Each neurotic state is poorly tolerated by a neurotic person in its own way. And each condition can get worse under certain conditions. And you may be tempted to start avoiding certain situations in order to prevent your condition from getting worse. This is avoidance. That is: Neurotic avoidance is attempts to avoid contact with certain circumstances in order to eliminate or reduce the likelihood of a worsening of your condition. On the one hand, everything is logical. The less contact you have with problematic circumstances, the lower the likelihood of problems in your life. Don't want any trouble? Don't walk down the street half naked late at night. Or don’t go to the fan section of someone else’s team with bright paraphernalia of your team. On the other hand, when you actively use avoidance in the same situation, you risk creating a full-fledged phobia for yourself. That is. It's one thing to avoid sticking your hand into a running shredder. It’s a completely different matter to avoid going outside (agoraphobia). In fact, neurotic avoidance is an important and integral part of any phobia. That is, if you start to avoid something, it means that you have confidently stepped from the level of anxiety to the level of phobia. Any phobia, one way or another, involves active avoidance and a certain dose of helplessness in the face of those situations in which unpleasant sensations of fear arise in the body. At the same time, it is important not to confuse neurotic avoidance with banal everyday comfort. If you don’t go outside for a walk during the day when it’s hot in the summer, this is a solution based on your comfort in life. Accordingly, if someone or something forces you to go out on the street, you will go and be irritated. After all, you are forced to do something you DO NOT want. If a conditional cardiophobe (someone who is afraid of a heart attack) is asked to go outside in the heat, he will experience fear, stress the consequences of going out, and be afraid of going out in such weather. In his logic, walking in the heat is dangerous and therefore important to avoid. It is also important to remember that avoidance can be either open and obvious or not obvious to you. For example, if we are talking about aerophobia, arachnophobia or hemophobia, then everything is simple and obvious. Are you afraid of planes, spiders and the sight of blood? Okay, don't fly on planes, don't go near spiders, and don't take blood tests. But hidden avoidance is more difficult to recognize. So, for example, you may not ask yourself anything again (you avoid asking), since requests seem awkward to you, so you avoid them. Or you may avoid showing your negative emotions (not so much holding back, but rather avoiding when you are afraid of the consequences of your emotions). Or you can avoid speaking too loudly so as not to attract unnecessary attention. In any case, it is useful for every neurotic to know his avoidances very well. After all, only by eliminating these from your usual reactions can you count on getting rid of fears and background anxiety. What avoidances have you noticed in yourself lately? If you found the article useful or pleasant, feel free to click the “say thank you” button at the bottom right If you have anxiety, fears, neurosis, obsessive states, depression. If you want to manage your condition on your own, then start learning specific skills to manage your condition now.