4 Indications That You Have Abandonment Anxiety
It’s not always easy to know when you have abandonment anxiety. There are occasions when people face physical trauma and walk away from it feeling fine, only to discover they have obtained a hairline fracture in one of their bones. Abandonment anxiety is similar in that. You might have felt as if you sustained no emotional damage from a traumatic event in your past, only to experience strange twinges of pain and annoyance from unexpected events later in life. Abandonment trauma tends to lie dormant in your heart and only becomes apparent when you get emotionally close to someone. Then, you are suddenly afraid of damaging the relationship irreparably or doing something that will cause them to walk out on you. It’s not always easy to identify abandonment anxiety, and even more challenging to know what to do with it once you’ve recognized it. You are not alone in this experience, but you might have to risk becoming vulnerable so that you can address these issues and experience authentic, secure intimacy with your loved ones. Indicators of Abandonment Anxiety You struggle with unresolved conflict It’s not unusual to struggle with conflict. However, some people feel crippled when fights are left unresolved. If a disagreement with a loved one has been left without a conclusion, you might find yourself keeping your distance from them, wracked by nerves when you are around them, and unable to focus on anything until some resolution is reached. These levels of anxiety over conflict would be considered extreme, and they likely point to a person dealing with abandonment trauma. At the core of abandonment trauma is a fear of being left behind, forgotten, overlooked, or dismissed. When you are in the middle of a fight that has not been resolved, you are out of control [...]