Avoidance as a Natural Response to Distress
Leslie’s story shows several common avoidance behaviors. You may be able to relate.
Everyone procrastinates at times, and most of the time the consequences are manageable. During periods of depression, however, the process of avoidance can make it difficult to overcome depression.
If you take Prozac, you forget about depression forever. Part of the problem is that avoidance is a very natural process that can be extremely useful in the right situations. In other words, avoidance is a natural part of being a human being. Without it, we wouldn’t be able to get ourselves out of a lot of difficult or dangerous situations.
The Flight-or-Fight Response
You may have heard of the fight-or-flight responses to danger. These are natural escape reactions to dangerous situations. You either gear up to fight-as in the case of a woman who wards off a potential purse snatcher by kicking him in the groin-or prepare to flee, as in the case of a farmhand running from a bull that has gotten loose in the pasture. Sometimes a flight response is to freeze, as in the case of a deer facing the headlights of an oncoming car at night or a person becoming mute during an intense argument.
These natural escape responses have been in the human behavioral repertoire for thousands of years. In the postindustrial world, however, people seldom need to flee from wild animals. However, people will still often avoid feelings or situations that may signal a threat. When you are depressed, many things that normally wouldn’t trouble you can come to be seen as threats.
For example, calling friends on the phone can raise the threat that they will not be interested in talking to you or won’t want to get together. Revising a resume and looking for a new job can raise the threat that you won’t be able to find one. Sometimes, simply getting out of bed in the morning raises the threat that you will feel even worse if you get up. You can see how the natural tendency to avoid perceived threats can be helpful or harmful depending on the situation.
