocean. You couldn' t,
of course, but if you changed a little bit, if your drop
got bigger or changed shape it could impact the adjacent droplets, move them,
move them. The people we relate to in everyday life, such as the
family or our closest friends, constitute a system. Within these systems we tend
to repeat the same patterns of behavior, that is, in a group of
friends, we may be the least talking or the one who is always organizing
things seven and most likely your form of behavior in the group. Shop to
repeat yourself. It is something that can be appreciated more easily within the family.
When we get angry, we repeat the same pattern over and over again.
For example, those who close the door of a doorknob when they get
angry usually repeat the same behavior over and over again, which in turn triggers
the same reaction in the other that, for example, may answer Way is
already angry this one who does not know how to argue. In other cases,
a teenage child has frequent discussions with his or her parents, but they
have great difficulty changing their usual course of action. The child may have had
totally inappropriate and inappropriate behavior and the parents have not even managed to get him
or her to listen to what they are telling him or her. You don
' t listen You' re a mess. You don' t do anything
in the house. So you' re never gonna find anyone to hold you.
But that same night the mother or father prepares dinner, puts a plate
on the table for the teenage son and tells him to come to dinner at
least. What would happen if the guy who gets angry shuts the door,
stops doing it and instead starts laughing good at first. How the brother would
react and, in the case of the teenager, how he would react if
that day no one had prepared dinner, would go to talk to the parents,
would have at least caught the message of what he did not want to
hear verbally. When one of the elements of the system changes, that change
affects the rest of the elements that make it up, because that modification will
inevitably change, even if it is partially the reaction of the other. It
would be the effect of a drop of water that has changed its size by
falling into the sea. Hence, one of the best ways to influence others
is to change ourselves. So we will influence the system to the people around
us. If it doesn' t change, at least we' ll have
invested in ourselves. As a nice metaphor says that I once heard if we
are on the seashore and alone come to us, we cannot prevent them from
coming or choosing their size or strength. But we can modify our way of
reacting to them six, connecting with one' s own body and environment.
Connect with the body to free the mind, relax, dance, listen to
music, observe our emotions and allow us to feel them. In the previous
chapters we have seen the importance of interopceptive information, that of the interior of
our body, which even influences decision- making. Connecting with our body sensations
gives us a sense of integrity and continuity. According to abeckwey this is something
so relevant that the Cartesian adage of the feed then I exist, should be
replaced by percent then I exist. It thus demands the role of the body,
to which it presents as the material self the source of one of the
deepest knowledge of ourselves, which comes from ns our viscera, such as the
heartbeat, the roaring of the stomach or the expansion of the lungs, sensations
that are with us since we come into the world. Considering that throughout the
book we have already seen a similar replacement of the famous phrase of discards I
am looked at. Then I exist said Fongi. We could conclude that thinking,
being thought, and feeling are three keys to the same thing, the
sense of self without a body, a mind, and one other to interact
with Possibly there would still not be seven of me to put emotions into words.
The limits of my language are the limits of my world. Ludwig Bickenstein,
I usually tell my patients that just coming for a consultation, even once,
and making the effort to answer all the questions they are asked already has
a therapeutic effect. Why, then, because during the consultation we not only
ask them about their emotions, but we also take a tour of their life
and social, work, family factors, which allows us to create an individualized
and contextualized scenario. With all this story, the patient, attracted to the
present, his personal situation, in a neutral space, without judgments, without
questioning, has put it in context. We rarely have the opportunity to make
such a detailed journey and through the word, it has been able to objectify
and delimit accurately. What he feels is as if we could materialize the abstract,
as if we could touch him or appreciate the best, and this would
make him lose strength or suddenly seem smaller, become more tolerable and easy to
face. Don' t turn your back on fear in front of you.
It' s not that scary. To put into words what we feel has
a regulating effect on itself. Several neuroimage studies have shown that people who put
words to emotions showed less activity in brain tonsils than in turn was accompanied by
a decrease in physiological activation of dermal electroconductance. That is, putting into words
has a calming and calming regulatory effect. Well, if putting emotions into words
already has a therapeutic effect on itself. It' s even more effective to
write them down on paper. As we said in chapter five, writing down
helps us change and in the same way that every doctor has to do with
language and knowledge in order to exercise. One of the first steps to participating
in your own change is to get a good emotional dictionary to take note of
a little exercise. To finish, let' s see how you' re
in emotional language. Sometimes we don' t know how to put into words
the emotion that attacks us and being able to express it helps us to ventilate
it first, because we delimit it, let it out and we can share
it with others, which causes it to decrease in intensity. Trying to explain
how we feel our brain processes and elaborates puts context pulls memories weighs emotion,
so here' s a little emotional dictionary. Abulia, lack of will or
energy to do things refers primarily to initiative. It implies a lack of interest
in the present or the future. Acting out for non- psychiatry psychiatry.
They are impulsive acts that, in contrast to the usual functioning, are relatively
insulated and present themselves as self- aggression or hetero. Self- aggressiveness towards
one' s own straight toward others. Alexitimia, difficulty putting into words one
' s emotions, Anedonia, inability to experience, pleasure, apathy, lack
of motivation and desire to do things. Asthenia alludes to the most physical part
of the lack of energy. It would be a feeling of fatigue and generalized
ability, dissociation, alteration and diagonal bar or separation of functions of consciousness,
identity, perception of the memory environment that are normally integrated. For example,
after having experienced a traumatic experience, one has the feeling of not feeling anything
emotional dullness, dullness or emotional flattening, lack of emotional response in situations that,
under normal conditions, would provoke intense joy or sadness and before which the
subject remains impassive. Filia taste or preference for certain stimuli or situations. It
would be the opposite of phobia, a mixture of the two would have it
in phylophobia or phobia to fall in love, neothymia, feelings of new appearance,
such as static experience or ecstasy state of extreme well- being exaltation associated
with a feeling of joy or spiritual grace. Neuroticism refers to the level of
emotional instability of an individual. It is associated with high levels of anxiety and
changes in emotional status. When they experience very stressful situations, some wonder if
they will not be going crazy, when in reality they mean that perhaps they
are getting a little neurotic for inappropriate shyness or affection, emotional response, discordant
or inconsistent with the situation lived or inappropriate for the situational context in which it
develops. For example, talking about something very sad with a smile hijacking the
friend. The daughter friend refers to uncontrollable emotional reactions in which the friend the
region involved in the emotional response takes control and command of the rest of the
brain kidnaps her and does not let out the most rational part. How many
of these terms you knew or learned after reading this book, in the face
of doubt, the middle point and sometimes you have not stopped to think about
the kind of message we tend to receive, in the face of the rhythm
of life that we carry, it is necessary to observe that now that everything
happens quickly and without pause, we are invited to stop and stop to be
bored. A few years ago, however, the opposite was said, which
had to be taken care of, not to worry if you are of high
performance and productivity. The message that you will receive repeatedly and that your mind
will tend to pay attention to will be that you have to stop and stop,
let yourself be carried away by the SWOW movement, because getting bored is
good. It' s important you' re good enough. In fact,
this book is more focused on these people who never stop than those who move
on the other pole, possibly because of the aspects that the author herself tries
to change in herself. On the contrary, if you' re one of
the ones who gets flat on the couch, it' s hard for you
to get to work or study You' re chaotic, etc. The message
you tend to receive is very likely to be quite different. What indirectly does
not tell us this is that the key to success lies in the middle.
So I wouldn' t want to say goodbye without remembering two things. One,
the key to almost everything is in balance two. Polarized and restricted positions
weaken us. But keep in mind that this midpoint is not always at our
disposal. In fact, many of the strategies discussed in this book, which
indirectly imply improving our predictive capacity, enhancing the social and developing more strategies for
frustration, among others, are not applicable to all circumstances, people and types
of problems. However, when a journey is made, in this case the
reading of this book, although many of our experiences we cannot take back home,
there is always room for learning and, therefore, for change. This
change involves leaving at least a small physical and mental footprint and, most fascinating
of all, that footprint will not be unmovable, but moldable and will be
updated by evoking the information or re- reading the contents of this book.
In the meantime, who knows, maybe we' ll meet on another trip
and neither you nor I will be the same. Conclusion, the clinical case
of Ay emotional corrective experience. If you' ve come this far, I
' d like to ask you a question. What would you say to the
boy I told you about in the introduction, what, at his young age,
I only understood death as an exit and that I was only able to
express psychic pain through physical pain. You might be tempted to tell him and
explain so many things, but that would really help him. What would you
count on in an emergency intervention if you didn' t have more than an
hour to talk to him, with what right, with what authority we could
rush to tell him and recommend things, to give him advice. It is
possible that if we did it for his mind, he would cross the idea
of already giving me many advices and I do not heed them. Don'
t bother, I don' t need any more. The professionals we dedicate
ourselves to mental health do not give advice, but we use other types of
strategies that position the subject in an active and control role in the arduous path
that the sun will have to go through. We can act as a guide
or neutral figure in front of the guide that friends and family can offer,
in which the patient can look at himself, recompose himself, settle in reality,
relativize and contextualize as if it were a co- pilot we are guiding
and rectifying if the person leaves too much of the path she herself has set
out to go. But in addition, we will make these corrections not by
offering statements, orders, or advice, but by asking questions and trying to
get the person to perceive themselves from their mental traps. When this happens,
when you are the person to whom you fall into your own revelations, you
are incorporated and integrated much more quickly. The kind of questions we use may
be how you think you' ll feel if you call back that person who
hurt you so much, how you think she' ll feel, how you
' ll feel if she doesn' t respond the way you expect. Unlike
other medical specialties, psychiatry has an important subjective component. However, we can
still observe patterns of behavior that tend to repeat and that allow us to anticipate
the evolution of the patient depending on whether the patient decides to treat them or
not. For example, a subject who tends to feelings of emptiness, who
has low tolerance to frustration, instability, impulsivity of emotional regulation, dichotomous vision
of things, has an operating pattern that has not been forged overnight, but
its origin can be found in childhood. Therefore, in these cases the psychopharmaceuticals
will be only a support or a help for critical moments. Therapy will only
work if there is commitment on the part of the patient and desire for change
among other things, which has been cooked over low heat over many years.
We cannot change it in a matter of days. Our behaviors and thoughts do
not change overnight, although experiences do remain recorded for life, both in mind
and body, and depending on the intensity of such experiences, it will be
more or less easy to achieve change. People who have experienced shocking or intense
situations. An accident, for example, often relates similar experiences. That was
revealing, it was even before and after in my life. It is the
basis of what is known as corrective emotional experience, a concept that is used
in some therapies and that is based on the potential for change provided by intense
emotional experiences. They seek to make the person live revealing situations, either through
the urging in therapy or through those that arise in his daily life, an
experience that can have an exceptional or disconcerting character for the person. I wonder
if, in the case of that experience in the hospital so unusual, so
novel for him, in a scenario and with some protagonists, perhaps something different
from what he would have hoped to find, would have impacted in some way
or would have looked like a corrective emotional experience. It is difficult to predict
because it will depend on many other factors and aspects that we do not know.
What is very likely is that this scene will remain forever if not on
a conscious level, at least in the body plane, unconscious, like imperceptible
threads that run through it and make it an implicit memory. Life is full
of all these small experiences and learning opportunities that are modulating our brain thanks to
its neuroplastic capacity, especially if they come from interaction with each other. If
we are more attentive to them, we can make the most of them.
It is also possible that one day, in some future, he has been
able to help others who are in similar situations and unconsciously reproduce something of what
he lived that day. It is also possible that the pandemic has been for
many of us a genuine corrective emotional experience that has led us to question our
scale of values and our priorities in life. If you like this content,
I invite you to subscribe to this podcast for more content like this. This
was Lili' s secrets.