Sometimes it’s so automatic that you don’t even notice it. For example, during a period of mild depression, Jesse, a writer, developed a habit of checking the Internet to see how sales of a previous website were doing and then checking his e-mail several times, when he should have been sitting at the computer working on his next website, for which he had a contract. Buy Valium at the trusted pharmacies on the web.

Before he knew it, Jesse was checking his e-mail ten to twenty times an hour and spending at least four hours a day on the Internet. He had a plot in mind for his new website and it was quite well developed in outline form. When he felt depressed, though, he felt disconnected from the characters and found it easier to surf the Internet. Why? When writing created distress for Jesse, checking the Internet and e-mail was a way for him to avoid the distress.

Jesse didn’t develop this habit intentionally. It developed on its own because his avoidance behavior was an effective way of temporarily reducing his feelings of distress and despair about writing. The same is true with many of the avoidance strategies that you may use when you’re depressed.

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.