Need and Avoidance
When a need is experienced as a problem, distracting oneself as quickly as possible is a good strategy to avoid really wanting something. One inhibits it at the beginning by quickly going to the fridge and eating something, instead of, for example, expressing the wish to be comforted by others. When, unexpected and sometimes inappropriate impulses for action arise (“I am very sorry, but I must urgently…!”), then you can examine whether, immediately before the impulse arose, you did not wish to engage with it too much. The distraction can happen not only by doing, but also with thoughts: “Quickly think of something else!”. This can also become routine in certain contexts: (“Whenever the boss addresses me, I somehow become distracted and unconcentrated!”)