Understanding Trauma Avoidance Cycles

Managing Trauma Avoidance Cycles and Treatment Options     

You may already be familiar with this truth on a personal level, from your own experience or that of a loved one. Trauma avoidance cycles are common among those who have experienced a traumatic event or events in the past. This is a natural pattern to fall into, and while it can feel good in the moment, it can worsen symptoms in the long run.

Fortunately, this does not have to be a permanent situation: avoidance symptoms can be dealt with effectively. Trauma therapy with experienced, trained professionals can help you work through the more severe PTSD symptoms you may be dealing with currently. In time, you can process the traumatic event or events from your past and move forward with a new optimism.

Keep reading to learn more, and remember that support to address post traumatic stress disorder is available at Catalina Behavioral Health at a variety of levels. To get started, or to ask any questions you may have, call our friendly and experienced team today.

What Are Trauma Avoidance Cycles?

Avoidance is one of the most common responses to trauma. It’s also one of the easiest to understand. Staying away from things that remind you of past traumatic experiences is perfectly logical on the surface. After all, why would you want to engage with something that is going to bring back distressing symptoms?

Many trauma survivors, including those who experienced childhood trauma, find themselves engaging in avoidance regularly. And they might not even know it. These avoidance behaviors can just become a part of daily life, and they can certainly provide temporary relief.

The term “avoidance cycle” comes from the pattern of repeatedly avoiding any situation that might be loosely related to past trauma in some way. Instead of seeking true healing, you may become stuck in a pattern of avoidance that keeps you right where you are. These cycles are often preventing trauma survivors from achieving the true healing they need and deserve.

The Mechanics of Avoidance – How It Works

Avoidance is a common coping strategy for people with past trauma. In fact, it might be the most common coping strategy. Those with anxiety disorders and other mental health challenges will often engage in this behavior, even without doing it consciously.

If you suspect you have been using avoidance as a coping mechanism, read through the process below to see if it sounds familiar.

Encounter a Reminder

This is where it all starts. While going through life, you will encounter things that occasionally bring your trauma to the surface. These episodes come in many different forms. One possibility is encountering a person who is related to the trauma in some way (even if they aren’t to blame for it).

Or, you could find yourself in a related place, or you may just have a related thought. Whatever the case, it’s a reminder that puts everything in motion.

Feel Anxiety or Fear

Once the reminder is encountered, feelings of anxiety or fear will likely start to rise in the body. These are uncomfortable symptoms and you’ll naturally start to look immediately for a remedy. Your body doesn’t like how these distressing symptoms feel and the most important thing in the moment is to find relief.

Engage in Avoidance

It’s at this stage that the avoidant coping begins. You will choose to take some type of action that allows you to simply avoid the situation, or go around it, rather than confronting it directly. You might leave a place prematurely to avoid talking to someone, as one example, or you may use some other type of behavior to numb the pain or distract yourself from it.

Experience Temporary Relief

The tricky thing about avoidance cycles is that they work. You’ll be able to get around trauma reminders this way and it might seem like your mental health condition is better, at least in the short term. The relief you feel from distressing memories will be temporary, but it will feel like it’s better than nothing.

Repeat the Process

What makes this a cycle is the fact that you are likely to do it over and over. Since dealing with negative emotions in this way does offer you some quick relief, your brain may decide that this is an effective mechanism.

So, people with conditions like Complex PTSD may get stuck just doing this over and over again. As months and years pass, the interpersonal trauma is never confronted, and more and more avoidance behaviors accumulate.

Signs You’re Stuck in an Avoidance Cycle

Are you already stuck in this kind of vicious cycle? If you deal with trauma-related thoughts and other problems with any of the tactics below, it’s possible that a cycle is already in place.

Avoiding Conversations About Your Trauma

You might already be avoiding tough conversations about your trauma and the impact that it has on your life. Even if you have a supportive environment available to you, the easier path might feel like just keeping all of these emotions to yourself.

Withdrawing Socially

It’s common for people in this cycle to cut off many of the relationships in their lives. These aren’t just relationships that are closely tied to the trauma – they might even be healthy relationships that bring up traumatic memories for one reason or another.

Using Substances

The avoidance cycle can be particularly dangerous when it leads to substance abuse. Some people deal with distressing emotions by using drugs or alcohol, and the results can be deadly.

Any short term relief that may be provided by substance use is quickly going to fade, and soon an addiction will need to be conquered in addition to the past trauma. It’s critical to find effective strategies for managing trauma symptoms that don’t involve drugs or alcohol.

Staying Constantly Busy

There is nothing wrong with being busy in life from day to day. But that busyness can take on a different purpose for people avoiding trauma. You might find yourself staying busy because you are afraid of the quiet moments where nothing is there to distract you from your emotional pain.

Why Avoidance Can Make Trauma Symptoms Worse

It would be easy enough to think that avoidance is harmless. You aren’t doing anything to anyone else, and if it helps you deal with distressing thoughts, why not just take this approach to your trauma? There are a number of problems with trying to reduce stress in this way, including the following.

Prevents Emotional Processing

You are never really dealing with your trauma by always avoiding it. This is a short term solution when what you really need is long term healing. It’s hard to avoid triggers forever. Gradual exposure to triggers, and confronting them in a healthy way, can open the door for true healing to occur.

Increases Hypervigilance

As time passes, more and more things will become triggers in this cycle. You’ll always be on edge, looking for the next thing that will lead to problems with emotional regulation. It will feel like the world is shrinking and the list of things you can do and enjoy will continue to narrow.

Undermines Self-Confidence

It’s hard to maintain confidence in yourself when you are always shying away from tough situations. This is sending your brain a clear message, and the message is that you can’t handle what you are facing.

Creates Isolation

You’ll inevitably become isolated as your brain learns more and more about what you need to avoid. People and places will be permanently ruled out and you will wind up doing more harm than good using this tactic.

How to Break the Cycle

So, knowing that this isn’t really the right way to deal with trauma, how should you approach the matter?

Trauma-Informed Therapy

Start by seeking professional help in a safe environment like a treatment facility. You can work on breaking the cycle of avoidance here by receiving attention and therapy from experienced providers. Many different treatments are available, including eye movement desensitization and other evidenced-based therapies.

Exposure with Support

Gradual exposure is a powerful tool when done properly. It can be scary and overwhelming to just “throw yourself into the deep end”, but with support, exposure can lead to great progress. Your long term well being can be improved dramatically if you open yourself to exposure and the emotions that come with it.

Practicing Mindfulness

Using mindfulness as a way to stay in the present is another good strategy. This does take practice to execute effectively, but it’s a good tool to have as you make your way through the world. Make it a point to consistently practice mindfulness in a variety of ways and you may find that situations that used to be triggers are no longer such a concern.

Confront Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Today

Trauma recovery is never easy. But you don’t have to be alone in this battle. Traumatic experiences are better dealt with by confronting them directly rather than seeking temporary relief through avoidance.

This can be accomplished effectively with the help of professionals who are trained in treating trauma symptoms and the underlying causes. Your traumatic memories don’t have to define your future.

Confidentially reach out with Catalina Behavioral Health today to get treatment options that are customized to serve your needs and help you put trauma avoidance in the past.