Avoidance
Avoidance is freeze with extra steps. The task and a bad feeling have gotten paired; the system pushes the task away to avoid the feeling. The avoidance is the symptom — the pairing is usually the cause.
Avoidance is a class of behavior in which a person moves away from a task, feeling, or interaction that feels unsafe or overwhelming. Nervous-system states are complex and individual. This is orientation, not diagnosis.
- heaviness when the task appears
- sudden tiredness
- urge to switch tabs
- 'I'll do it in a minute'
- 'I just need to check one thing first'
- a vague dread you can't name
If a task is paired with shame, criticism, or overwhelm, the brain treats approaching the task as approaching the bad feeling — and pulls back. Lecturing yourself layers more bad feeling onto the pairing. Lowering the cost of the next move (open the document; do nothing else) lets the system approach without flinching.
- lecturing yourself
- huge time-blocks of dread
- lower the stakes of the next move (open the document, no work required)
- a 3-minute start ritual
- a friction-removal pass (close tabs, put phone in another room)
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