Is it okay to avoid situations that make me anxious, or is that giving up to it?

If possible, it can help to avoid some situations where you know you will feel anxious. However, in time, it is good to find effective strategies to help you face these situations while managing your anxiety.

Yes it is fine to avoid situations that make you anxious, it's not avoiding problems, it's protecting yourself from something that is causing you distress, and it's ok to do that, it doesn't make you weak. In fact it makes you strong to be able to take charge enough In your own life to avoid situations that make you feel like this. But learning skills to cope with situations that makes you nervous is a necessity because you wont always be able to avoid those situations.

In the past, when confronting something that makes me anxious, I've found it helpful to start with small steps first. After I got acclimatized to the more manageable version of the big goal, then I felt more confident to attempt the situation that I wanted to overcome. Its okay not too rush things, or avoid to some extent, cause being patient with yourself means understanding when to push, and when not to push.. It;s about respecting where you're at without judging yourself. Be gentle with yourself, as it can difficult process. In the end it's all worth it though!

It all depends on the situation. For example, if its something minor, ie. going to the shop to buy a drink, you can avoid it if you're not feeling up to it. However, when it's something important to you, a goal perhaps, relationship etc you could find yourself giving up to a lot of opportunities.

Great question! I would say yes or no depending on the context of the particular situation. If the situation causes your anxiety to be so high that you cannot even function, maybe even on the verge of a panic attack, then I would say to avoid it. Your safety and well-being are of primary concern. However, if the situation is less intense, maybe trying to stay with it in a state of mindfulness about how you are feeling might be recommended. The more we avoid a particular thing, the more we reinforce it, give it power over us. Ultimately, the way to reduce our fear, oddly enough, is to face that fear, but the idea here is to go slowly. If the situation is just too stressful to approach, working with a therapist to manage the fear might be helpful.

There is a line between knowing when you are unable to handle a situation and it's in your best self interest to avoid the situation. And using it as an excuse to get out of things. Only you can know what is what. But please note that if you do avoid a situation for you mental health, you should never feel guilty for making that decision.

Often, I have personally found that avoiding situations leaves you to think, about, worry and not have peace with the fact that you haven't told someone; how you feel, your truth. The avoiding based on a feeling is different then trusting your gut or self or knowing the situation is not safe. Often, avoiding leaves regrets and a tendency to battle up your feeling or thoughts. That can lead to expressing them in an inappropriate way or blowing up so to speak. Telling someone your feelings, will not mean they agree. But, they will choose how to respond. You can choose how you resound, but not how they react. .

Avoiding what you are uncomfortable with is perfectly fine, contrary to what most will lead you to believe. For example, if a person makes you feel uncomfortable due to their behavior, why would you want to be around them? It's very healthy to eliminate any stressors that you can. There is a limit to all of this though. Debilitating fear of day-to-day activities would not be part of a healthy avoidance protocol. For that, you do need to gradually "face your fears", but it's not as bad as it seems. I've been there.

Sometimes you need to step back and think to yourself, "I can't handle this right now, I need to care for myself at this point." However, you can't, nor should you, avoid things that make you anxious. Some stuff is good and it can make you feel better that you accomplished something that you were very anxious about. For example, I had a new doctor and I didn't know what bus to take once I got off the one from where I live. I got hopelessly turned around and I was 45 min late. But I explained my predicament to the receptionist and I had called them periodically to let them know I was on my way. As frazzled as I was when I got home, I was proud of the fact that I didn't have a meltdown and now I knew which buses to take for my next appointment and what time I needed to leave to make it there on time. Don't give up. Just choose your battles. The more progress you make the better you will feel about yourself.

Depends on the situations I suppose. You have to be careful about avoiding things that make you anxious because that can often cause your anxiety to get worse and build until everything makes you anxious. So you kind of have to pick and choose which ones you will find ways to cope with and which ones are better left avoiding. I used to avoid all conflict as much as possible, still do most of the time. But I have learned I need to decide which conflicts are worth confronting my anxiety on and pushing forward and which ones are best left alone, mostly it depends on how I feel the end result will be. :)