By Rachel Zierenberg
“A clear understanding of negative emotions dismisses them.”
Experiential avoidance is an unwillingness to remain in contact with distressing internal experiences and attempting to control or avoid these distressing internal experiences (Hayes-Skelton & Eustis, 2020). Essentially, it’s avoiding specific memories, thoughts, or feelings because we don’t want to face the potential pain that comes with them. It’s something that we are all tempted to do at some point. Here is a good video to explain experiential avoidance.
Like the video demonstrated, we tend to move away from progressive action because of temporary discomfort. Instead, we seek instant gratification, but ultimately give up the reward we seek. The long-term effects will provide us with the same, or sometimes greater, distress we are trying to avoid.
I have experienced this lately in my own life. Whether it's deadlines at school or work, I tend to avoid doing them because I would rather put them off for a future version of myself to do. However, I will always be the same person who doesn’t want to do it; all I’m doing is creating more stress for myself later. Although I might not want to complete the short term assignments, they contribute to my overall goal of graduation. That is something that I want to do. Once I move my focus towards the intrinsic motivation that I hold, it is easier for me to deal with the task at hand. Changing my perspective to move “towards” instead of “away” helps me reduce experiential avoidance and its harmful side effects.
Research shows the impact of experiential avoidance. Escape behaviors, such as substance use, risky sexual behavior, and deliberate self-harm, may increase the risk of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in trauma victims (Tull, 2021). This also applies in circumstances of anxiety in which trying to avoid feeling anxious leads to more anxiety. These experiential avoidance techniques might provide temporary relief, but they only make the long-term consequences worse. Psychologists associate experiential avoidance with bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder, and suicide.
Similar emotional regulation strategies such as thought suppression and rumination have also been discovered to worsen overall well-being. However, there are many strategies to overcome experiential avoidance, the most prominent one being Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). The goal of ACT is to create a meaningful life by letting go of attempts to control emotional pain or thoughts. ACT encourages individuals to separate themself from their thoughts and let them pass freely without avoidance. Studies show that guided online ACT may significantly reduce experiential avoidance and depressive symptoms among adolescents (Keinonen et al., 2021). It has been known to treat other illnesses like anxiety disorders, chronic pain, depression, OCD, and eating disorders (Ackerman, 2022; Eustis et al., 2016). Here are some ACT techniques to use to reduce the experiential avoidance in your life that is dragging you down!
Step 1: Identify what you are avoiding. What are the thoughts you push away? What memories do you try to forget? What emotions are you suppressing? Write these down and clearly articulate specifics.
Step 2: Identify what you are doing to avoid these things. What distractions are you using? What places do you try to stay away from? How often do you procrastinate? Write down the answers to these questions as well.
Step 3: Consult with yourself about what these avoidance tactics are doing for you. Are they making your life better? Are you happier in the long term when you use them?
Step 4: Identify the values that are important to you and the tasks that go along with them. This will highlight the intrinsic motivation that reminds you why you are doing these tasks.
Step 5: Invent new tactics to move “towards” a goal instead of away from it. This will look different for each individual. Use SMART goals to increase your flow, engagement, and performance (Weintraub et al., 2021). Learn more about SMART goals in the Personal Growth Module.
You can start thinking about and trying out these ACT techniques today! And remember, when avoidance starts calling, let those thoughts pass freely. Instead of avoiding thinking about avoidance, you can instead try to cultivate a general mindfulness about your intentions.With consistent effort, we can reduce the amount of experiential avoidance in each of our lives, sparking more productivity and increasing our overall well-being.
“When we pay attention and listen instead of denying, suppressing, fearing, or disliking our spontaneous feelings, we gain great access to our natural intuition.”
references
Ackerman, C. (2022, March 29). How does acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) work? https://positivepsychology.com/act-acceptance-and-commitment-therapy
Eustis, E. H., Hayes-Skelton, S. A., Roemer, L., & Orsillo, S. M. (2016). Reductions in experiential avoidance as a mediator of change in symptom outcome and quality of life in acceptance-based behavior therapy and applied relaxation for generalized anxiety disorder. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 87, 188-195. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2016.09.012
Hayes-Skelton, S. A., & Eustis, E. H. (2020). Experiential avoidance. In J. S. Abramowitz & S. M. Blakey (Eds.), Clinical handbook of fear and anxiety: Maintenance processes and treatment mechanisms (pp. 115–131). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000150-007
Keinonen, K., Puolakanaho, A., Lappalainen, P., Lappalainen, R., & Kiuru, N. (2021). Developmental trajectories of experiential avoidance and depressive symptoms and association to health behaviors among adolescents during brief guided online acceptance and commitment therapy. Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science, 22, 24-31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcbs.2021.08.002
[The Career Psychologist]. Headstuck! What is experiential avoidance? [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-ZuqeyxULM
Tull, M. (2021). Experiential avoidance and PTSD. Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/experiential-avoidance-2797358
Weintraub, J., Cassell, D., & DePatie, T. P. (2021). Nudging flow through ‘SMART’ goal setting to decrease stress, increase engagement, and increase performance at work. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 94(2), 230-258. https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12347