You wouldn’t think it, but avoidance is actually a coping skill for anxiety. It’s probably not the best one, and may be a last ditch effort to “push through” the moment.

• There are many ways to avoid situations a person finds anxiety-filled, and here are just a few:
• avoiding eye contact
• playing with some small object (or keys, whatever)
• staring off into space
• counting the tiles in the ceiling/floor
• daydreaming
• doodling (not all people who doodle are avoiding, just perhaps anxious people)
• leaving the situation entirely

I actually seem to have the hardest time with avoiding eye contact and leaving the situation entirely when it gets too hard. Thanks to a wonderful friend, who also contends with anxiety on a daily basis, I’m learning to push myself a little more each time, so that I know for a fact I can stand it.