Has there been study done in regards to the phenomenon of avoiding thinking about things that would emotionally trigger depression or anxiety?
What I mean is, a person will think about something randomly, and if they don't push the thoughts away immediately, they will start to obsess over those thoughts and become depressed. Is this a known phenomenon?
In Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, one way to break this cycle is to examine the intensity of the anxiety, or the propensity to think anxiety-inducing thoughts, in different locations, home, shopping, gym, library, movie. Breaking the cycle by limiting time spent in the anxiety-inducing location is beneficial because triggering depression might trigger more anxiety-inducing thoughts, which will add to the depression...etc.
