The role of avoidance of emotional material in the anxiety disorders

Kristalyn Salters-Pedneault., Matthew T. Tull, Lizabeth Roemer

Psychology Department, University of Massachusetts at Boston, 100 Morrissey Boulevard, Boston, MA 02125, USA

Abstract

Many psychotherapeutic traditions have conceptualized clinical levels of anxiety as resulting from the avoidance of threatening or emotional

material. In this paper, we examine behavioral models of avoidance of emotions and emotional material, integrating findings that support

established behavioral theories of emotional avoidance and anxiety, and that extend these theories to further explain the intense, intrusive,

and interfering nature of clinical anxiety. Research on the suppression and avoidance of emotional material suggests that emotional avoidance

and thought suppression may not only hinder the learning process and maintain anxious responding, but may also (a) paradoxically heighten

anxious responding to threatening cues and (b) interfere with emotion functionality, thereby further impeding adaptive responding. Findings

are discussed in terms of future research and implications for clinical treatment of anxiety disorders.