Unpacking Anxiety: Avoidance
Welcome back! Today we are working to unpack another aspect of anxiety experiences that individuals face. As we previously mentioned, everyone’s experience with anxiety can be different and taking the time to unpack the different ways that anxiety may present within the population can help to normalize experiences, empower responses, and pave the way toward healing. Today’s anxiety trade that we will work to unpack is the trait of avoidance.
So what about anxiety and avoidance?
Avoidance is typically described as a maladaptive behavioral response where an individual retracts or maintains distance from the situation or thing causing an anxiety or fear response. In the short term, avoidant behavior patterns are effective at reducing anxiety patterns related to the specific stimuli that the individual is experiencing a fear response associated with. This type of behavioral pattern is associated with the flea or escape response and is a function of the safety mechanisms of the brain. Unfortunately, though, if an individual continues to maintain an avoidant response to the stimuli, the actual anxiety response associated with that stimuli tends to be maintained, or increase in intensity. (1)
Avoidance connected with anxiety responses can take on many forms.
Some examples of avoidant behavior responses may include:
In panic disorders, individuals may refuse to leave their homes or places of familiarity for fear of panic symptoms
In social anxiety disorders, individuals may make grand efforts to resist social interactions, formulate excuses for the non-attendance of certain functions, refuse eye contact to limit social conversations, and overall drawl from the potential of connecting with other individuals
In specific phobia-related anxiety disorders, individuals may make a grand effort to maintain distance from any type of interaction that could cause an encounter with the phobia-related stimuli.
And in more generalized anxiety disorders, Individuals may work to resist new situations, places of critique, potential opportunities for rejection, and many other situations that may be associated with the significant sources of anxious thought patterns experienced by that individual.
So let’s dig a little bit deeper into the connection between anxiety and avoidant behaviors.
When we think about avoidance as an aspect of the flight or freeze response, we have to remember that fight, flight, and freeze responses are a part of the safety mechanisms that are hardwired into our brains and bodies. We are biologically wired to fight threats, flee from unsafe situations, and freeze to avoid further harmful situations. This flee or freeze response associated with avoidant behaviors is correlated with the neurochemical, cortisol, the stress hormone in the body. The research confirms this connection by noting that avoidant behaviors are connected to higher stress levels and cortisol levels in the body. (2)
And as previously discussed, all forms of anxiety disorders are associated with higher cortisol levels in the body. (3)
When we put the pieces together of the science of the brain in the body, avoidant behaviors and their correlation with anxiety-based disorders just make sense.
And the great news is, avoidance is a behavioral response. And behavioral responses can be retrained. All sorts of evidence-based interventions exist to help individuals overcome behavioral patterns that either are not helpful for life satisfaction or are a part of perpetuating symptoms or experiences that are unhealthy for them.
If you are interested in taking the next steps to unpack avoidant behaviors and consider anxiety therapy, we would love to connect with you. Our Arlington, Texas-based therapy group is trained in evidence space practices to assist in anxiety management.
