Rethinking avoidance: Toward a balanced approach to avoidance in treating anxiety disorders.

Abstract in brief

• Avoidance is often seen as a harmful behavior that helps maintain anxiety disorders, but exposure therapy, which involves facing fears rather than avoiding them, is a key treatment that discourages avoidance behaviors.
• The article discusses how avoidance learning plays a role in the development of anxiety, and explores both the negative and positive sides of avoidance in therapy, emphasizing that in some cases, avoidance can serve as a protective or coping strategy.
• It suggests that adaptive (or helpful) avoidance may improve a person's sense of control in threatening situations, and that incorporating these behaviors appropriately can be beneficial in exposure-based treatments for anxiety.]