Avoidance & Escape Patterns
Distraction numbing
Using scrolling, food, sleeping, working, entertainment, or substances to avoid feeling what is happening.
Reviewed by licensed therapists
What it is
Distraction numbing is when you use input, activity, or stimulation to avoid processing a feeling. It can look like scrolling, overeating, overworking, sleeping too much, streaming constantly, drinking, shopping, gaming, or jumping from one thing to another. Distraction isn’t bad by itself; sometimes it’s healthy to take a break. It becomes numbing when the goal is to not feel, not know, not decide, or not face something. The problem is that numbing usually lowers discomfort temporarily while leaving the original feeling or situation untouched.
Additional resources to explore: ACT can help you notice urges without immediately obeying them. DBT distress tolerance skills can help if you need alternatives for getting through intense feelings safely. If substances, eating behaviors, spending, or sleep are causing harm or feel hard to control, professional mental health support may be important. If you ever feel unsafe, or you find yourself thinking about harming yourself or not wanting to be here, please treat that as more urgent than this pattern and reach out right away to a crisis line, a trusted person, or a clinician.
Tips / how to work on it
The goal isn’t to remove every distraction. It’s to put a pause between the feeling and the numbing behavior. Before you reach for the distraction, ask, “What am I trying not to feel or face?” Then choose intentionally: do you need a regulated break, or are you disappearing from something important? If you do choose distraction, give it a container: 20 minutes, one episode, one walk.
A useful exercise: try a pause before numbing. Before the behavior, take 60 seconds and write: I feel ___. I want to avoid ___ by __. Instead, my next step would be ___. Then decide what to do. This doesn’t demand perfect self-control; it helps you recognize what you’re avoiding, the strategies you use to do so, and consciously choose distraction instead of being on autopilot.
More reading
- Cleveland Clinic, Stressed Out? Use These 14 Healthy Coping Mechanisms
- OU Health Sciences, Emotional Avoidance and Mental Well-being
- DBT Tools, Distress Tolerance Skills
- Association for Contextual Behavioral Science, About ACT
- Wang et al., Experiential Avoidance Process Model: A Review of the Mechanisms Underlying Experiential Avoidance
Educational, not diagnostic.