We've all been in the situation where something has everyone feeling awkward, everyone is trying to ignore it but the "thing" or issue has gone so far that it is just too hard to avoid, although everyone continues to try.
Enter the proverbial elephant.
"Elephant in the room" is an English idiom for an obvious truth that is being ignored or goes unaddressed. The idiomatic expression also applies to an obvious problem or risk no one wants to discuss.
It is based on the idea that an elephant in a room would be impossible to overlook; thus, people in the room who pretend the elephant is not there have chosen to concern themselves with tangential or small and irrelevant issues rather than deal with the looming big one. - Wikipedia
So how do you deal with the elephant in your midst?
If the situation centres around yourself and continued avoidence by those around you is creating such an unconfortable atmosphere that your social group or working environment is unplesant then my recommendation is to tackle that elephant head on. Everyone knows it's there but are just unwilling to look right in its eyes. Now, anyone who has been face to face with a wild elephant knows that the first thing you want to do is run from it, but this could really p*ss it off. Instead, acknowdleging you are facing an elephant and watching it calmly can often diffuse a very dangerous situation.
You may want to be tactful to start with but if thats not getting through to people then push them right in front of that elephant:
"Finally, whilst we're all here, does anyone want to discuss the huge pink elephant tap dancing in the middle of the board room?"
OK. So your elephant may be the plain old grey type, you may be brave enough to name it Dumbo, or like me you may want to make people laugh and relax enough to open up and discuss the situation with a line like the above. However you do it, do it. Don't let something that could be solved by forcing people to talk about it get you down.
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