Why do we avoid activities, class avoidance makes sense if we consider the short and long term consequences
of her behavior.
For example, when her friends invite her to launch, she thinks about the energy she'll have to exert
to make conversation and the possible questions she will face about how she doing.
She feels overwhelming and eating at her desk feels safe and predictable.
Each time she closes her office door and eats alone, she feels a sense of relief which reinforces her
pattern of avoidance.
At the same time, Clara is forgetting the positives that come from eating with her work friends while
she might feel uncomfortable at first.
In the past, she had really enjoyed herself at the group lunches.
She would often return to her office feeling energized for the afternoon.
She was also missing out on the support her friends would offer.
And they didn't launch short term effects and long term effects, decline relief effort, long term
effects, isolation and depression, accept short term effects and anxiety for long term effects, enjoyment
and support to barrelful factors, drive avoidance of activities, an immediate sense of relief from
dodging what we think will be difficult, and another experiencing the reward from engaging in the activity,
thereby further diminishing our motivation for it.
Behavioral activation is designed to break these patterns.