Take our quiz to see therapists who are a good match for you.
Avoidance: A Coping Skill We All Use, Despite the Long-Term
Take our quiz to see therapists who are a good match for you.
What is Avoidance?
Avoidance is when you actively put physical or mental effort into keeping away from someone or doing something. Avoidance can temporarily relieve stress, pain, anxiety, depression, and uncomfortable feelings for an individual. However, when you avoid something, you are also avoiding the issue at hand, potentially creating a bigger problem. For example, if someone has anxiety about public speaking, they may try everything in their power to avoid talking in public. However, this doesn’t address the deeper issue, the fear that is fueling the anxiety related to public speaking. This fear if left unchecked could grow and become bigger, so much so that an individual might not even want to meet new people for fear of talking to them. Avoidance quickly relieves big emotions and allows us to return to our comfort zones and in most cases continue on with our lives. However, we all are familiar with how little issues if left unchecked can eventually grow into overwhelmingly big issues.