Avoidance in Daily Life:
Dealing with Pressure
Avoidance is not a dramatic or obvious behavior. It often appears quietly, woven into everyday routines. For many young adults in Vietnam, avoidance shows up not as refusal, but as delay, distraction, or silence.
This article explains how avoidance behavior commonly appears in daily life, why it happens, and how people gradually learn to deal with it through everyday experiences.
1. What Avoidance Looks Like in Daily Life
Avoidance is not limited to one situation or personality type. It often appears in small, familiar patterns that we might not immediately recognize as "avoidance":
- Chronic procrastination: Important tasks are postponed repeatedly until the last possible moment, even when the pressure becomes overwhelming.
- Avoiding difficult conversations: Messages are read but not answered. Conversations that feel uncomfortable are delayed or ignored rather than addressed.
- Escaping into digital distractions: Social media, games, streaming platforms, and endless scrolling become temporary shelters from unresolved stress or emotions.
- Fear of failure disguised as caution: New skills, career changes, or personal challenges are avoided because the risk of failure feels heavier than the potential benefit.
These patterns are common, especially among young people navigating work, relationships, and social expectations in a rapidly changing environment like Vietnam.
2. Why Avoidance Happens: A Simple Explanation
Avoidance is not a sign of weakness or laziness. From a psychological perspective, it is a coping mechanism — a way the brain tries to reduce discomfort in stressful situations.
Psychology research describes this pattern as avoidance coping. When a situation triggers anxiety, uncertainty, or emotional discomfort, the brain naturally looks for immediate relief. Avoiding the source of stress provides short-term comfort, even if it creates long-term problems.
While avoidance can reduce stress temporarily, repeated avoidance often increases anxiety over time rather than resolving it.
3. Avoidance in Physical Habits
Avoidance does not only appear in emotional or mental situations. It often shows up in physical habits as well.
For example, people who try to build healthy routines — such as running, swimming, or exercising regularly — often experience moments of hesitation. Fatigue, discomfort, or minor excuses can quickly become reasons to skip practice. These moments reflect the same mechanism: the desire to escape short-term discomfort, even when the long-term benefit is clear.
Interestingly, when people push through these moments — even briefly — the sense of achievement is often stronger than expected. This small experience of "facing rather than avoiding" reinforces confidence and self-trust.
4. Learning to Face Discomfort Gradually
Dealing with avoidance does not require dramatic changes or forced motivation. In daily life, small steps are often more effective than large resolutions. Some practical approaches include:
- Recognizing avoidance patterns: Simply noticing when and why avoidance happens helps reduce its unconscious power.
- Breaking tasks into smaller steps: Large problems feel less threatening when divided into manageable actions.
- Using short time commitments: Committing to just five minutes of action often leads to continued progress once momentum begins.
- Seeking support: Talking openly with trusted people reduces isolation and emotional pressure.
- Acknowledging small wins: Progress deserves recognition, even when it feels minor.
These approaches do not eliminate discomfort, but they make it easier to move forward despite it.
5. Avoidance Is Part of Growth
Avoidance is a common human response to pressure, uncertainty, and emotional complexity. In Vietnam's fast-moving social and economic environment, young adults often face layered expectations related to career, family, and identity.
Learning to recognize and gently challenge avoidance behaviors is not about self-criticism. It is about understanding how the mind responds to stress and developing healthier ways to engage with life's challenges. Growth rarely happens through comfort alone.
Final Thoughts
Avoidance does not disappear overnight. It softens gradually as awareness, confidence, and experience grow.
Understanding avoidance is not about forcing productivity or emotional toughness. It is about learning when to pause, when to face discomfort, and when to move forward — one step at a time.
Vietnam Explained
This article is part of the "Life Skills & Personal Growth" series on Vietnam Explained.
© 2025 Vietnam Explained. All rights reserved.