Marian Rojas Estapé, psychiatrist: “Permanent anxiety is the sliding door to depression”

After making her first appearance on El Hormiguero on February 11, 2025, Marian Rojas Estapé is set to make her definitive leap into television this Sunday. La Sexta premiered Vulnerables during prime time on Easter Sundy, a docuseries about mental health in young people in which the psychiatrist has played a central role.

Rojas has become a standout figure in modern psychiatry and has sold more than three million copies of her books. Her most influential work is ‘Cómo hacer que te pasen cosas buenas’ (How to Make Good Things Happen to You), a book that aims to reshape the way you see the world by helping you focus on opportunities rather than threats that keep you living under stress.

It also introduces the now widely used concept of “vitamin people” - those individuals who bring energy, support, and emotional well-being into your life.

In the first chapter, the physician discusses depression at length and explains what lies behind it from a scientific perspective. In her view, the key factor is cortisol, a hormone the body releases in response to a real or perceived threat. It is activated when we experience anxiety.

“Chronic anxiety is the sliding door to depression. Many cases of depression stem from living in a constant state of alert for long periods of time,” she explains, linking the condition to what she describes as possible “cortisol overload.” She also points to other contributing factors, such as childhood trauma and inflammation.

In fact, the psychiatrist suggests that “in the not-too-distant future, it may become possible to combine anti-inflammatory medications with conventional depression treatments for patients who do not respond to standard care.”

In the chapter’s conclusion, Rojas Estapé emphasizes the connection between depression and conditions such as cardiovascular disease and cancer. She also notes that depression doubles the risk for people with diabetes and, above all, warns about the role inflammation may play in these processes. A good starting point for beginning to recover is always to sleep well, eat a healthy diet, and exercise regularly.

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