We avoid things that hurt us because we see it as something that will be harmful to our physical,emotional and mental survival.
Observing the avoidance response in other mammals, and fish demonstrates that staying away from stimuli that hurts us is common in all species and assists with survival. Although for some people it may be dangerous because they suppress their emotions only for them to come out in different ways, however for some people this may be helpful. We all just need to find out what works the best for us as we are all different and have different ways of coping and what may be healthy for one person may be harmful for another person. If you perfer to avoid things, be aware you are not suppressing your emotions that want to come out. Avoiding a situation and things that will hurt you is different than suppressing emotions as suppressing emotions are not letting emotions that want to be expressed come out and can be dangerous in the long term.
Our avoidant response is not only psychological but physiological as well. We avoid things that hurt us to decrease pain and our nervous system plays a part in this as well.
When animals see something they have been conditioned to avoid their protection defenses kick in and their attack mode quickly escalates. They know they will need to get away, or fight against something they have perceived as a predictor. This can be seen as similar to when we want to avoid a situation or a person who has hurt us in the past, we want to avoid whatever has caused us pain because we want to, in our own way, survive emotionally (and possibly physically).
Our avoidant response is not only psychological but physiological as well. We avoid things that hurt us to decrease pain and our nervous system plays a part in this as well.
When animals see something they have been conditioned to avoid their protection defenses kick in and their attack mode quickly escalates. They know they will need to get away, or fight against something they have perceived as a predictor. This can be seen as similar to when we want to avoid a situation or a person who has hurt us in the past, we want to avoid whatever has caused us pain because we want to, in our own way, survive emotionally (and possibly physically).
References
McFillin, R. Psy.D., ABPP. "The Paradox of Avoiding Emotional Pain - Center For Integrated Behavioral Health." Centerforibh.com. n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2018. <https://www.centerforibh.com/blog/the-paradox-of-avoiding-emotional-pain/>
Nugent, P. M.s.. "What is AVOIDANCE RESPONSE? definition of AVOIDANCE RESPONSE (Psychology Dictionary)." Psychology Dictionary. 7 Apr. 2013. Web. 14 Jan. 2018. <https://psychologydictionary.org/avoidance-response/>
Richard J. Andrew. "Avoidance behaviour | psychology." Encyclopedia Britannica. 20 Nov. 2017. Web. 14 Jan. 2018. <https://www.britannica.com/topic/avoidance-behaviour>
McFillin, R. Psy.D., ABPP. "The Paradox of Avoiding Emotional Pain - Center For Integrated Behavioral Health." Centerforibh.com. n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2018. <https://www.centerforibh.com/blog/the-paradox-of-avoiding-emotional-pain/>
Nugent, P. M.s.. "What is AVOIDANCE RESPONSE? definition of AVOIDANCE RESPONSE (Psychology Dictionary)." Psychology Dictionary. 7 Apr. 2013. Web. 14 Jan. 2018. <https://psychologydictionary.org/avoidance-response/>
Richard J. Andrew. "Avoidance behaviour | psychology." Encyclopedia Britannica. 20 Nov. 2017. Web. 14 Jan. 2018. <https://www.britannica.com/topic/avoidance-behaviour>