Expat Radio: Dr Samantha Torres and dealing with anxiety

Dr Samantha Torres, Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapist, talks to us about anxiety, understanding it, and how to deal with it. Anxiety is a very broad term including a range of feelings and emotions: feeling overwhelmed, feeling fear, or just feeling worried. It is perhaps the most common emotion we experience as humans.

Anxiety affects our physical systems, our thought processes and our behaviours and the Flight and Fight “danger” response is closely tied to the feelings of anxiety. It is a protective mechanism which can become a problem when we experience it when there is no danger. It can develop into a range of disorders including feelings of nausea and gastric problems, not to mention heart problems.

Unfortunately, fear and anxiety is a very useful tool for controlling people and the consequences of living through it means that the emotion can continue even after the immediate danger is past. When we worry we tend to overthink, and this can affect our sleep patterns which can cause problems during the day and affect our performance.  Sam describes Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) as a doing therapy rather than a talking therapy, so very often changes in thinking result in changes to behaviour.

Sam accepts that some people in some situations may benefit from medical interventions, but she is clear that “pills are not skills” and what CBT focuses on is developing coping skills and behaviours. Different types of anxiety would include Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, general anxiety, social anxiety, panic disorder, health anxiety, and appearance anxiety. The important thing for people is to address the causes of their anxiety and to take practical steps forward to address it.

Sam runs a clinic in La Cala de Mijas, and also works online.

She can be contacted via www.facebook.com/drsamanthatorres or via her website drsamanthatorres.com