TAMPA (BLOOM) There are two interesting phenomena happening in the United States, a so-called loneliness epidemic and what’s being called a “friendship deficit.” This refers to the idea that some individuals may experience a lack of meaningful or close friendships in their lives.
Psychologist Daniel Baughn, Ph.D., joined Gayle Guyardo the host of the global health and wellness show Bloom to share more about why some people struggle to develop friendships.
“John Bowlby, a psychiatrist in England, was the first to define attachment theory in the 1960s as a set of behaviors and feelings that drive our actions to seek or not seek emotional bonds with other people.” said Dr. Baughn.
He went on to explain how attachment theory impacts our friendships because these patterns play out in our lives in predictable patterns.
Dr. Baughn also shared 3 attachment styles that most people fall into:
- Secure Attachment – You feel worthy of love and believe that others can be trusted
- Anxious Attachment -You worry that others will abandon you and so you may act clingy, be overly self-sacrificing so that you don’t rock the boat, and you may plunge into intimacy too rapidly.
- Avoidant Attachment – You worry that others will abandon you, but you keep others at a distance because intimacy and vulnerability to you signal that you may get hurt.
