Trauma that could cause avoidant attachment includes neglect. This can explain why they fear getting too close to others. Or, why they feel they have to be so independent. This doesn't mean that they cannot learn to become more dependent on others.
Parents who are strict and emotionally distant, do not tolerate the expression of feelings, and expect their child to be independent and tough might raise children with an avoidant attachment style. As adults, these children appear confident and self-sufficient.
People with an avoidant attachment style may have had parents who made them feel neglected. This attachment style can also develop if parents were emotionally unavailable or withdrawn. People with avoidant attachment styles might have difficulty asking for help or expressing emotion.
Overall, this study found that anxious attachment style was a significant contributor to depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem in those with a history of childhood neglect or physical abuse. Avoidant attachment style, however, was not found to be a significant predictor of those outcomes, in this study.
Adverse childhood experiences like divorce, domestic violence, substance abuse, and parents with mental health issues all can leave their mark on the child's forming brain and nervous system . The long-term result manifests as a struggle with symptoms of attachment trauma which last well into adulthood.
Attachment trauma is considered to be a traumatic experience an infant or child has when a primary caregiver does not or cannot provide adequate care, affection, and comfort.
What causes fearful avoidant attachment? A person with fearful attachment may have grown up in an environment where their source of comfort and safety was often compromised with fear and unpredictability. This may involve a neglectful or unpredictable caregiver, or experiences involving abuse.
A disorganized attachment style can cause a lot of distress and confusion when it comes to social interactions and intimacy. It can harm your relationships and lead you to lose someone you really want in your life. Being around or with someone with this attachment style is also challenging.
If you find yourself avoiding commitment, intimacy, or deep connections, or else if your relationships cause you intense anxiety and distress, you may have Complex PTSD Attachment Style.
This attachment style usually develops as a result of emotional rejection and neglect from primary caregivers in early childhood. For these individuals, avoidance and withdraw becomes their strategy to protect themselves from experiencing more pain and abandonment.
For instance, avoidant personality disorder is more common in people who are anxious and tend toward depression. Parental emotional neglect certainly can play a part in exacerbating these issues, and sexual and physical abuse also can give rise to the disorder.
And having an anxious/avoidant attachment style is linked to avoidant personality disorder. People with this attachment style tend to report that their parents didn't often express love or affection. Your parents might have been around physically, but felt distant when you reached out to them for closeness or support.
Parents of children with an avoidant attachment tend to be emotionally unavailable or unresponsive to them a good deal of the time. They disregard or ignore their children's needs, and can be especially rejecting when their child is hurt or sick.
They are all due to unmet emotional needs in the attachment process, although in different ways by the parents. The anxious type is caused by inconsistent parents, the avoidant style by dismissive or rejecting parents, and the fearful style by abusive parents.
The disorder can develop in childhood, and symptoms have been detected in children as young as 2 years old. However, like other personality disorders, avoidant personality disorder is typically only diagnosed in adults.
Which Attachment Style Is Most Manipulative? On the more extreme end of anxious attachment, a person may be more likely to become emotionally manipulative because they will go through as much as they can to make sure an attachment figure doesn't leave them.
An attachment style describes how people relate to others based on how secure they feel. Fearful avoidant attachment is thought to be the rarest attachment type.
Some studies showed that differences in attachment styles seem to influence both the frequency and the patterns of jealousy expression: individuals with the preoccupied or fearful-avoidant attachment styles more often become jealous and consider rivals as more threatening than those with the secure attachment style [9, ...
If an adolescent experienced neglect or abuse, they may develop fearful-avoidant attachment style. As adults, this attachment style may make it difficult for them to trust people, may cause them to feel uncomfortable with showing affection, and they may close themselves off emotionally.
But sadly, someone with an avoidant personality disorder, finds it very difficult to develop healthy relationships with boundaries. Individuals with this disorder also find it difficult to trust or express their deepest feelings for fear of abandonment, rejection, or loss.
Childhood trauma or abuse can contribute to a disorganized (or fearful-avoidant) attachment style. In these cases, a baby might see the parent as a source of comfort as well as a threat. This can lead to suspicion, hostility, and lack of commitment in later relationships.
Intense Fear or Hypervigilance:
Sometimes people experience unexplained fears. This can include people or places. This often results in hypervigilance and a constant feeling of being on guard. Both fear and hypervigilance are clear indicators of unprocessed trauma.
Daydreaming. Other subtle signs of trauma are “zoning” or “spacing out.” You might feel disconnected from others or have difficulty staying present in social situations. Emotional trauma can cause you to slow down internally, numbing your emotions or causing you to feel exhausted.