Avoidance and Procrastination is something a lot of people experience. Have you ever struggled to start something you’ve been avoiding for a long time? Often anxiety is at the root of our procrastination. The act of avoidance initially provides relief to our feelings of anxiety but soon makes the task we are avoiding seem that much more daunting and stressful.

Procrastination and avoidance can be caused by many different factors including:

  • Anxiety – the irrational fear of what might happen
  • Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) – difficulties with focusing, sequencing, and prioritizing
  • Depression – low energy, motivation, concentration, pleasure, etc
  • Low Self Confidence  – the uncertainty of ability to succeed

There are a variety of tools that can be utilized to help decrease avoidance and procrastination. One method which can be useful is to make yourself accountable to someone besides just yourself. We seem to have very little difficulty letting ourselves down but we feel very different when it comes to letting someone else down. Telling somebody else your plan to accomplish something you’ve been avoiding or setting up a concrete deadline with somebody else can help make it more difficult to avoid completing the task.

This is the first blog I’ve ever written. I have been avoiding writing it and putting it off; mostly because I’ve been worrying about it being overly challenging and I’m not sure how to write one. Uncertainty of my ability to write a blog has been the primary factor that has resulted in procrastination and avoidance. After being given a deadline for when this blog needed to be completed, I sat down to write it. My avoidance made the task of writing a blog seem much more intimidating than it otherwise would have been.

Avoidance is often one of the results of anxiety. Helping overcome avoidance is one of the tools used to help manage anxiety.

At Specialized Therapy Associates, we have several clinicians who have expertise in helping people who suffer from anxiety, avoidance, and procrastination.  To learn more about Specialized Therapy Associates, please visit us at https://www.specializedtherapy.com.