Why Conflict Avoidance Is Not Healthy, Says a Therapist

Conflict becomes damaging when it escalates to a point where it hinders productivity, strains relationships, or causes emotional distress. Destructive conflict can involve personal attacks, unrealistic demands, or the refusal to cooperate. It often leads to a toxic work environment and can have long-lasting negative effects on the individuals involved and the overall team dynamic. Recognizing the signs of damaging conflict early on and addressing them through open communication and conflict resolution techniques is crucial for maintaining a healthy and productive work environment. It can be damaging to the connection of a relationship if it is left unaddressed.

Avoidance behaviors are effectively an effort to withdraw from situations and feelings that produce trauma-related symptoms.
A power struggle may ensue and often the dogmatic partner frequently resorts to unscrupulous means to “win.” The person on the opposite end tends to feel disrespected and demeaned.
Though there is no ideal dose for motion sickness, ginger generally helps your digestive system and supports the release of blood pressure-regulating hormones to calm the body, which ultimately reduces nausea, says Tuznik.

The Impact of Pathological Conflict Avoidance

Fights are, ultimately, about expressing our own position in ways that may convince the other person that they’re wrong. This is the most common type of avoidance, says McKay in his book. Avoidance is the attempt to minimize and avert perceived threat, danger, or anxiety, says Michael G. Wetter, PsyD, a clinical psychologist in Los Angeles, California. It can significantly affect your quality of life with the condition. In addition to therapy, certain medications can also help reduce PTSD symptoms. Some of these medications include selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and certain serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs).

You Experienced Bad Conflicts In Your Childhood

There are many reasons you may be engaging in conflict avoidant behavior in your relationship. Discovering the source of your fears surrounding confrontation can be a good place to begin overcoming the issue. We all experience needs in our lives, and when those needs are left unmet, it can cause us emotional pain. It’s natural to feel reluctant to ask for what we need, especially when we fear potential conflict or rejection. However, in order to have our needs fulfilled, it’s important to practice assertiveness and communicate clearly with others.

Are there any alternative remedies for motion sickness?

Before confronting someone, try examining and questioning your feelings. When you avoid the slightest disagreement, you’re compromising your true feelings and storing up frustration that can end up negatively affecting your health. They are also safe and relatively inexpensive to try, says Tuznik.

While it’s OK to never be completely comfortable with confrontation, being able to resolve issues effectively means accepting it as a healthy part of communicating with others.
However, with treatment, you can learn to cope with these triggers.
Stress relief strategies like relaxation techniques and jogging can minimize the stress response when you face a problem and even increase your self-confidence.
Destructive conflict can involve personal attacks, unrealistic demands, or the refusal to cooperate.

Conflict avoidance is a person’s method of reacting to conflict, which attempts to avoid directly confronting the issue at hand. Methods of doing this can include changing the subject, putting off a discussion until later, or simply not bringing up the subject of contention. In a way, conflict avoidance can be seen as a kind of people-pleasing behavior. It often has roots in deep fear of upsetting other people and witnessing their negative reactions.

Gottman Relationship Coach: How to Make Your Relationship Work

If you find it difficult to construct the exact scenarios that cause you to fear, visualizing them might be the better option. Eventually, however, you will want how to deal with someone who avoids conflict to experience those situations in real life. Read on to discover ways to overcome your fear of conflict with exposure therapy that you can practice on your own.

In another 2022 study, researchers analyzed the effects of avoidance on reading social cues in situations unrelated to trauma.
Keyword “suffer,” because the issue at hand won’t change if you won’t engage in discussion about it, and the same thing will likely happen again.
Aside from our work life, avoiding conflict can manifest in our romantic relationships, friendships, and even family dynamics.
Here are seven signs you might be chronically conflict-avoidant, and why that might actually be a serious problem.

Please donate today to help us save, support, and change lives. Being able to manage and relieve stress in the moment is the key to staying balanced, focused, and in control, no matter what challenges you face. If you don’t know how to stay centered and in control of yourself, you will become overwhelmed in conflict situations and unable to respond in healthy ways.

Healthy and unhealthy ways of managing and resolving conflict

Avoidance is one of four categories of PTSD symptoms and one of the defining criteria of the disorder under the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition, text revision (DSM-5-TR).
The tendency toward conflict avoidance is one expression of this fear.
By embracing conflict avoidance strategies, individuals and organizations can create environments where differences are seen as opportunities for growth rather than sources of contention.
It’s important for individuals who recognize these patterns in themselves to seek support, which may include therapy or counseling, to develop healthier coping strategies.