attachment anxiety
Fear of abandonment
Attachment anxiety is a pattern of insecurity in close relationships marked by fear of abandonment and excessive need for reassurance.
Someone with attachment anxiety may worry constantly about whether their partner truly loves them, overanalyze small signals, or become distressed when a partner seems distant: Her attachment anxiety made her check his phone.
The term comes from attachment theory in psychology, which describes how early bonds with caregivers shape adult relationship patterns.
- clingyTending to hold on
- insecureLacking self-assurance
- needyWanting in essentials
- fear of abandonmentDread of being left behind
- abandonmentAct of leaving permanently
jealousy · constant reassurance · reassurance · codependent · fearful · smothering · desperate · rejection · possessive · push and pull · worry · texting · double texting · read receipts · left on read · obsessive · separation · panic
attachment anxietyself-reliance
Depending on oneself alone
independence · self-assurance · differentiation · emotional detachment · self-containment
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