How does it feel to struggle with separation anxiety?

Before you answer – let me clarify.

I know that separation anxiety is usually associated with infants and toddlers as they transition from being at home to starting school or any other unfamiliar environment. But adults also struggle with separation anxiety.

Before I go on, I want to clarify that I am not making light of those individuals who have been clinically diagnosed with anxiety and need professional help or medication to help them deal with it.

You’ll find separation anxiety in adults manifests itself in different ways.

First, there are those individuals that always need to be in a familiar environment. The problem with this is that they limit their lives. They don’t explore or go beyond a certain territory because they fear the unknown.

Next, there are those that fear being alone. So, they spend untold amounts of energy always trying to be around other people, and in doing so, they never quite get a grasp of who they are.

Last, and perhaps the most insidious, are those individuals not willing to part with their who they are to become the person they want to be. The fear or anxiety of acting or behaving out of step with their current self or in line with the expectations that others have of them keeps them trapped in their current state.

So, if you find yourself struggling with any of the manifestations of separation anxiety that I mentioned, know that you can work your way through it. It will take time and effort to do so, but you’ll also experience a sense of freedom once you begin to separate from and shed your old ways of being for the new you. I know it’s cliched but think for a moment what a caterpillar must go through to become a butterfly.

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