86 Don’t Let A nxiety Run Your Life
threat to your survival. In many cases, your nervous system
reinforces your tendency to avoid; after all, who wants to
experience queasiness, sweaty palms, and a dry mouth when
you can much more easily avoid the scary aspects of life?
Second, anxious avoidance inhibits learning (LeDoux
2015). If you fear coming into contact with a deadly germ,
washing your hands every time you touch an unhygienic
surface will help thwart your anxiety response; however,
this solves your problem only in the very short term and
creates greater problems for the future. That’s because each
time you avoid touching an unhygienic surface, you lose yet
another opportunity to reduce your fear of germs through
learning that you can touch the unhygienic surface and not
get sick.
Third, avoidance enhances dysfunctional beliefs related
to your anxiety. More simply, when you avoid confronting
your anxiety, you remove the opportunity to test your
thoughts and to challenge the pathological relationship you
have to the threatening situation. Imagine a friend who has
social anxiety and avoids social interaction at all costs. He
confides to you that he wants to make friends or develop a
romantic relationship but believes himself to be “awkward,
unworthy of affection, and pathetic.” Every time your friend
engages in anxious avoidance behaviors, whether they
include avoiding interactions at all costs, drinking exces-
sively before parties, or looking at his phone as a distraction
at parties, he loses the important opportunity to test the
truth of his negative thoughts about himself.
Fourth and finally, anxious avoidance reinforces the
chronicity of your anxiety, meaning it may get worse over
time, it may include new fears, or your responses to it may
become increasingly and overtly avoidant.