Avoidant attachment

Children with an avoidant attachment tend to avoid parents and other caregivers.  This avoidance can intensify after a long period of absence. The children may not reject attention from a parent or other significant figure, but they don’t actively seek contact. Often children with an avoidant attachment show no preference between a parent and a stranger.

Adults with an avoidant attachment tend to have difficulty with intimacy and close relationships. They even have difficulty forming and maintaining relationships. These individuals don’t invest much in relationships and experience little difficulty, even seem indifferent when a relationship ends. They tend to avoid intimacy by raising barriers, often using excuses such as illness, a long held belief or distraction with work or other project.

Other characteristics include a failure to support partners during difficult times, lack of empathy and an inability to share thoughts and feelings with those closest to them. This lack of intimacy and understanding can cause all manner of difficulties in relationships. At the very core of a relationship is the need to feel significant to someone. That can be hard to feel if your partner lacks empathy and intimacy.

if you would like more information on avoidant attachment or if you think you would benefit from talking to a professional therapist then contact Sentient Counselling in Belfast.

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Tags: attachment, avoidant, counselling, empathy, relationships