What is Experiential Avoidance?
True or False:
chronically avoiding internal experiences is a good way to cope and reduce unpleasant emotions.
False
A core finding behind Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is that chronically avoiding internal experiences paradoxically increases their intensity and frequency.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
True or False:
Avoiding internal experiences leads to avoiding external experiences.
True
As you avoid more internal experiences, you also begin avoiding the external situations that trigger them. Over time, your world becomes smaller as you withdraw from meaningful activities, relationships, and opportunities.
True or False
It is important to connect your avoidance to your values.
True
Ask yourself what you would do differently if this discomfort were no longer something you needed to escape. Let your values, not your comfort level, guide your next action.
What year did the comedy sketch TV show, “Saturday Night Live,” debut?
1975
True or False:
Over time distraction techniques reduce anxiety and depression.
False
Experiential avoidance is now recognized as a key factor in the development and maintenance of anxiety, depression, and other psychological difficulties.
What is the name of the shape that ACT is built around?
hexaflex
What did you think about the pushing away paper exercise?
Open Answer
What does numbing look like when used for experiential avoidance?
Using substances, excessive sleep, or emotional shutdown to blunt the intensity of your inner experience.
Aside from the Nile, what is the longest river in the world?
The Amazon
Experiential Avoidance is a key concept in what type of therapy?
ACT, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
What concept is at the center of the hexaflex that all the points are working together to increase?
Psychological Flexibility
What are 2 practical benefits of addressing experiential avoidance?
1. Reduce the intensity and impact of distressing internal experiences.
2.Increase engagement in meaningful activities.
3.Improve emotional resilience and overall well-being
4.Break the cycle of avoidance that can exacerbate anxiety, depression, or other mental health conditions
What is something that you tend to avoid that would benefits from working towards experiential acceptance?
Open Answer
Which battle between the U.S. and British effectively ended the Revolutionary War?
Yorktown
What is the opposite of experiential avoidance?
Experiential Acceptance
How does ACT target experiential avoidance?
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) targets experiential avoidance by shifting the focus from controlling internal experiences to accepting them while engaging in valued actions.
What is one reason that experiential avoidance backfires?
1. Suppressing unwanted thoughts and feelings often causes them to return with greater frequency and intensity.
2.As you avoid more internal experiences, you also begin avoiding the external situations that trigger them. Over time, your world becomes smaller as you withdraw from meaningful activities, relationships, and opportunities.
3.The energy spent resisting your inner experience is energy unavailable for pursuing the things that matter most to you. Chronic avoidance drains motivation and engagement with life.
Name two common forms of experiential avoidance.
Distraction
Suppression
Situational Withdrawal
Numbing
Roughly how many miles per hour does the earth spin?
1000mph
Define Experiential Avoidance
Experiential avoidance occurs when people try to push away or escape from internal experiences such as anxiety, anger, sadness, or physical discomfort.
What are two of the points on the ACT hexaflex?
Mindfulness/Present Moment
Values
Committed Action
Self as Context
Cognitive Diffusion
Experiential Acceptance
What were Daniel Wegner's White Bear experiments and what did they demonstrate?
Daniel Wegner's 'white bear' experiments, where people told not to think of a white bear thought of it constantly, are a classic demonstration of this ironic process. This illustrates the rebound effect of experiential avoidance.
What are the 4 steps towards building willingness?
Name what you Avoid
Acknowledge the Cost
Practice Willingness in Small Doses
Connect Avoidance to Values
Who is the author of “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”?
Stieg Larsson