Adult Seperation Anxiety Disorder
Hi everyone,
I'm not sure if anyone has posted about this before but I was wondering if anyone here has had some experience with this and had any tips to overcome it.
I have a diagnosis of General Anxiety Disorder (GAD) however the more I am looking into my anxiety I think it is more like Adult Separation Anxiety Disorder (ASAD).I have struggled with being away from my Mam since I was 3 years old. This continued until I met my partner at university. I would be terrified of being away from my Mam, begging her not to leave me, getting very distressed when I was away from familiar places and would be worrying all the time that something bad would happen to her when I wasn't with her.
Since I've been with my partner, my attachment issues have transferred onto him. My partner likes to travel a lot, which causes a huge amount of distress for me when he is away. I get really bad panic attacks at night and I would cry uncontrollably until he would come back, making myself really ill . It's starting to cause a lot of problems within my family as I keep phoning them in the middle of the night to come to my house due to panic attacks.
Has anyone been through anything similar or has any tips on how I can control this?
@CazzyMango4360
Hi!
I don't have this condition but I do have GAD and experience with attachment issues so I thought I might chip in.
I completely understand how you've transferred the attachment onto your partner; I actually think it's really insightful that you've noticed that you've done that and are reaching out to talk about it. Too often people either don't realise it's happening or they don't want to realise it's happening.
Ultimately tip-wise though; this isn't something that can happen over the internet. Moving through conditions like these usually happen in therapy; helping you to talk about your core beliefs and how that attachment consumes you and being able to recognise (and find!) your own independence.
With that said though, you can learn to better manage your anxiety by doing things like breathing exercises, mindfulness and finding things that can keep you calm and safe. Sadly though I believe that this is only part of what you might need to help you get through this.
@romanticthi3f Thank you very much for your reply. I agree, I think it may be time for me to go back to counselling and explore this in more depth. Since posting this message I have done a lot more research into it and , while I haven't found a "quick fix" or an explanation as to why this is happening, I have found some new ways to calm myself down in mild/ moderate situations. Thank you so much for your support :)
Thank you for posting this! I have somewhat of a similar experience like you. I moved away from college, even though only 30 minutes away, I always cry and feel distressed whenever I have to leave my mom. If you'd like to talk more about this, feel free to message me!
