The most obvious avoidance coping example is avoiding stressful or scary situations; however, there are many other forms of avoidant coping. These include trying to distract yourself or avoid thinking about a problem that's stressing you out by staying busy or minimizing or denying a problem.
Avoidance coping involves cognitive and behavioral efforts oriented toward denying, minimizing, or otherwise avoiding dealing directly with stressful demands and is closely linked to distress and depression (Cronkite & Moos, 1995; Penley, Tomaka, & Wiebe, 2002).
True avoidance behaviors involve the complete avoidance of the feared social situation. For example, someone afraid of public speaking might: Drop a class in which he has to give a speech. Change jobs to avoid giving presentations.
These are avoidance of thoughts and feelings, avoidance of activity, and avoidance of memory.
On the other hand, an avoidance response is a learned, voluntary behavior which is carried out to prevent or avoid an aversive stimulus before it is presented: for example, putting earplugs in before entering an environment where loud noises might occur.
The avoidance-avoidance conflict refers to making a decision between two equally undesirable choices. A simple example of this could be making a decision between doing a homework assignment or doing housework. This type of conflict would normally be settled by an assessment of the relative importance of the two tasks.
They tend to be shy, awkward, and self-conscious in social situations due to a fear of doing something wrong or being embarrassed. They tend to exaggerate potential problems. They seldom try anything new or take chances. They have a poor self-image, seeing themselves as inadequate and inferior.
Some of the following examples of emotional avoidance highlight its potential for creating negative consequences: Not engaging in meaningful conversations to avoid feelings of intimacy. Procrastinating an important life goal to avoid feelings of inadequacy. Overusing substances to avoid feelings of loss or grief.
Avoidance training occurs in two forms: active and passive. In the active form, the avoidance contingency depends on the occurrence of a specified response on the part of the organism; in the passive form, the avoidance contingency depends on the nonoccurrence (i.e., the suppression) of some specified response.
Avoidance is a normal trauma response. Avoidant coping can help a short time after a traumatic event, but when this coping strategy persists and impedes your quality of life, it becomes harmful. Exposure therapy is the primary way to work on avoidant behaviors.
Avoidance Principle: To teach a child to avoid a certain type of situation, simultaneously present to the child the situation to be avoided (or some representation of it) and some aversive conditon (or its representation).
Another appropriate use of the Avoiding mode comes up when little can be gained from a conflict. Examples of this are issues that are simply unimportant, are issues that others can handle, or issues that are symptoms of other issues.
An example would be choosing between two different cars, each with differing pros and cons. One car gets great gas mileage and has lots of fancy stuff (approaching) but is very expensive and expensive to maintain (avoidance).
Avoidance is typically considered a maladaptive behavioral response to excessive fear and anxiety, leading to the maintenance of anxiety disorders.
Who's prone to avoidance behavior? People with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or anxiety are especially likely to use avoidance to dodge triggers or potentially harmful environments. Others may practice the behavior because they struggle with their emotions in general.
Avoidance is a common behaviour when anxiety strikes and learning how to cope through approach rather than avoidance is an important tool. Although when we first avoid we might feel less anxious, after a while the thing we are avoiding can seem harder to approach.
Consider Therapy
You don't have to deal with avoidant behavior alone! A therapist can also help you build self-esteem and confidence in facing your fears. Therapy can help you reframe your negative thoughts, cope with stressors in healthy ways, and navigate your avoidant emotions.
A socially awkward person with a hypersensitivity to rejection and feelings of inadequacy may have a mental illness known as avoidant personality disorder (AVPD).
Intense fear of interacting or talking with strangers. Fear that others will notice that you look anxious. Fear of physical symptoms that may cause you embarrassment, such as blushing, sweating, trembling or having a shaky voice. Avoidance of doing things or speaking to people out of fear of embarrassment.
Emotional avoidance is when a person avoids thoughts or feelings about a traumatic event. This type of avoidance is internal to the person; others around you may not know what you are avoiding and why.