And right now those feelings are all related to sadness, loss, hurt and pain. Then, experiences like hope, love, fun, exercise, and setting goals for your future cause pain instead of pleasure. Sometimes people avoid the normal expression of this emotional pain in a variety of creative ways. Avoidance can look a lot like depression. Avoidance creates an ever-narrowing circle around your life.
People avoid remembering their trauma.
One way to do this is to censor your thoughts and feelings. You stop any activities connected to your trauma. Then you stop any other activities that might trigger you to remember the activities connected to your trauma. Avoidance doesn t stop there. People continue on and drop any interest in activities that they enjoyed before their trauma.