Experiential Avoidance and Excessive Smartphone Use

Did you know that experiential avoidance is an attempt or desire to utterly suppress unwanted internal experiences? For example, emotions, thoughts, memories, and bodily sensations. Approaching experiences is the opposite, as it consists of moving towards experiencing new things, even if they’re scary. Experts believe that this unwillingness to stay in contact with internal experiences underlie many unhealthy “escape” behaviors.  For instance, excessive smartphone use, substance use, risky sexual behaviors, and deliberate self-harm. Sadly, experiential avoidance increases the risk of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in people who experienced severe trauma. When you avoid experiences, you fail to learn how to…