The Anxiety-Avoidance Cycle

One common way of coping with anxiety is avoiding the thing that seems to be causing the anxiousness. It makes sense in a way; there’s ‘this thing’, my anxiety level increases when I’m near ‘this thing’ so avoiding ‘this thing’ will lower my anxiety. No Problem!

But there is a problem. Coping by avoidance does not address the actual problem, which is the anxiety itself. Avoidance creates a situation which only makes the anxiety worse. This can be called the anxiety-avoidance cycle.

See, when you encounter ‘this thing’ and get anxious, your brain is sending a signal that ‘this thing’ might not be safe. Then when you encounter the possibility of ‘this thing’ again and avoid it, you send a message to the brain that, yep, 'this thing’ is definitely not safe. This increases the level of anxiety. Eventually things may reach a point where even the thought of ‘this thing’ creates an increased level of anxiousness.

Now if the thing causing the anxiety is a fear of polar bear attacks, then this avoidance might not have much of an impact on your daily life (especially if you live far south of the Artic Circle). But if the anxiety centers around something that is part of your daily life, such as driving over a bridge or talking to other people, then avoidance can impair your ability to work or to enjoy life.

The good news is that this anxiety avoidance cycle can be broken by decreasing the avoiding behavior. Exposure therapy is one way to do this. This involves exposing yourself to small bits of ‘this thing’ then increasing that exposure to larger and more interactive levels of ‘this thing’. The brain learns that ‘this thing’ isn’t so scary after all. Anxiety decreases to a more manageable level. You learn a new healthy coping skill.

Need help breaking the anxiety cycle? Contact a licensed therapist in your state. If you live in MS or NC, I would love to chat with you. Email me at mytherapynook@gmail.com to set up a free 15-minute consultation.