• The final interview.

    Read all the final interviews here

Maria Ines Lopez-Ibor

.

Madrid, 1968. Professor of Psychiatry at the Complutense University.

Her book "In search of joy" (Espasa) offers keys to experience that feeling that strengthens the immune system and enhances cognitive flexibility.

What is joy?

Is it the same as happiness?

No, I think they are different things.

Happiness is a state in which all feelings are positive and are associated with an achievement, with something that was desired and has been achieved.

Joy, I believe, is something else, it is a feeling, but it is also related to our way of understanding life.

It is almost like a life experience, like an experience.

How is happiness achieved?

Can you learn to have a joyful life?

Today we know that we can learn to see things differently, that we can learn to interpret them, feel them and live them differently.

So I believe that joy can be learned.

What is the recipe to be cheerful?

There is a part of knowing ourselves,

of knowing how we respond to what we feel and live and analyze it in order to give different answers.

Without a doubt there will be times when we have to be sad and mourn, because things will happen to us and sadness has to be there.

But even in those moments, maybe there are little things that we don't give importance to and that can make us feel not so bad, like someone accompanying us, someone understanding us...

When you are sad, you activate many more areas of the brain than when you are happy.

You are a psychiatrist.

Does joy have benefits for our mind, for our state of mind?

It is undoubtedly beneficial, because it brings a sense of harmony and well-being.

When you are happy you see things in a more positive way.

But joy also has benefits for our body.

When one is happy, our immune system is stronger, which makes one sick less.

When we are happy, do we activate more areas of the brain?

In fact, when one is sad, it activates many more areas of the brain than when one is happy.

But we can learn to activate more areas if we think, feel and remember, if we manage to make the good that is happening to us or has happened to us last longer and we experience it with more intensity than the negative.

And that can be trained.

He maintains that being happy helps us positively in decision making.

How is that?

When you're sad, you analyze situations well, especially complex situations because you think about them more.

But when you are happy you are also less afraid to make decisions, because you are more predisposed that something good is going to happen.

Many times, when you have very negative feelings, you get blocked.

And that's why joy helps us a little to make decisions.

The diet, can contribute to us being happy?

Yes. It has been known for years that many nutrients reach the brain.

Many of the things we eat activate or are precursors to the neurotransmitters we need for our brains to function properly.

A diet rich in tryptophan will activate serotonin, and that can help us feel happy.

How is that?

When you're sad, you analyze situations well, especially complex situations because you think about them more.

But when you are happy you are also less afraid to make decisions, because you are more predisposed that something good is going to happen.

Many times, when you have very negative feelings, you get blocked.

And that's why joy helps us a little to make decisions.

The diet, can contribute to us being happy?

Yes. It has been known for years that many nutrients reach the brain.

Many of the things we eat activate or are precursors to the neurotransmitters we need for our brains to function properly.

A diet rich in tryptophan will activate serotonin, and that can help us feel happy.

How is that?

When you're sad, you analyze situations well, especially complex situations because you think about them more.

But when you are happy you are also less afraid to make decisions, because you are more predisposed that something good is going to happen.

Many times, when you have very negative feelings, you get blocked.

And that's why joy helps us a little to make decisions.

The diet, can contribute to us being happy?

Yes. It has been known for years that many nutrients reach the brain.

Many of the things we eat activate or are precursors to the neurotransmitters we need for our brains to function properly.

A diet rich in tryptophan will activate serotonin, and that can help us feel happy.

But when you are happy you are also less afraid to make decisions, because you are more predisposed that something good is going to happen.

Many times, when you have very negative feelings, you get blocked.

And that's why joy helps us a little to make decisions.

The diet, can contribute to us being happy?

Yes. It has been known for years that many nutrients reach the brain.

Many of the things we eat activate or are precursors to the neurotransmitters we need for our brains to function properly.

A diet rich in tryptophan will activate serotonin, and that can help us feel happy.

But when you are happy you are also less afraid to make decisions, because you are more predisposed that something good is going to happen.

Many times, when you have very negative feelings, you get blocked.

And that's why joy helps us a little to make decisions.

The diet, can contribute to us being happy?

Yes. It has been known for years that many nutrients reach the brain.

Many of the things we eat activate or are precursors to the neurotransmitters we need for our brains to function properly.

A diet rich in tryptophan will activate serotonin, and that can help us feel happy.

And that's why joy helps us a little to make decisions.

The diet, can contribute to us being happy?

Yes. It has been known for years that many nutrients reach the brain.

Many of the things we eat activate or are precursors to the neurotransmitters we need for our brains to function properly.

A diet rich in tryptophan will activate serotonin, and that can help us feel happy.

And that's why joy helps us a little to make decisions.

The diet, can contribute to us being happy?

Yes. It has been known for years that many nutrients reach the brain.

Many of the things we eat activate or are precursors to the neurotransmitters we need for our brains to function properly.

A diet rich in tryptophan will activate serotonin, and that can help us feel happy.

Suffering should not be medicalized

And where is tryptophan?

There is tryptophan in chocolate, in nuts, in bananas... Without a doubt, there is tryptophan in much of our Mediterranean diet.

The intestinal flora, does it have any relationship with happiness?

Where there are more serotonin receptors is in the intestine.

Now there are many works that speak of the importance of the intestinal flora, which is altered in many diseases related to anxiety or depression.

That is why many times when we have anxiety we feel gastrointestinal discomfort, because there are many serotonin precursors there.

Are there really studies that associate the increase in mental disorders with diet?

It is true that there are beginning to be many studies in this sense, yes,

Because, as I was saying before, we know that many of the nutrients pass the blood-brain barrier and help neurons function well.

A diet also rich in Omega 3 helps, for example, to improve brain connectivity.

I was saying before that there are situations in which one inevitably feels sad, and I gave as an example the mourning that follows the loss of a loved one.

In the latest North American classification of mental illnesses, grief is included as a mental disorder, with which many of the people who lose a loved one are being medicated with psychoactive drugs.

Are you in favor of that?

No, I am against it.

I believe that suffering should not be medicalized.

When a loved one dies, when we are diagnosed with an illness, when we lose a job, we go through a mourning, and that mourning must be experienced.

In some people, for different reasons, this mourning can be prolonged and can be very intense, which is very limiting.

These people would have to be treated, but for this, some time must have passed since the traumatic event occurred.

Don't you sometimes get the feeling that in this society we want to erase suffering?

Of course: either erase it or medicalize it, without a doubt.

If a person has anxiety, he wants something to take it away right now, instead of identifying why he has anxiety or why he has sadness.

All feelings, from my point of view, are adaptive: they have a reason for being.

Even anger, because it allows us to identify something that does a lot of damage to the person and from which they have to protect themselves.

Once you know it, you have to manage those feelings and intervene in the negative ones.

For different reasons, this duel can be prolonged and can be very intense, which is very limiting.

These people would have to be treated, but for this, some time must have passed since the traumatic event occurred.

Don't you sometimes get the feeling that in this society we want to erase suffering?

Of course: either erase it or medicalize it, without a doubt.

If a person has anxiety, he wants something to take it away right now, instead of identifying why she has anxiety or why he has sadness.

All feelings, from my point of view, are adaptive: they have a reason for being.

Even anger, because it allows us to identify something that does a lot of damage to the person and from which they have to protect themselves.

Once you know it, you have to manage those feelings and intervene in the negative ones.

For different reasons, this duel can be prolonged and can be very intense, which is very limiting.

These people would have to be treated, but for this, some time must have passed since the traumatic event occurred.

Don't you sometimes get the feeling that in this society we want to erase suffering?

Of course: either erase it or medicalize it, without a doubt.

If a person has anxiety, he wants something to take it away right now, instead of identifying why she has anxiety or why he has sadness.

All feelings, from my point of view, are adaptive: they have a reason for being.

Even anger, because it allows us to identify something that does a lot of damage to the person and from which they have to protect themselves.

Once you know it, you have to manage those feelings and intervene in the negative ones.

that duel can be prolonged and can be very intense, which is very limiting.

These people would have to be treated, but for this, some time must have passed since the traumatic event occurred.

Don't you sometimes get the feeling that in this society we want to erase suffering?

Of course: either erase it or medicalize it, without a doubt.

If a person has anxiety, he wants something to take it away right now, instead of identifying why he has anxiety or why he has sadness.

All feelings, from my point of view, are adaptive: they have a reason for being.

Even anger, because it allows us to identify something that does a lot of damage to the person and from which they have to protect themselves.

Once you know it, he has to deal with those feelings and intervene in the negative ones.

that duel can be prolonged and can be very intense, which is very limiting.

These people would have to be treated, but for this, some time must have passed since the traumatic event occurred.

Don't you sometimes get the feeling that in this society we want to erase suffering?

Of course: either erase it or medicalize it, without a doubt.

If a person has anxiety, he wants something to take it away right now, instead of identifying why he has anxiety or why he has sadness.

All feelings, from my point of view, are adaptive: they have a reason for being.

Even anger, because it allows us to identify something that does a lot of damage to the person and from which they have to protect themselves.

Once you know it, he has to deal with those feelings and intervene in the negative ones.

These people would have to be treated, but for this, some time must have passed since the traumatic event occurred.

Don't you sometimes get the feeling that in this society we want to erase suffering?

Of course: either erase it or medicalize it, without a doubt.

If a person has anxiety, he wants something to take it away right now, instead of identifying why he has anxiety or why he has sadness.

All feelings, from my point of view, are adaptive: they have a reason for being.

Even anger, because it allows us to identify something that does a lot of damage to the person and from which they have to protect themselves.

Once you know it, he has to deal with those feelings and intervene in the negative ones.

These people would have to be treated, but for this, some time must have passed since the traumatic event occurred.

Don't you sometimes get the feeling that in this society we want to erase suffering?

Of course: either erase it or medicalize it, without a doubt.

If a person has anxiety, he wants something to take it away right now, instead of identifying why he has anxiety or why he has sadness.

All feelings, from my point of view, are adaptive: they have a reason for being.

Even anger, because it allows us to identify something that does a lot of damage to the person and from which they have to protect themselves.

Once you know it, he has to deal with those feelings and intervene in the negative ones.

but for this, some time must have passed since the traumatic event occurred.

Don't you sometimes get the feeling that in this society we want to erase suffering?

Of course: either erase it or medicalize it, without a doubt.

If a person has anxiety, he wants something to take it away right now, instead of identifying why he has anxiety or why he has sadness.

All feelings, from my point of view, are adaptive: they have a reason for being.

Even anger, because it allows us to identify something that does a lot of damage to the person and from which they have to protect themselves.

Once you know it, you have to manage those feelings and intervene in the negative ones.

but for this, some time must have passed since the traumatic event occurred.

Don't you sometimes get the feeling that in this society we want to erase suffering?

Of course: either erase it or medicalize it, without a doubt.

If a person has anxiety, he wants something to take it away right now, instead of identifying why he has anxiety or why he has sadness.

All feelings, from my point of view, are adaptive: they have a reason for being.

Even anger, because it allows us to identify something that does a lot of damage to the person and from which they have to protect themselves.

Once you know it, you have to manage those feelings and intervene in the negative ones.

If a person has anxiety, they want something to take it away right now, instead of identifying why they have anxiety or why they have sadness.

All feelings, from my point of view, are adaptive: they have a reason for being.

Even anger, because it allows us to identify something that does a lot of damage to the person and from which they have to protect themselves.

Once you know it, he has to deal with those feelings and intervene in the negative ones.

If a person has anxiety, they want something to take it away right now, instead of identifying why they have anxiety or why they have sadness.

All feelings, from my point of view, are adaptive: they have a reason for being.

Even anger, because it allows us to identify something that does a lot of damage to the person and from which they have to protect themselves.

Once you know it, he has to deal with those feelings and intervene in the negative ones.

Generosity is part of what is the essence of being human

The figures on how much prescriptions for psychotropic drugs have increased in recent years, and even more so during the pandemic, are quite impressive.

Perhaps psychiatry is hypermedicalized?

The pandemic is a different and complex situation;

It is what many of us from the psychological point of view call a disaster situation: something for which none of us were prepared and that is affecting people who were previously healthy but who, given the intense magnitude of what we have experienced, have developed anxiety and depression disorders, and this determines that the prescription of psychotropic drugs has increased considerably.

But there is also a part of this situation that we will have to evaluate and reflect on in order to come out stronger.

In fact,

there are people who have learned a lot from this situation and have found their strength in themselves.

Are sadness and depression the same thing?

No. Many times we use the same word, we say "I'm depressed" to say that I'm sad.

Sadness is a feeling that appears whenever we lose something.

And in depression, in addition to sadness, there are other feelings, there are other important symptoms: the desire to enjoy things is lost - that's why depressed people don't want to do things, it's that they can't because nothing causes them pleasure-, sleep is disturbed, appetite is altered, very negative thoughts appear, difficulty concentrating... Depression is a serious illness and in some cases very serious, which causes a lot of suffering.

And sadness is a feeling that sometimes becomes pathological,

but not always.

I understand then that sadness should not be treated with psychoactive drugs, right?

No, not at all, sadness must be experienced and felt.

I think it's not bad to have moments of sadness in this life because you loved a person who has passed away or you cared about that job you lost.

You have to learn to live with sadness.

Does being generous help to be a joyful person?

Generosity is part of what is the essence of being human.

One is happier when he makes those around him happy, and when one dedicates time and effort to other people, the reward is much greater than when he is only concerned with himself.

I have always observed, in my clinical practice, that when a patient is very depressed he is unable to think about other people,

because really what he would have to think about is getting well and what he thinks is that he is very bad, that he cannot recover.

And when those patients start to get better, they start to think of others and that helps them recover.

In his book he cites an interesting study from the University of Chicago in which students were given 5 dollars: some had to spend that money on themselves and others on others.

What conclusion did that study yield?

Well, those who were instructed to use that money to buy something for others had a much higher level of satisfaction than those who spent those 5 dollars on themselves.

And that's what happens to us: many times it makes us very happy to give gifts, almost more than to receive them.

And when those patients start to get better, they start to think of others and that helps them recover.

In his book he cites an interesting study from the University of Chicago in which students were given 5 dollars: some had to spend that money on themselves and others on others.

What conclusion did that study yield?

Well, those who were instructed to use that money to buy something for others had a much higher level of satisfaction than those who spent those 5 dollars on themselves.

And that's what happens to us: many times it makes us very happy to give gifts, almost more than to receive them.

And when those patients start to get better, they start to think of others and that helps them recover.

In his book he cites an interesting study from the University of Chicago in which students were given 5 dollars: some had to spend that money on themselves and others on others.

What conclusion did that study yield?

Well, those who were instructed to use that money to buy something for others had a much higher level of satisfaction than those who spent those 5 dollars on themselves.

And that's what happens to us: many times it makes us very happy to give gifts, almost more than to receive them.

some had to spend that money on themselves and others on others.

What conclusion did that study yield?

Well, those who were instructed to use that money to buy something for others had a much higher level of satisfaction than those who spent those 5 dollars on themselves.

And that's what happens to us: many times it makes us very happy to give gifts, almost more than to receive them.

some had to spend that money on themselves and others on others.

What conclusion did that study yield?

Well, those who were instructed to use that money to buy something for others had a much higher level of satisfaction than those who spent those 5 dollars on themselves.

And that's what happens to us: many times it makes us very happy to give gifts, almost more than to receive them.

Conforms to The Trust Project criteria

Know more

  • Final Interview

  • Psychology