There is a stereotype that only children, children without siblings, fail to develop the ordinary social bonds and attachments that children with siblings do. The reality is more nuanced. It does not follow that children with siblings are automatically more … Read more
Narcissistic issues cover a range of experiences and presentations. A vulnerable narcissist tends to be particularly insecure, sensitive to rejection, and is likely to require a high level of validation from other people. It is important to keep in min … Read more
Unrequited love, a one-sided affair Unrequited love, also referred to as one-sided love, describes the painful problem of loving someone who doesn’t love you back. Unrequited love is not being loved back. Often unrequited love develops out of ordinary everyday … Read more
At the heart of someone who suffers from disorganised attachment is unacknowledged trauma and traumatic experience. There has never been a chance for the trauma to be processed, so it has remained within the person, continually disrupting them. These traumatic … Read more
Retroactive jealousy is an obsessional problem, it refers to people who have become fixated upon their partner’s romantic and sexual past. Retroactive jealousy sits under the umbrella of obsessive-compulsive disorders (RJ/OCD). Commonly, people will identify that they have become caught … Read more
Emotional permanence refers to our capacity to believe in the feelings of other people even when we are not with them. For example, to know that your partner loves you even when you are not together. For some of us, … Read more
Adoption can create an experience of rupture at the earliest moments of an individual’s life. The physical bonds with the birth mother that have been developing through pregnancy come to a sudden end, and the experience of separation that the … Read more
Relationship OCD refers to someone who has become consumed with obsessive doubts about their partner and their past. Experiencing changes in the emotions we feel towards a romantic partner is a natural part of developing an intimate relationship. At the … Read more
Though obsessive love is not widely recognised as a mental health condition, it can be a powerful and destabilising emotional experience. Obsessive patterns of thinking have the effect of locking the mind of the sufferer into a maze of unwanted, … Read more
The memories we formed in childhood are some of the enduring touchstones to who we are now, and the people we have become. Some of these memories remain front of mind, and accessible. Others rise up in us when we … Read more