Avoidance means deliberately staying away from something or someone you'd rather not deal with. When you practice avoidance, you're making an active choice to keep your distance, purposely steering clear of a person, place, or situation.

A student might practice avoidance by taking the long way to class to dodge a bully in the hallway. Someone with a fear of dogs might cross the street when they see one approaching. A person might avoid a difficult conversation with a friend because they're worried about hurting their feelings.

Avoidance shows up everywhere in daily life. You might avoid eating vegetables you dislike, avoid raising your hand when you're unsure of an answer, or avoid looking at a scary part of a movie. Sometimes avoidance makes sense: avoiding a frozen pond that might crack under your weight is just good judgment. But other times, avoidance becomes a problem. If you avoid all challenging math problems, you'll never learn to solve them. If you avoid apologizing when you've done something wrong, friendships suffer.

Avoidance often feels easier in the moment but can create bigger problems later. That's why people talk about avoidance behavior: patterns of staying away from things that actually need to be faced.