Anxious attachment is often misunderstood as neediness or insecurity, but the truth is far more tender than that. At its core, it begins with a very young child who learned that closeness was something unpredictable. Sometimes it arrived with great warmth. Sometimes it slipped away without warning. And so the child grew into an adult who feels everything deeply, who longs for connection yet fears its loss, who carries a quiet dread that the people they love may not stay, and