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Background: Anxiety, approach, and avoidance motivation crucially influence mental and physical health, especially when environments are stressful. The interplay between anxiety and behavioral motivation is modulated by multiple individual factors. This proof‐of‐concept study applies graph‐theoretical network analysis to explore complex associations between self‐reported trait anxiety, approach and avoidance motivation, situational anxiety, stress symptoms, perceived threat, perceived positive consequences of approach, and self‐reported avoidance behavior in real‐life threat situations. Methods: A total of 436 participants who were matched on age and gender (218 psychotherapy patients, 218 online‐recruited nonpatients) completed an online survey assessing these factors in response to the COVID‐19 pandemic. Results and Discussion: The resulting cross‐sectional psychological network revealed a complex pattern with multiple positive (e.g., between trait anxiety, avoidance motivation, and avoidance behavior) and negative associations (e.g., between approach and avoidance motivation). The patient and online subsample networks did not differ significantly, however, descriptive differences may inform future research.

Background: Although exposure-based cognitive-behavioral therapy for anxiety disorders has frequently been proven effective, only few studies examined whether it improves everyday behavioral outcomes such as social and physical activity. Methods: 126 participants (85 patients with panic disorder, agoraphobia, social anxiety disorder, or specific phobias, and 41 controls without mental disorders) completed smartphone-based ambulatory ratings (activities, social interactions, mood, physical symptoms) and motion sensor-based indices of physical activity (steps, time spent moving, metabolic activity) at baseline, during, and after exposure-based treatment. Results: Prior to treatment, patients showed reduced mood and physical activity relative to healthy controls. Over the course of therapy, mood ratings, interactions with strangers and indices of physical activity improved, while reported physical symptoms decreased. Overall results did not differ between patients with primary panic dis­ order/agoraphobia and social anxiety disorder. Higher depression scores at baseline were associated with larger changes in reported symptoms and mood ratings, but smaller changes in physical activity Conclusions: Exposure-based treatment initiates increased physical activity, more frequent interaction with strangers, and improvements in everyday mood. The current approach provides objective and fine-graded pro­ cess and outcome measures that may help to further improve treatments and possibly reduce relapse.

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