Have you ever wondered about the different options available to help overcome abandonment anxiety? Abandonment anxiety can be incredibly distressing to experience, and numerous potential causes could leave you struggling to overcome this distress. Fortunately, though, abandonment anxiety doesn’t have to be something you have to live with forever, and with a few simple lifestyle changes, overcoming abandonment anxiety is entirely possible. Don’t worry – we’re here for you throughout this difficult time.
Is this something you’ve been experiencing? If so, you’re not alone; we’re here by your side to help. With this in mind, today, we’re looking at several key tips you need to know for overcoming abandonment anxiety – and, critically, considering how EDMR therapy can help for abandonment anxiety.
What is Abandonment Anxiety?
Before we can go any further, we should probably first outline what abandonment anxiety actually is. After all, if this is a new experience for you, you may not be sure if you’re experiencing abandonment anxiety – and that’s completely fine!
Abandonment anxiety represents a significant fear of abandonment or being left behind by friends and loved ones. This anxiety, in turn, can result in difficulties trusting other people and may make it harder for you to form and maintain future relationships. Some people may also experience learning difficulties, additional personality disorders, and chronic health issues such as diabetes in the long term.
While it’s not necessarily a recognized condition medically, it is a well-known and surprisingly common experience that a surprising number of people have to live with every day. Many of these people, perhaps you included, don’t even know that they’re experiencing abandonment anxiety.
Common Causes of Abandonment Anxiety
There are many common causes of abandonment anxiety, as explained by WebMD. Some of the most common that many people experience include:
- A phobia of being alone (autophobia) can increase your chances
- High levels of stress, worsening any existing fears you might suffer from
- Issues in past relationships can cause abandonment anxiety, especially if these issues occurred with multiple partners
- Past neglect, either as a child or later in life, may trigger long-term abandonment anxiety
- Losing a loved one through injury or death may also cause abandonment anxiety
Is Abandonment Anxiety Always Linked to Past Trauma?
Many people assume abandonment anxiety and past trauma are always linked, but this is not always the case. For example, people who have experienced past abandonment trauma are not guaranteed to develop abandonment anxiety. Meanwhile, it’s possible to experience extreme abandonment anxiety without experiencing trauma, usually the result of a phobia. Autophobia, the fear of being alone, is perhaps the most common non-trauma cause.
Phobias are incredibly common. To put it into perspective, the National Institute of Mental Health estimates that as many as 9.1% of people may have a phobia at any one time – that’s nearly one in ten. As such, while the exact statistics for autophobia are not so clear-cut, it’s easy to see that many people could be struggling without even knowing it.
Is Overcoming my Abandonment Anxiety Possible?
Living with abandonment anxiety is scary. But don’t worry; while it might seem a little bleak right now, you can absolutely overcome your abandonment anxiety! Still, it’ll normally take a little help, care, and guidance from your friends, family members, loved ones, and often a professional and compassionate counsellor to recover and live your life to the fullest.
You’re not trapped with abandonment anxiety – it just seems that way. With support and guidance, you can recover!
How EMDR Therapy Can Help For Abandonment Anxiety
At this point, it’s worth considering the different options for overcoming abandonment anxiety. Because while it can seem difficult right now, overcoming abandonment anxiety is completely possible, and we’ll stand with you at every step of the way to help you discover the recovery that you so surely deserve.
What is EDMR Therapy?
If you’ve been looking for ways to overcome your struggles with abandonment anxiety, EDMR therapy may be one of the best strategies out there to help. Indeed, through EDMR therapy, patients are able to recover from past trauma and process the memories, making it easier for them to move on with their lives in a healthy and happy manner.
EDMR therapy stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. This unique technique is commonly used for recovery from many trauma-based conditions, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety.
You can read more about EMDR therapy here
https://www.junabrookes.co.uk/10-common-anxiety-triggers-how-edmr-therapy-can-help/
https://www.junabrookes.co.uk/emdr-therapy-be-open-to-the-miracle-of-your-mind/
How Can EDMR Therapy Help my Abandonment Anxiety?
For individuals who experience abandonment anxiety as a result of a phobia, EDMR therapy may not be as effective. However, if you can pinpoint the stem of your abandonment anxiety to a particular event or series of events, EDMR therapy might be just the solution you need and deserve.
EDMR therapy for abandonment anxiety works by desensitizing and reprocessing your past memories, helping you experience reduced pain at the thought of these events. Emotional reconnections allow you to feel more connected and grounded, helping you develop stronger and more authentic connections with the other people in your life.
How Long Does Recovery Take with EDMR Therapy?
One of the most notable benefits of EDMR therapy for abandonment anxiety is that it delivers incredibly fast results, just as you deserve. After all, if you’ve been struggling with abandonment anxiety, you deserve a rapid solution to help free you from this pain. But traditional therapy solutions can take a lot of time to work, and during this time, you’ll have to continue facing your abandonment anxiety head-on. It’s really not a nice experience, and you deserve so much more than that after how brave you’ve been thus far! Luckily, EDMR can help with this.
Research has found that EDMR therapy can deliver exceptionally high results in just a matter of sessions. For example, just two sessions may be enough to allow as many as 90% of single trauma individuals to recover from their fears; meanwhile, further research has concluded that 100% of single-trauma patients recover after just five sessions.
That’s not to say EDMR isn’t effective if you’ve experienced several past traumas, though! While it can take a little longer to recover if you’ve experienced multiple past traumas, EDMR therapy can provide support for around 77% of multiple trauma patients with between five and ten sessions.
It’s almost unprecedented results, and so if you’ve been struggling in silence with your abandonment anxiety, we hope you’ll reach out for support. EDMR therapy can genuinely help you move on from your past experiences, no matter what you might have faced in life thus far.
Final Thoughts
From time to time, we all find ourselves feeling a little down or low. Have you ever felt that way? Chances are, this may be something you’ve experienced before.
However, it’s common for some people to experience fear or distress at the thought of being left alone. It’s only natural – after all, we’re a social species, and the thought of being alone can often feel terrifying, especially if your loved ones have let you down in the past.
However, while experiencing abandonment anxiety can be incredibly upsetting, you don’t have to just settle for this. After all, you deserve to feel happy, loved, and supported – and EDMR therapy can be one of the best treatments for abandonment anxiety overall.
So, if you’d like to find out a little more about how EDMR therapy could help for overcoming abandonment anxiety, please don’t hesitate to contact us today; we’re here for you, and we’ll do our best to help you discover the solutions you deserve!
You can read about the difference of CBT and EMDR here
https://www.junabrookes.co.uk/emdr-versus-cbt-advantages-and-disadvantages/
You can read what my client say about my work here: