What Does it Mean to Be Clingy? To be clingy is to stay highly close or dependent on someone for emotional support and a sense of security. Clingy people may feel desperate to latch onto their friend or partner and depend on them for constant check-ins, updates, and responsiveness to all needs.
Clinginess in a relationship means one partner is exhibiting behavior that is needy, suffocating, dependent, obsessive, or jealous, often resulting from a negative self image.
Being clingy makes you more dependent on someone, making it harder to break away from them. You don't want to attribute your happiness to one person (unless, of course, that person is yourself). One of the most difficult things to work on is being less clingy, especially if you are already an extremely clingy person.
“Often, it can be due to feelings of insecurity, self-doubt or anxiety about the future,” she said. “A lack of confidence in relationships can also contribute to clinginess.
Clinginess has been named the biggest relationship turn-off in a scientific study. Do you want to spend every waking hour with your partner, giving them constant love and attention? If so, you might want to back off – as clinginess has been named the biggest relationship turn-off in a scientific study.
It can come as a surprise when your partner asks for space. While clingy tendencies may have been “ok” in your previous relationship, being overly needy is generally considered a toxic dating habit.
Clinginess can be a caused by a variety of things. Very often, it can be caused by low self-esteem or insecurity. Expressing a strong need for attention can be a manifestation of the fear that a partner either doesn't like you, or that they'll leave.
Acting clingy
An individual might hold on to a relationship even though it consistently makes them feel frightened or unloved. Moreover, relational trauma can also lead people to feel and act clingy even when they're in a loving, stable relationship. This may occur with no obvious reasons for being insecure.
Clingy is needy, and obsessive is being unhinged about someone, and can result in extreme jealousy.
A clingy girlfriend may use communication to keep herself updated about you because she feels your entire life must revolve around her. She wants you to talk to her all the time without giving you enough space. This behavior usually comes from insecurity or the expectation that your attention should only be on her.
Individuals with an anxious attachment style are characterized with: Being clingy. Having an intensely persistent and hypervigilant alertness towards their partner's actions or inactions.
Different sources of anxiety can be at the root of clingy or needy behavior. Developing new coping skills, such as meditation or cognitive behavioral techniques, can reduce this behavior. In some cases, there may be a real relationship problem to address, such as an affair or undiscussed mental health condition.
'Clingy' is a term often used to describe someone who does not have clear boundaries and tends to get over-attached emotionally or even physically. If your boyfriend is overly possessive, jealous (even of your non-romantic relationships), and irrationally insecure about your whereabouts, he is clingy.
You not only cling to them, but also need them to be there in order for you to properly function. Strong, independent people who enter a relationship and then forget how to be individuals are needy. Being needy means you need your partner to reaffirm everything you do, regardless of what it is.
Red flags in a relationship include excessive jealousy and frequent lying. You should also be wary of a partner who frequently criticizes you or puts you down. Another major red flag is an unwillingness to compromise — relationships shouldn't be one-sided.
Examples of Clinginess in Relationships
Calling your partner several times a day. Repeatedly messaging them throughout the day. Working yourself into a panic when they don't respond. Constantly stalking your partner's activities on social media.
Insecure, constantly dependent on someone for reassurance. insecure. needy. anxious. dependent.
When it came to how many consecutive texts were considered "needy," both people in long-distance relationships and not in long-distance relationships said that about six texts hit the mark. That number was about the same for the women and men surveyed.
Past research has also found childhood abuse or neglect can lead to insecure attachment patterns in adulthood, but the current study goes further and suggests these issues arise primarily from severe depression associated with that childhood trauma.