Avoidance

What is avoidance?

Avoidance includes obvious forms, like skipping feared situations, and subtle ones: distraction, overpreparing, keeping conversations shallow, or using safety behaviours.

Key things to know

Each avoidance confirms the belief that the situation was dangerous and that you could not have handled it. This is how anxiety persists despite the feared outcome never occurring.

• Includes subtle forms: distraction, overpreparing, safety behaviours, shallow talk.
• Each avoidance confirms "it was dangerous and I could not have coped."
• It is the main engine keeping anxiety disorders alive.
• The treatment is graded approach, the basis of exposure therapy.
• Watch for it after relief: what did the relief just teach you?

What helps

The treatment is graded approach: facing avoided situations in planned steps, which is the basis of exposure therapy.

How SelfMind can help

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Related terms

• Exposure therapy
• Anxiety disorder
• Coping mechanisms