In my last post,   I talked about the link between addiction and connection – or lack of it. And how our earliest experiences shape the way our brains develop and generate a specific ‘attachment’ style.

Knowing your attachment style and how it affects your thoughts feelings and behaviours  can provide an incredible sense of relief. It can help you to start making sense of the struggles that you have and can give you a focus of how to work through them.

Attachment theory is fast becoming the leading theory on why we are prone to a whole host of psychological issues including depression, anxiety, relationship conflict and addiction. Attachment theory is not new; it has been around for decades. But what IS new is the validation it now has from research in neuroscience.

So what is it exactly?

In a nutshell, the type of attachment bond we have with our caregivers in the first few years of life dictates how we live, love and learn for the rest of our lives. Or as John Bowlby, the father of attachment theory, said “from the cradle to the grave”  [Read more…]