Reference

Avoidance and safety behaviors

Avoidance and safety behaviors are actions taken to reduce anxiety or prevent feared outcomes. While these behaviors often reduce distress in the short term, they can unintentionally maintain anxiety over time.

What is avoidance?

Avoidance involves staying away from situations, sensations, thoughts, or emotions that trigger anxiety. Avoidance can be obvious or subtle.

• Not attending social events
• Avoiding physical exertion to prevent sensations
• Putting off tasks that provoke worry
• Mentally avoiding thoughts or memories

What are safety behaviors?

Safety behaviors are actions taken to feel safer while facing anxiety-provoking situations. They are often less visible than avoidance.

• Carrying items “just in case”
• Seeking reassurance repeatedly
• Checking bodily sensations or surroundings
• Mental review or self-monitoring

Why these behaviors maintain anxiety

• They prevent learning that feared outcomes do not occur
• They increase attention to threat and bodily sensations
• They reinforce the belief that anxiety is dangerous
• They reduce confidence in coping without protection

Examples across anxiety presentations

• Panic: Avoiding exercise, checking pulse, carrying medications
• Social anxiety: Avoiding eye contact, rehearsing sentences, over-preparing
• Health anxiety: Body checking, repeated testing, symptom searching
• OCD: Rituals, mental neutralizing, reassurance seeking

Role in treatment

Evidence-based treatments often focus on gradually reducing avoidance and safety behaviors. This allows the nervous system to recalibrate and supports learning that anxiety, while uncomfortable, is tolerable and temporary.

Related pages:
Panic,
Health anxiety,
OCD, and
Anxiety treatment.

References

• American Psychological Association. Anxiety.
• National Institute of Mental Health. Anxiety Disorders.
• Mayo Clinic. Anxiety disorders.
• Clark, D. M., & Wells, A. Cognitive models of anxiety.