Experiential Avoidance and Behavioral Disorders

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has been much difficulty in the field. The proposed functional diagnostic system would be a way to bridge the gap between the two traditional approaches, offering something more comprehensive and highly advantageous in the field of psychopathology. One such example would be the concept of experiential avoidance, which teaches that many forms of psychopathology are able to be thought of in terms of an unhealthy effort to escape from and/or to avoid something, such as emotions, thoughts, memories, or other experiences. Looking at behaviors in such terms not only satisfies the need to give it a label or name for reference, in this case "experiential avoidance," but also gives insight into the actual cause, functioning, and possible treatment of behavioral disorders. The authors of this article were able to cite and incorporate a great deal of research and findings from theoretical work to support and expand on this theory.

The Core Arguments

It is argued that the traditional ...

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of anxiety. Experiential avoidance often appears to have positive immediate effects, and therefore this behavior is continued, while in the long term there are negative effects that come as unexpected consequences. The opposite of experiential avoidance is psychological acceptance, which may be as helpful to a person as the avoidance may be harmful. Deliberate thought control and suppression, a common form of experiential avoidance, can be counterproductive because in attempting to rid oneself of a particular thought, one often creates that very thought. It is important to understand that emotions, memories, events, and other personal experiences must be accepted and faced in ...

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