#anxious-attachment — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #anxious-attachment, aggregated by home.social.
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DATE: July 14, 2026 at 08:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Can learning to form healthy bonds reduce psychopathic behaviors?
Early childhood abuse and neglect are consistently linked to the manifestation of psychopathic traits in adulthood. The psychological pathways bridging early trauma and later antisocial personality features have remained somewhat ambiguous. A recent evaluation of incarcerated men suggests that an avoidant attachment style acts as a central dynamic in this relationship, separating those who develop cold, calculated traits from those who do not. The research was recently published in the International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology.
Psychopathy is a clinical construct characterized by two primary dimensions. The first dimension involves interpersonal and affective traits, such as a lack of empathy, grandiosity, and shallow emotions. The second dimension encompasses antisocial and impulsive behaviors, such as a failure to take responsibility, poor behavioral controls, and persistent rule-breaking. Incarcerated populations generally exhibit higher rates of these traits compared to the general public.
Some individuals exhibit high levels of psychopathic traits without ever engaging in criminal behavior. These people often display boldness, extreme self-confidence, and risk-taking tendencies that can even translate into professional success. Psychologists continually debate what variables dictate whether a psychopathic personality structure manifests in a socially adaptive manner or a destructive one.
Traumatic experiences before the age of fifteen are a known risk factor for the later manifestation of these psychopathic characteristics. People who endure physical abuse, sexual violence, or deep emotional neglect often struggle to form healthy bonds with others. Over time, these early breaches of trust shape what psychologists call attachment styles.
Attachment theory proposes that early relationships with caregivers provide a blueprint for how individuals navigate intimacy and emotional dependency in adulthood. When caregiving is consistent and supportive, children develop a secure attachment style. When caregiving is erratic, abusive, or absent, children often develop insecure attachment styles to cope with the unpredictability.
Insecure attachment generally falls into two distinct categories, anxious and avoidant. Attachment anxiety involves a heightened fear of abandonment, a high need for reassurance, and distress over unreciprocated affection. Attachment avoidance features a strong desire for strict autonomy, emotional distancing, and a fundamental discomfort with intimacy.
Maria Stella Mirarchi, a psychology researcher presently affiliated with the Technische Hochschule Mannheim in Germany, led the new investigation. Mirarchi and her colleagues hypothesized that specific insecure attachment styles might serve as a mediating variable. A mediating variable is a middle step that helps explain how an initial experience translates into a specific outcome.
The research team wanted to observe whether childhood trauma fosters an avoidant or anxious attachment style, which in turn feeds the development of psychopathic traits. They suspected that people who score high on psychopathy measures might shun emotional closeness as a defense mechanism rooted in early trauma. The diagnostic criteria for psychopathy already address severe intimacy deficits, including items assessing a history of short-term relationships and promiscuous behavior.
To test this model, the team evaluated 355 men serving sentences at a social-therapeutic correctional facility in Hamburg, Germany. The inmates were primarily incarcerated for varied violent and sexual offenses. Intake assessments occurred within the first few weeks of their arrival at the facility.
Trained clinical staff conducted exploratory interviews that spanned up to three hours. The staff also administered psychological tests and reviewed official case files. Using a standardized protocol, the clinicians documented reported instances of childhood sexual abuse, physical abuse, and emotional neglect.
The men completed a widely utilized self-report questionnaire assessing adult attachment styles in the context of close relationships. This survey captures a person’s tendencies toward both attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance. To measure psychopathy, the clinical staff used the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised.
This checklist is the standard diagnostic tool for the condition in forensic settings. Clinicians rate an individual on twenty distinct items based on interview responses and historical records. The resulting scores capture the person’s overall psychopathy level, as well as their specific scores on the interpersonal and antisocial dimensions.
Baseline comparisons replicated established patterns in the psychological literature. Higher reported rates of childhood trauma correlated with higher overall psychopathy scores. Trauma was particularly linked to the antisocial and impulsive dimension of the clinical construct.
When the researchers ran their mediation analysis, they found that the overarching indirect effect through attachment styles was not statistically significant. Breaking the results down by the specific type of attachment style revealed a distinct contrast. The two styles operated in opposing ways.
Attachment avoidance exhibited a positive direct association with the overall psychopathy score. Men who coped with relationship stress by withdrawing emotionally and demanding independence tended to exhibit higher levels of total psychopathic traits. This pattern remained steady even when accounting for their personal trauma history.
Attachment anxiety produced a different outcome, particularly concerning the interpersonal and affective dimension of psychopathy. For this specific factor, which covers the callous, unemotional, and manipulative traits of the condition, attachment anxiety actually predicted lower scores.
This observation indicates that a fear of abandonment and a high need for emotional reassurance might buffer against the development of a truly callous personality. Men possessing high attachment anxiety still exhibited antisocial behaviors, but they lacked the cold emotional detachment that defines the core of primary psychopathy.
The research team noted that this divergence aligns with established theory. By definition, people exhibiting primary psychopathy rarely worry about rejection or unreciprocated affection. They are far more likely to avoid emotional attachments entirely, dismissing social bonds as an unnecessary vulnerability.
These distinct pathways offer new ideas for rehabilitation programs within the justice system. Traditional models sometimes view psychopathy as a permanent condition. Recent behavioral perspectives suggest that many personality traits associated with the condition are dynamic and capable of shifting in response to sustained treatment.
If attachment avoidance serves as a core mechanism sustaining these traits, therapy focusing on interpersonal skills could provide a new avenue for intervention. Helping individuals build secure relationships and dismantle their avoidant defense mechanisms might result in a gradual reduction of psychopathic behaviors.
The authors acknowledged several limitations in their analysis. The study utilized a cross-sectional design, meaning the assessments of trauma, attachment, and psychopathy all occurred at a single point in time. This type of observational data cannot establish a sequence of cause and effect.
Additionally, the research took place in a specialized social-therapeutic facility. In the German penal system, these facilities often house offenders who are court-referred for treatment or who demonstrate a high motivation to change. Consequently, the average psychopathy scores in this group were lower than those typically found in standard, maximum-security environments.
The reliance on a male-exclusive sample also restricts the broad application of the results. Men and women frequently experience qualitatively different forms of trauma during childhood. Basic socialization differences also heavily influence how men and women express emotional distress and attachment behaviors as adults.
Ongoing investigations will require longitudinal designs that track individuals from childhood into adulthood. Tracking psychological variables across varying stages of life would help clarify how early abuse gradually warps relational habits. A deeper understanding of these developmental cascades might eventually guide more ethical, targeted therapies for violent offenders.
The study, “The Role of Insecure Attachment Styles in the Relationship Between Childhood Trauma and Psychopathy in Adulthood,” was authored by Maria Stella Mirarchi, Theresa Kuban, Sonja Etzler, Peer Briken, and Martin Rettenberger.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #psychopathy #attachmenttheory #childhoodtrauma #earlytrauma #securevsinsecureattachment #avoidantattachment #anxiousattachment #rehabilitation #forensicpsychology #mentalhealthawareness
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DATE: July 14, 2026 at 08:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Can learning to form healthy bonds reduce psychopathic behaviors?
Early childhood abuse and neglect are consistently linked to the manifestation of psychopathic traits in adulthood. The psychological pathways bridging early trauma and later antisocial personality features have remained somewhat ambiguous. A recent evaluation of incarcerated men suggests that an avoidant attachment style acts as a central dynamic in this relationship, separating those who develop cold, calculated traits from those who do not. The research was recently published in the International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology.
Psychopathy is a clinical construct characterized by two primary dimensions. The first dimension involves interpersonal and affective traits, such as a lack of empathy, grandiosity, and shallow emotions. The second dimension encompasses antisocial and impulsive behaviors, such as a failure to take responsibility, poor behavioral controls, and persistent rule-breaking. Incarcerated populations generally exhibit higher rates of these traits compared to the general public.
Some individuals exhibit high levels of psychopathic traits without ever engaging in criminal behavior. These people often display boldness, extreme self-confidence, and risk-taking tendencies that can even translate into professional success. Psychologists continually debate what variables dictate whether a psychopathic personality structure manifests in a socially adaptive manner or a destructive one.
Traumatic experiences before the age of fifteen are a known risk factor for the later manifestation of these psychopathic characteristics. People who endure physical abuse, sexual violence, or deep emotional neglect often struggle to form healthy bonds with others. Over time, these early breaches of trust shape what psychologists call attachment styles.
Attachment theory proposes that early relationships with caregivers provide a blueprint for how individuals navigate intimacy and emotional dependency in adulthood. When caregiving is consistent and supportive, children develop a secure attachment style. When caregiving is erratic, abusive, or absent, children often develop insecure attachment styles to cope with the unpredictability.
Insecure attachment generally falls into two distinct categories, anxious and avoidant. Attachment anxiety involves a heightened fear of abandonment, a high need for reassurance, and distress over unreciprocated affection. Attachment avoidance features a strong desire for strict autonomy, emotional distancing, and a fundamental discomfort with intimacy.
Maria Stella Mirarchi, a psychology researcher presently affiliated with the Technische Hochschule Mannheim in Germany, led the new investigation. Mirarchi and her colleagues hypothesized that specific insecure attachment styles might serve as a mediating variable. A mediating variable is a middle step that helps explain how an initial experience translates into a specific outcome.
The research team wanted to observe whether childhood trauma fosters an avoidant or anxious attachment style, which in turn feeds the development of psychopathic traits. They suspected that people who score high on psychopathy measures might shun emotional closeness as a defense mechanism rooted in early trauma. The diagnostic criteria for psychopathy already address severe intimacy deficits, including items assessing a history of short-term relationships and promiscuous behavior.
To test this model, the team evaluated 355 men serving sentences at a social-therapeutic correctional facility in Hamburg, Germany. The inmates were primarily incarcerated for varied violent and sexual offenses. Intake assessments occurred within the first few weeks of their arrival at the facility.
Trained clinical staff conducted exploratory interviews that spanned up to three hours. The staff also administered psychological tests and reviewed official case files. Using a standardized protocol, the clinicians documented reported instances of childhood sexual abuse, physical abuse, and emotional neglect.
The men completed a widely utilized self-report questionnaire assessing adult attachment styles in the context of close relationships. This survey captures a person’s tendencies toward both attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance. To measure psychopathy, the clinical staff used the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised.
This checklist is the standard diagnostic tool for the condition in forensic settings. Clinicians rate an individual on twenty distinct items based on interview responses and historical records. The resulting scores capture the person’s overall psychopathy level, as well as their specific scores on the interpersonal and antisocial dimensions.
Baseline comparisons replicated established patterns in the psychological literature. Higher reported rates of childhood trauma correlated with higher overall psychopathy scores. Trauma was particularly linked to the antisocial and impulsive dimension of the clinical construct.
When the researchers ran their mediation analysis, they found that the overarching indirect effect through attachment styles was not statistically significant. Breaking the results down by the specific type of attachment style revealed a distinct contrast. The two styles operated in opposing ways.
Attachment avoidance exhibited a positive direct association with the overall psychopathy score. Men who coped with relationship stress by withdrawing emotionally and demanding independence tended to exhibit higher levels of total psychopathic traits. This pattern remained steady even when accounting for their personal trauma history.
Attachment anxiety produced a different outcome, particularly concerning the interpersonal and affective dimension of psychopathy. For this specific factor, which covers the callous, unemotional, and manipulative traits of the condition, attachment anxiety actually predicted lower scores.
This observation indicates that a fear of abandonment and a high need for emotional reassurance might buffer against the development of a truly callous personality. Men possessing high attachment anxiety still exhibited antisocial behaviors, but they lacked the cold emotional detachment that defines the core of primary psychopathy.
The research team noted that this divergence aligns with established theory. By definition, people exhibiting primary psychopathy rarely worry about rejection or unreciprocated affection. They are far more likely to avoid emotional attachments entirely, dismissing social bonds as an unnecessary vulnerability.
These distinct pathways offer new ideas for rehabilitation programs within the justice system. Traditional models sometimes view psychopathy as a permanent condition. Recent behavioral perspectives suggest that many personality traits associated with the condition are dynamic and capable of shifting in response to sustained treatment.
If attachment avoidance serves as a core mechanism sustaining these traits, therapy focusing on interpersonal skills could provide a new avenue for intervention. Helping individuals build secure relationships and dismantle their avoidant defense mechanisms might result in a gradual reduction of psychopathic behaviors.
The authors acknowledged several limitations in their analysis. The study utilized a cross-sectional design, meaning the assessments of trauma, attachment, and psychopathy all occurred at a single point in time. This type of observational data cannot establish a sequence of cause and effect.
Additionally, the research took place in a specialized social-therapeutic facility. In the German penal system, these facilities often house offenders who are court-referred for treatment or who demonstrate a high motivation to change. Consequently, the average psychopathy scores in this group were lower than those typically found in standard, maximum-security environments.
The reliance on a male-exclusive sample also restricts the broad application of the results. Men and women frequently experience qualitatively different forms of trauma during childhood. Basic socialization differences also heavily influence how men and women express emotional distress and attachment behaviors as adults.
Ongoing investigations will require longitudinal designs that track individuals from childhood into adulthood. Tracking psychological variables across varying stages of life would help clarify how early abuse gradually warps relational habits. A deeper understanding of these developmental cascades might eventually guide more ethical, targeted therapies for violent offenders.
The study, “The Role of Insecure Attachment Styles in the Relationship Between Childhood Trauma and Psychopathy in Adulthood,” was authored by Maria Stella Mirarchi, Theresa Kuban, Sonja Etzler, Peer Briken, and Martin Rettenberger.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #psychopathy #attachmenttheory #childhoodtrauma #earlytrauma #securevsinsecureattachment #avoidantattachment #anxiousattachment #rehabilitation #forensicpsychology #mentalhealthawareness
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DATE: July 3, 2026 at 08:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Anxious attachment is linked to populating future daydreams with other people, study finds
New research published in the Journal of Individual Differences provides evidence that a person’s relationship patterns actively shape how they imagine their own future. The findings suggest that people with high relationship anxiety tend to envision future scenarios filled with social interactions. In contrast, those who avoid closeness tend to imagine futures with fewer interpersonal connections.
Human beings spend a significant portion of their mental lives thinking about things that have not yet happened. Psychologists refer to this ability to mentally simulate personal future events as episodic future thinking. This mental process plays an important role in how people make decisions, regulate their emotions, and behave in everyday situations.
Episodic future thinking is generally recognized as a healthy cognitive habit. It contributes to overall well-being by allowing individuals to anticipate challenges, create effective plans, and manage their emotional responses before an event actually occurs. Because interpersonal relationships make up a massive part of daily life, the degree to which people include social interactions in these mental rehearsals can influence their behavior.
When imagining these future events, people draw heavily on their past social experiences. One major framework for understanding how past experiences shape human behavior is attachment theory. Attachment style refers to the individual differences in how people feel, think, and act within interpersonal relationships.
Scientists often measure attachment style along two specific dimensions known as attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance. People with high attachment anxiety often fear abandonment and constantly seek closeness and reassurance from others. Individuals with high attachment avoidance tend to feel uncomfortable with intimacy and prefer to rely solely on themselves.
Most past research on attachment styles has focused on how these traits affect a person’s memory of the past or their experiences in the present moment. Very little attention has been given to how these deeply ingrained relationship habits influence expectations about the future. Fan Yang, an assistant professor at Waseda University, and Ze Zhang, a doctoral student at Okayama University, explained the underlying motivation for the study.
“We often think about attachment as something rooted in the past that affects our present relationships,” Yang and Zhang said. “But people also constantly imagine the future. These imagined possible futures matter because they can shape how people prepare, make decisions, and regulate their emotions.”
The researchers noted a gap in the scientific literature regarding interpersonal expectations. “What we wanted to know was whether those past relationship experiences also shape how people picture their future, especially whether they imagine future events as involving other people, support, closeness, or distance,” Yang and Zhang explained.
To test these ideas, the researchers conducted two separate studies. The first study involved 155 participants who were recruited through Chinese social networking platforms. The sample consisted of 129 females and 26 males, with an average age of about 22 years.
First, the participants completed a well-established questionnaire designed to measure their levels of attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance. The scientists then asked each person to complete five distinct episodic future thinking tasks.
For each task, participants had to imagine a realistic and plausible future event that could happen in their personal lives. The instructions required them to picture highly specific details, such as the exact time and location of the event. The imagined scenario needed to last anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours, but no longer than a single day.
The researchers also instructed the participants to come up with completely new events rather than repeating daily routines or past experiences. They were given at least thirty seconds to mentally simulate each scenario. Afterward, the participants rated how strongly the imagined event related to interpersonal relationships on a seven-point scale.
The data revealed a distinct pattern based on attachment styles. As expected, attachment anxiety positively predicted the amount of interpersonal content in the imagined future scenarios. This means that as a person’s level of relationship anxiety increased, they tended to imagine more future events involving other people.
On the other hand, attachment avoidance negatively predicted this relevance. Participants with higher levels of avoidance tended to mentally simulate future events that had very little to do with interpersonal relationships. These findings provided initial evidence that attachment traits manifest when people daydream about the future.
Following these initial findings, the scientists designed a second study to see if stress would alter this dynamic. According to attachment theory, relationship behaviors are typically activated under conditions of threat or stress. The researchers wanted to observe how episodic future thinking might change when participants imagined stressful events compared to nonstressful ones.
The second study involved 67 Japanese university students, including 50 females, 14 males, and three individuals who identified as other. Their average age was about 20 years. Similar to the first study, participants filled out a questionnaire to measure their attachment styles before moving on to the imagination tasks.
In this phase, the researchers used a within-person design, meaning every participant completed both the nonstressful and stressful tasks. First, the participants were instructed to imagine five potential personal future events that were entirely nonstressful. They followed the same strict guidelines regarding specificity and realism used in the first study.
After completing the nonstressful simulations, the participants imagined five stressful future events. The scientists purposely had everyone complete the nonstressful tasks first to prevent the negative emotions of the stressful scenarios from lingering and affecting the neutral tasks.
Following each mental simulation, participants rated how much the event involved interpersonal relationships. They also rated the extent to which they felt positive or negative emotions about the imagined scenario. This emotional rating allowed the authors to verify that the stressful tasks actually elicited more negative feelings than the nonstressful tasks.
When the researchers analyzed the data, they found that attachment anxiety continued to predict more interpersonal content across both conditions. Anxiously attached individuals consistently included other people in their future simulations, whether they were imagining a relaxing day or a highly stressful situation.
For avoidantly attached individuals, the patterns shifted depending on the emotional tone of the imagined event. During the nonstressful tasks, higher attachment avoidance predicted less interpersonal content, matching the findings of the first study. However, during the stressful tasks, attachment avoidance had no significant effect on whether the scenario involved other people.
The authors suggest this shift occurs because avoidant individuals can easily suppress their need for social connection when they feel safe and relaxed. When imagining a stressful situation, keeping up that emotional defense requires more cognitive effort. Under the mental load of a stressful scenario, their natural inclination to avoid relying on others may become harder to maintain.
“Our findings suggest that how we imagine the future may reflect our relationship patterns,” Yang and Zhang told PsyPost. “People who worry more about relationships may picture the future as more interpersonal, whether the imagined event is stressful or not. In contrast, people who tend to avoid closeness may imagine fewer social elements in ordinary, nonstressful future events, but this tendency becomes weaker when they imagine stressful situations.”
This dynamic provides a new perspective on how relationship history impacts our daily lives. “In everyday life, this means our past relationship experiences may shape not only how we relate to others now, but also how we expect support, closeness, or distance in what probably comes next,” Yang and Zhang explained.
While these studies provide new insights into how we think about the future, the research does have some limitations. One notable issue is the demographic makeup of the samples. Both studies primarily relied on young, female university students from Eastern countries.
Because relationship dynamics and social expectations can vary widely across different cultures and age groups, these findings might not apply to the broader global population. Research suggests that gender identity can influence the emotional intensity of future-oriented thinking. This means a more balanced sample of men and women is needed to confirm these patterns.
The authors also cautioned against reading too deeply into the results without considering the context. “One important caveat is that our findings do not mean attachment style rigidly determines how people imagine the future,” Yang and Zhang noted. “Our studies were based mainly on university student samples, so future research should test whether the same patterns appear in more diverse populations.”
They also emphasized that there is no right or wrong way to imagine the future. “Our findings should not be interpreted as saying that relationship-focused future thinking is always good or that less interpersonal future thinking is always bad,” the researchers said. “Rather, they show that attachment patterns may influence which aspects of possible future events become more or less salient when people imagine what may happen to them.”
Another limitation involves the controlled experimental setting. Asking participants to generate future thoughts on command in a laboratory context might not perfectly capture how people spontaneously daydream in their everyday lives. To get a more accurate picture, future research could use mobile technology to survey people about their future-oriented thoughts as they naturally occur throughout the day.
The design of the tasks also introduces the possibility of a demand effect. In both studies, participants rated how much their imagined event related to relationships immediately after their first task. Doing this might have unintentionally prompted them to focus on social connections during the subsequent four tasks.
Additionally, the fixed order of the tasks in the second study presents a potential problem. Because all participants completed the nonstressful tasks before the stressful ones, the initial tasks might have influenced how they responded to the later ones. Future studies could address this by randomizing the order of the tasks or giving participants a break between conditions to reset their minds.
The authors also noted that the second study had a relatively small sample size and was not preregistered. This means the findings from the second study should be treated as preliminary. The researchers did not account for other psychological factors, such as general anxiety levels or personality traits, which could also influence how a person envisions their future.
Moving forward, the scientists plan to explore these concepts in more naturalistic settings. “Our next step is to look more closely at how people think about the future in everyday life,” Yang and Zhang said. “The future is not just something that happens later; the way we imagine it may already shape how we feel, make decisions, and relate to others now.”
They plan to investigate how mental time travel differs depending on whether a person is looking forward or backward. “One interesting question is that imagining the future often draws on past experiences, but the future also has a unique quality: it has not happened yet, but it might,” the authors explained.
This distinction could have important implications for psychological health. “We want to examine whether this ‘possible but not yet real’ quality makes imagining the future different from remembering the past in how it affects mental health and well-being,” Yang and Zhang said. “In other words, are remembering the past and imagining the future psychologically similar processes, or do they serve different functions?”
The authors have broad goals for this expanding area of study. “More broadly, we hope to understand why some people look ahead with confidence, while others feel worry, uncertainty, or anxiety,” they noted. “In particular, Ze Zhang will continue this line of work by focusing on topics such as future anxiety.”
The study, “The Influence of Attachment Style on the Extent to Which the Content of Episodic Future Thinking Relates to Interpersonal Relationships,” was authored by Fan Yang, Ze Zhang, Nanami Sawada, and Atsushi Oshio.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #AnxiousAttachment #EpisodicFutureThinking #AttachmentTheory #InterpersonalRelationships #FutureAnxiety #SocialConnections #PsychologyResearch #AttachmentAnxiety #AttachmentAvoidance #MentalTimeTravel
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DATE: July 3, 2026 at 08:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Anxious attachment is linked to populating future daydreams with other people, study finds
New research published in the Journal of Individual Differences provides evidence that a person’s relationship patterns actively shape how they imagine their own future. The findings suggest that people with high relationship anxiety tend to envision future scenarios filled with social interactions. In contrast, those who avoid closeness tend to imagine futures with fewer interpersonal connections.
Human beings spend a significant portion of their mental lives thinking about things that have not yet happened. Psychologists refer to this ability to mentally simulate personal future events as episodic future thinking. This mental process plays an important role in how people make decisions, regulate their emotions, and behave in everyday situations.
Episodic future thinking is generally recognized as a healthy cognitive habit. It contributes to overall well-being by allowing individuals to anticipate challenges, create effective plans, and manage their emotional responses before an event actually occurs. Because interpersonal relationships make up a massive part of daily life, the degree to which people include social interactions in these mental rehearsals can influence their behavior.
When imagining these future events, people draw heavily on their past social experiences. One major framework for understanding how past experiences shape human behavior is attachment theory. Attachment style refers to the individual differences in how people feel, think, and act within interpersonal relationships.
Scientists often measure attachment style along two specific dimensions known as attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance. People with high attachment anxiety often fear abandonment and constantly seek closeness and reassurance from others. Individuals with high attachment avoidance tend to feel uncomfortable with intimacy and prefer to rely solely on themselves.
Most past research on attachment styles has focused on how these traits affect a person’s memory of the past or their experiences in the present moment. Very little attention has been given to how these deeply ingrained relationship habits influence expectations about the future. Fan Yang, an assistant professor at Waseda University, and Ze Zhang, a doctoral student at Okayama University, explained the underlying motivation for the study.
“We often think about attachment as something rooted in the past that affects our present relationships,” Yang and Zhang said. “But people also constantly imagine the future. These imagined possible futures matter because they can shape how people prepare, make decisions, and regulate their emotions.”
The researchers noted a gap in the scientific literature regarding interpersonal expectations. “What we wanted to know was whether those past relationship experiences also shape how people picture their future, especially whether they imagine future events as involving other people, support, closeness, or distance,” Yang and Zhang explained.
To test these ideas, the researchers conducted two separate studies. The first study involved 155 participants who were recruited through Chinese social networking platforms. The sample consisted of 129 females and 26 males, with an average age of about 22 years.
First, the participants completed a well-established questionnaire designed to measure their levels of attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance. The scientists then asked each person to complete five distinct episodic future thinking tasks.
For each task, participants had to imagine a realistic and plausible future event that could happen in their personal lives. The instructions required them to picture highly specific details, such as the exact time and location of the event. The imagined scenario needed to last anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours, but no longer than a single day.
The researchers also instructed the participants to come up with completely new events rather than repeating daily routines or past experiences. They were given at least thirty seconds to mentally simulate each scenario. Afterward, the participants rated how strongly the imagined event related to interpersonal relationships on a seven-point scale.
The data revealed a distinct pattern based on attachment styles. As expected, attachment anxiety positively predicted the amount of interpersonal content in the imagined future scenarios. This means that as a person’s level of relationship anxiety increased, they tended to imagine more future events involving other people.
On the other hand, attachment avoidance negatively predicted this relevance. Participants with higher levels of avoidance tended to mentally simulate future events that had very little to do with interpersonal relationships. These findings provided initial evidence that attachment traits manifest when people daydream about the future.
Following these initial findings, the scientists designed a second study to see if stress would alter this dynamic. According to attachment theory, relationship behaviors are typically activated under conditions of threat or stress. The researchers wanted to observe how episodic future thinking might change when participants imagined stressful events compared to nonstressful ones.
The second study involved 67 Japanese university students, including 50 females, 14 males, and three individuals who identified as other. Their average age was about 20 years. Similar to the first study, participants filled out a questionnaire to measure their attachment styles before moving on to the imagination tasks.
In this phase, the researchers used a within-person design, meaning every participant completed both the nonstressful and stressful tasks. First, the participants were instructed to imagine five potential personal future events that were entirely nonstressful. They followed the same strict guidelines regarding specificity and realism used in the first study.
After completing the nonstressful simulations, the participants imagined five stressful future events. The scientists purposely had everyone complete the nonstressful tasks first to prevent the negative emotions of the stressful scenarios from lingering and affecting the neutral tasks.
Following each mental simulation, participants rated how much the event involved interpersonal relationships. They also rated the extent to which they felt positive or negative emotions about the imagined scenario. This emotional rating allowed the authors to verify that the stressful tasks actually elicited more negative feelings than the nonstressful tasks.
When the researchers analyzed the data, they found that attachment anxiety continued to predict more interpersonal content across both conditions. Anxiously attached individuals consistently included other people in their future simulations, whether they were imagining a relaxing day or a highly stressful situation.
For avoidantly attached individuals, the patterns shifted depending on the emotional tone of the imagined event. During the nonstressful tasks, higher attachment avoidance predicted less interpersonal content, matching the findings of the first study. However, during the stressful tasks, attachment avoidance had no significant effect on whether the scenario involved other people.
The authors suggest this shift occurs because avoidant individuals can easily suppress their need for social connection when they feel safe and relaxed. When imagining a stressful situation, keeping up that emotional defense requires more cognitive effort. Under the mental load of a stressful scenario, their natural inclination to avoid relying on others may become harder to maintain.
“Our findings suggest that how we imagine the future may reflect our relationship patterns,” Yang and Zhang told PsyPost. “People who worry more about relationships may picture the future as more interpersonal, whether the imagined event is stressful or not. In contrast, people who tend to avoid closeness may imagine fewer social elements in ordinary, nonstressful future events, but this tendency becomes weaker when they imagine stressful situations.”
This dynamic provides a new perspective on how relationship history impacts our daily lives. “In everyday life, this means our past relationship experiences may shape not only how we relate to others now, but also how we expect support, closeness, or distance in what probably comes next,” Yang and Zhang explained.
While these studies provide new insights into how we think about the future, the research does have some limitations. One notable issue is the demographic makeup of the samples. Both studies primarily relied on young, female university students from Eastern countries.
Because relationship dynamics and social expectations can vary widely across different cultures and age groups, these findings might not apply to the broader global population. Research suggests that gender identity can influence the emotional intensity of future-oriented thinking. This means a more balanced sample of men and women is needed to confirm these patterns.
The authors also cautioned against reading too deeply into the results without considering the context. “One important caveat is that our findings do not mean attachment style rigidly determines how people imagine the future,” Yang and Zhang noted. “Our studies were based mainly on university student samples, so future research should test whether the same patterns appear in more diverse populations.”
They also emphasized that there is no right or wrong way to imagine the future. “Our findings should not be interpreted as saying that relationship-focused future thinking is always good or that less interpersonal future thinking is always bad,” the researchers said. “Rather, they show that attachment patterns may influence which aspects of possible future events become more or less salient when people imagine what may happen to them.”
Another limitation involves the controlled experimental setting. Asking participants to generate future thoughts on command in a laboratory context might not perfectly capture how people spontaneously daydream in their everyday lives. To get a more accurate picture, future research could use mobile technology to survey people about their future-oriented thoughts as they naturally occur throughout the day.
The design of the tasks also introduces the possibility of a demand effect. In both studies, participants rated how much their imagined event related to relationships immediately after their first task. Doing this might have unintentionally prompted them to focus on social connections during the subsequent four tasks.
Additionally, the fixed order of the tasks in the second study presents a potential problem. Because all participants completed the nonstressful tasks before the stressful ones, the initial tasks might have influenced how they responded to the later ones. Future studies could address this by randomizing the order of the tasks or giving participants a break between conditions to reset their minds.
The authors also noted that the second study had a relatively small sample size and was not preregistered. This means the findings from the second study should be treated as preliminary. The researchers did not account for other psychological factors, such as general anxiety levels or personality traits, which could also influence how a person envisions their future.
Moving forward, the scientists plan to explore these concepts in more naturalistic settings. “Our next step is to look more closely at how people think about the future in everyday life,” Yang and Zhang said. “The future is not just something that happens later; the way we imagine it may already shape how we feel, make decisions, and relate to others now.”
They plan to investigate how mental time travel differs depending on whether a person is looking forward or backward. “One interesting question is that imagining the future often draws on past experiences, but the future also has a unique quality: it has not happened yet, but it might,” the authors explained.
This distinction could have important implications for psychological health. “We want to examine whether this ‘possible but not yet real’ quality makes imagining the future different from remembering the past in how it affects mental health and well-being,” Yang and Zhang said. “In other words, are remembering the past and imagining the future psychologically similar processes, or do they serve different functions?”
The authors have broad goals for this expanding area of study. “More broadly, we hope to understand why some people look ahead with confidence, while others feel worry, uncertainty, or anxiety,” they noted. “In particular, Ze Zhang will continue this line of work by focusing on topics such as future anxiety.”
The study, “The Influence of Attachment Style on the Extent to Which the Content of Episodic Future Thinking Relates to Interpersonal Relationships,” was authored by Fan Yang, Ze Zhang, Nanami Sawada, and Atsushi Oshio.
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #AnxiousAttachment #EpisodicFutureThinking #AttachmentTheory #InterpersonalRelationships #FutureAnxiety #SocialConnections #PsychologyResearch #AttachmentAnxiety #AttachmentAvoidance #MentalTimeTravel
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The Weather of Our First Reaching
In the luminous space between mother and child, attachment becomes the first language of love — a silent exchange shaping how we trust, connect, and heal. This reflection explores the invisible architecture of early bonds, where psychology meets poetry and the heart learns its first rhythm of belonging.https://thereflectivemind9.wordpress.com/2026/06/18/the-weather-of-our-first-reaching/
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The Weather of Our First Reaching
In the luminous space between mother and child, attachment becomes the first language of love — a silent exchange shaping how we trust, connect, and heal. This reflection explores the invisible architecture of early bonds, where psychology meets poetry and the heart learns its first rhythm of belonging.https://thereflectivemind9.wordpress.com/2026/06/18/the-weather-of-our-first-reaching/
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https://medium.com/storyangles/stay-when-your-mind-wants-to-run-a543fac352ea
Anxious Attachers Can Turn Their Pattern Into Relationship Strength.
#anxiousattachment #anxiety #anxietyawareness #attachment #medium #relationship #relationships #Communication
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https://medium.com/storyangles/stay-when-your-mind-wants-to-run-a543fac352ea
Anxious Attachers Can Turn Their Pattern Into Relationship Strength.
#anxiousattachment #anxiety #anxietyawareness #attachment #medium #relationship #relationships #Communication
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4 Ways Porn Use is Shaped by Relationship Fears
Originally Published on December 30th, 2025 at 11:58 amBeyond Addiction
When we talk about porn use, the conversation often gets stuck in simple, black-and-white narratives of morality or addiction. We tend to focus on how much someone is watching, rather than asking a more fundamental question: why? While these discussions are common, they often miss a deeper, more nuanced psychological story that’s playing out behind our screens.
What if our relationship with pornography isn’t just a habit, but a reflection of our most basic patterns of connecting with other people? This is the central idea behind attachment theory. It suggests that our earliest bonds with caregivers shape how we approach intimacy, trust, and emotional closeness throughout our lives. These deep-seated patterns are known as our “attachment style.”
A recent systematic review of 10 scientific studies has begun to connect these dots. It’s uncovered surprising links between our attachment styles and our pornography habits.
This article explores the four most impactful takeaways from that research.
It reveals how our fundamental needs for connection, and our fears of rejection, can shape what happens when we’re alone with a screen.
1. For some men, porn use is linked to better relationship satisfaction
Attachment styles are patterns in how we connect with others, stemming from our early life experiences. “Anxious attachment” style, for example, creates a deep desire for intimacy but lives with a persistent fear of rejection or abandonment.
Counterintuitively, one major study reviewed by the researchers (Maas et al., 2018) found that for men with this anxious attachment style, porn use was actually associated with higher relationship satisfaction.
This finding becomes even more striking when contrasted with the results for women in the same study.
For anxiously attached women, porn use was associated with lower relationship satisfaction.
This sharp gender difference underscores a crucial point: the effects of pornography are not one-size-fits-all.
They are deeply intertwined with our individual psychology, our gender, and our attachment style. This suggests that for anxious men, pornography might act as a low-stakes supplement that doesn’t trigger their core fear of abandonment. Whereas, for anxious women, it may directly activate it.
Are you a professional looking to stay up-to-date with the latest information on, sex addiction, trauma, and mental health news and research? Or maybe you’re looking for continuing education courses?
Stay up-to-date with all of Dr. Jen’s work through her practice’s newsletter!
2. Problematic porn use can be a way to cope with a fear of real intimacy
The review highlights a powerful theme: for those with insecure attachment styles, pornography offers a sense of connection without the perceived risks of real-world emotional intimacy.
This is particularly true for individuals with an avoidant attachment style. They often fear being engulfed by a relationship and losing their independence. Research shows that for this group, addictive cybersex use can become a direct substitute for the emotional closeness they find threatening.
While both anxious and avoidant individuals may turn to pornography, their motivations often differ.
Someone with an avoidant style might use it to replace an intimacy they fear. However, someone with an anxious style might use it to soothe anxiety about a connection they crave.
In both cases, porn use can become a substitute for genuine connection when real relationships feel too overwhelming.
The review synthesizes this concept perfectly:
When people with insecure attachments use pornography to satisfy their relational needs of comfort, they engage in little or less emotional closeness and commitment, which allays their worries of abandonment and separation.
This reframes problematic use not merely as an addiction, but as a potentially maladaptive strategy for managing deep-seated relational fears of either being left alone or being consumed by another.
Licensed Professional Counselors, do you need continuing education hours?
Look no further!
If you find this article interesting, Dr. Weeks’ course Sexual Education and Porn Use in Women, and her other unique courses, will engage and educate!
3. For anxiously attached women, porn use is linked to body insecurity; specifically when they’re in a relationship
Another study in the review (Gerwitz-Meydan et al., 2021) uncovered a highly specific link for women with an anxious attachment style.
For these women, an association between their attachment style and porn use was found only if they were currently in a relationship. For single women with the same attachment style, there was no significant association.
The research identified a crucial factor driving this connection: body image self-consciousness. The study found that pornography use acted as a mediator between anxious attachment and body image issues.
In simple terms, this means that for anxiously attached women in a relationship, viewing pornography may trigger or intensify insecurities about their own bodies.
This, in turn, can activate their underlying attachment-related fears of being inadequate for their partner. Porn use directly threatens their sense of security and stoking their core fear of abandonment.
Do you believe you have an online pornography addiction? Take the free Cyber Pornography Addiction Test (CYPAT) and have the results to speak with your therapist.
4. There’s a psychological link between ADHD, both anxious and avoidant attachment, and compulsive porn use.
The review also sheds light on the intersection of attachment, neurodiversity, and pornography.
One study (Niazof et al., 2019) found that problematic pornography use in men with ADHD was linked to both anxious and avoidant attachment styles, but in different ways.
Higher levels of anxious attachment were linked to excessive pornography use, while avoidant attachment was associated with higher levels of problematic use.
The researchers point to a potential explanation for this link: the “incentive deficit” that is often a characteristic of ADHD.
This concept suggests that individuals with ADHD may be more drawn to highly stimulating, novel, and instantly gratifying behaviors. It helps ADHD porn users to compensate for a brain that may be under-stimulated by everyday rewards.
When combined with insecure attachment, this creates a potent mix.
For the anxiously attached man with ADHD, pornography might serve as an easily accessible tool to soothe relational anxiety.
For the avoidantly attached man with ADHD, it may be a compelling substitute for the real-world intimacy he fears. It fulfills a need for stimulation without triggering his fear of closeness.
Conclusion: Beyond How Much to Why
The research clearly shows that our relationship with pornography is more complex than self-control or moral standing.
It can be a powerful and often unconscious reflection of our deepest relational patterns. It reveals our unmet needs for connection, and our most profound fears of intimacy and rejection.
This perspective invites us to shift the conversation.
Instead of focusing solely on the behavior itself, perhaps the more important question to ask is: What deeper needs and fears is this behavior trying to meet?
Share how this post spoke to you, or about someone you love. Do you believe you use pornography to compensate for your attachment style? Why or why not?
Are you looking for more reputable data-backed information on sexual addiction? The Mitigation Aide Research Archive is an excellent source for executive summaries of research studies.
Have you found yourself in legal trouble due to your sexual behavior? Seek assistance before the court mandates it, with Sexual Addiction Treatment Services.
Do you feel your sexual behavior, or that of someone you love, is out of control? Consult with a professional.
#ADHDAndPornUse #anxiousAttachment #attachmentStyles #attachmentTheory #avoidantAttachment #bodyImageInsecurity #compulsivePornUse #couplesTherapy #cybersexAddiction #emotionalIntimacy #fearOfAbandonment #fearOfRejection #intimacyIssues #mentalHealth #pornUse #pornographyUse #problematicPornUse #relationalCoping #relationshipFears #relationshipSatisfaction #sexualHealth #shameAndSecrecy #trustAndConnection -
4 Ways Porn Use is Shaped by Relationship Fears
Originally Published on December 30th, 2025 at 11:58 amBeyond Addiction
When we talk about porn use, the conversation often gets stuck in simple, black-and-white narratives of morality or addiction. We tend to focus on how much someone is watching, rather than asking a more fundamental question: why? While these discussions are common, they often miss a deeper, more nuanced psychological story that’s playing out behind our screens.
What if our relationship with pornography isn’t just a habit, but a reflection of our most basic patterns of connecting with other people? This is the central idea behind attachment theory. It suggests that our earliest bonds with caregivers shape how we approach intimacy, trust, and emotional closeness throughout our lives. These deep-seated patterns are known as our “attachment style.”
A recent systematic review of 10 scientific studies has begun to connect these dots. It’s uncovered surprising links between our attachment styles and our pornography habits.
This article explores the four most impactful takeaways from that research.
It reveals how our fundamental needs for connection, and our fears of rejection, can shape what happens when we’re alone with a screen.
1. For some men, porn use is linked to better relationship satisfaction
Attachment styles are patterns in how we connect with others, stemming from our early life experiences. “Anxious attachment” style, for example, creates a deep desire for intimacy but lives with a persistent fear of rejection or abandonment.
Counterintuitively, one major study reviewed by the researchers (Maas et al., 2018) found that for men with this anxious attachment style, porn use was actually associated with higher relationship satisfaction.
This finding becomes even more striking when contrasted with the results for women in the same study.
For anxiously attached women, porn use was associated with lower relationship satisfaction.
This sharp gender difference underscores a crucial point: the effects of pornography are not one-size-fits-all.
They are deeply intertwined with our individual psychology, our gender, and our attachment style. This suggests that for anxious men, pornography might act as a low-stakes supplement that doesn’t trigger their core fear of abandonment. Whereas, for anxious women, it may directly activate it.
Are you a professional looking to stay up-to-date with the latest information on, sex addiction, trauma, and mental health news and research? Or maybe you’re looking for continuing education courses?
Stay up-to-date with all of Dr. Jen’s work through her practice’s newsletter!
2. Problematic porn use can be a way to cope with a fear of real intimacy
The review highlights a powerful theme: for those with insecure attachment styles, pornography offers a sense of connection without the perceived risks of real-world emotional intimacy.
This is particularly true for individuals with an avoidant attachment style. They often fear being engulfed by a relationship and losing their independence. Research shows that for this group, addictive cybersex use can become a direct substitute for the emotional closeness they find threatening.
While both anxious and avoidant individuals may turn to pornography, their motivations often differ.
Someone with an avoidant style might use it to replace an intimacy they fear. However, someone with an anxious style might use it to soothe anxiety about a connection they crave.
In both cases, porn use can become a substitute for genuine connection when real relationships feel too overwhelming.
The review synthesizes this concept perfectly:
When people with insecure attachments use pornography to satisfy their relational needs of comfort, they engage in little or less emotional closeness and commitment, which allays their worries of abandonment and separation.
This reframes problematic use not merely as an addiction, but as a potentially maladaptive strategy for managing deep-seated relational fears of either being left alone or being consumed by another.
Licensed Professional Counselors, do you need continuing education hours?
Look no further!
If you find this article interesting, Dr. Weeks’ course Sexual Education and Porn Use in Women, and her other unique courses, will engage and educate!
3. For anxiously attached women, porn use is linked to body insecurity; specifically when they’re in a relationship
Another study in the review (Gerwitz-Meydan et al., 2021) uncovered a highly specific link for women with an anxious attachment style.
For these women, an association between their attachment style and porn use was found only if they were currently in a relationship. For single women with the same attachment style, there was no significant association.
The research identified a crucial factor driving this connection: body image self-consciousness. The study found that pornography use acted as a mediator between anxious attachment and body image issues.
In simple terms, this means that for anxiously attached women in a relationship, viewing pornography may trigger or intensify insecurities about their own bodies.
This, in turn, can activate their underlying attachment-related fears of being inadequate for their partner. Porn use directly threatens their sense of security and stoking their core fear of abandonment.
Do you believe you have an online pornography addiction? Take the free Cyber Pornography Addiction Test (CYPAT) and have the results to speak with your therapist.
4. There’s a psychological link between ADHD, both anxious and avoidant attachment, and compulsive porn use.
The review also sheds light on the intersection of attachment, neurodiversity, and pornography.
One study (Niazof et al., 2019) found that problematic pornography use in men with ADHD was linked to both anxious and avoidant attachment styles, but in different ways.
Higher levels of anxious attachment were linked to excessive pornography use, while avoidant attachment was associated with higher levels of problematic use.
The researchers point to a potential explanation for this link: the “incentive deficit” that is often a characteristic of ADHD.
This concept suggests that individuals with ADHD may be more drawn to highly stimulating, novel, and instantly gratifying behaviors. It helps ADHD porn users to compensate for a brain that may be under-stimulated by everyday rewards.
When combined with insecure attachment, this creates a potent mix.
For the anxiously attached man with ADHD, pornography might serve as an easily accessible tool to soothe relational anxiety.
For the avoidantly attached man with ADHD, it may be a compelling substitute for the real-world intimacy he fears. It fulfills a need for stimulation without triggering his fear of closeness.
Conclusion: Beyond How Much to Why
The research clearly shows that our relationship with pornography is more complex than self-control or moral standing.
It can be a powerful and often unconscious reflection of our deepest relational patterns. It reveals our unmet needs for connection, and our most profound fears of intimacy and rejection.
This perspective invites us to shift the conversation.
Instead of focusing solely on the behavior itself, perhaps the more important question to ask is: What deeper needs and fears is this behavior trying to meet?
Share how this post spoke to you, or about someone you love. Do you believe you use pornography to compensate for your attachment style? Why or why not?
Are you looking for more reputable data-backed information on sexual addiction? The Mitigation Aide Research Archive is an excellent source for executive summaries of research studies.
Have you found yourself in legal trouble due to your sexual behavior? Seek assistance before the court mandates it, with Sexual Addiction Treatment Services.
Do you feel your sexual behavior, or that of someone you love, is out of control? Consult with a professional.
#ADHDAndPornUse #anxiousAttachment #attachmentStyles #attachmentTheory #avoidantAttachment #bodyImageInsecurity #compulsivePornUse #couplesTherapy #cybersexAddiction #emotionalIntimacy #fearOfAbandonment #fearOfRejection #intimacyIssues #mentalHealth #pornUse #pornographyUse #problematicPornUse #relationalCoping #relationshipFears #relationshipSatisfaction #sexualHealth #shameAndSecrecy #trustAndConnection -
2/ This inevitably led to another challenging conversation with C about our attitudes to group sex. She finds it really difficult to understand why I wouldn’t want another woman in bed with us. I explained again that it’s because I have an #anxiousattachment style and that I’d be terrified of her being more into the other woman than me - and that I’d ultimately lose her.
I also explained that her bringing it up again makes me think that she really wants and needs that sex life.
