Why Is Everyone So Anxious & Avoidant? - Connor Beaton

In this discussion, Connor Beaton delves into the complexities of attachment theory, highlighting its roots in childhood experiences that shape adult relational patterns. He explains that attachment styles—whether anxious, avoidant, or secure—stem from the early interactions with primary caregivers, which inform our sense of safety and worth in relationships. Beaton emphasizes that overcoming anxious or avoidant tendencies requires more than cognitive understanding; it involves engaging with and retraining our nervous system to trust in ourselves and others. For those in relationships with anxious or avoidant partners, he advises fostering connection through invitations and co-regulation exercises, while avoiding threats or demands that may reinforce avoidant behaviors. Ultimately, Beaton asserts that true progress in attachment issues necessitates active participation in relationships, as we cannot "monk mode" our way to secure attachment.

• Attachment theory is a psychological and evolutionary theory about human relationships.
• It emphasizes the need for children to develop a relationship with at least one primary caregiver.
• This relationship is foundational to functioning normally as an adult in society.

"The definition of attachment theory is that it is a psychological and evolutionary theory concerning relationships between humans."

• This quote defines attachment theory and its focus on human relationships.

"Young children, as young children, we need to develop a relationship with a primary caregiver."

• Highlights the theory's emphasis on the early caregiver-child relationship's importance for normal adult functioning.

• John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth are considered pioneers in attachment theory.
• Bowlby began the work in the 1950s, and Ainsworth continued it, creating labels for attachment styles.
• The book "Attached" has brought mainstream attention to attachment theory.
• Attachment styles can be observed in children's responses to a caregiver's absence and return.

"The godfather of attachment is John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth."

• Identifies Bowlby and Ainsworth as the key figures in the development of attachment theory.

"Mary Ainsworth continued it on. She really created the labels that we know today to be anxious and avoidant."

• Explains Ainsworth's contribution to defining specific attachment styles.

• Children's reactions to a caregiver's departure and return can indicate their attachment style.
• Avoidant children may ignore the caregiver's absence and return.
• Anxious children may become upset when separated from the caregiver.
• Secure attachment is ideal and influences adult relationships and behaviors.
• Attachment theory explains modern relationship issues like ghosting, love bombing, and clinginess.

"You can tell around two to three to five in that age range how a child responds to a parent leaving and returning, where their attachment style rests."

• Describes how a child's attachment style can be assessed based on their behavior when separated from a caregiver.

• There is speculation on the neurological basis of attachment styles.
• Anxious attachment may activate anxiety centers in the brain.
• Avoidant individuals also experience fear, possibly showing similar brain activity to anxious individuals.
• There is uncertainty about specific fMRI studies on attachment styles.

"Avoidants are also very afraid. So there's actually a lot of fear."

• Suggests that both anxious and avoidant attachment styles involve fear, possibly reflected in brain activity.

• Early childhood experiences help discern if the environment and oneself are safe.
• Co-regulation involves managing one's emotional state in relation to another's regulated state.
• Safe and trustworthy relationships are foundational for developing social cues and discerning safety in relationships.
• Disruptions in attachment can lead to difficulty in gauging the safety of relationships and commitment issues.
• These foundational relationships set expectations for future interactions and trust levels.

"Your primary relationships as a child set the tone for what your nervous system, body, and mind can expect from relationships moving forward."

• Indicates the long-term impact of early childhood relationships on future interactions and expectations.

• Jean Piaget and Bowlby identified crucial early stages of development impacting attachment.
• Dewey Freeman's model provides insight into the formation of attachment styles.
• From 0-18 months, children assess if their environment is okay.
• From 18 months to 3 years, they discern if they themselves are okay.
• Attachment is built through experiencing and overcoming challenges in a relationship.
• Children's needs include food, touch, and movement.
• Disrupted attachment cycles can lead to rage or shutdown responses in children and adults.
• Chronic disruptions in attachment can lead to substance, object, or behavior attachment, laying the foundation for addiction.

"Attachment is built when we go through a hard time in relationship with somebody and come out the other side, okay."

• Explains the process of building attachment through overcoming difficulties in a relationship.

"If you are a two year old or a three year old, if you're a kid and you continually try and get your needs met from a caregiver, and over and over and over again, what you're met with is your needs don't matter."

• Describes how repeated failures in getting needs met from a caregiver can lead to dysfunctional attachment and potential addiction.

• The attachment process is adaptive, providing a baseline for what to expect in relationships.
• Secure attachment allows for better discernment of safe and trustworthy relationships.
• Disruptions in attachment can lead to challenges in social cohesion, collaboration, and leadership.

"The evolutionary advantage of that is that you have a baseline of what's trustworthy and safe and what's not."

• Highlights the evolutionary benefit of having a secure attachment as a baseline for future relationship judgments.

• Between 0-18 months, children experience the world through their primary caregiver.
• At around 18 months, children start to form a sense of self and individuality.
• Language development and the ability to express needs and wants emerge.
• The transition to a sense of self involves assessing personal safety and approval from caregivers.

"As they get closer to 18 months, they start to develop more of a separation of like, 'oh, mom goes over there, but I don't.'"

• Describes the development of a child's sense of individuality and separation from the caregiver.

• Research indicates that children need their needs met by a primary caregiver only about 34% to 35% of the time to develop secure, healthy attachments.
• A child expressing a need and having it met by a caregiver 35 to 40 percent of the time is sufficient for healthy attachment development.
• This information may provide hope to individuals concerned about the impact of their childhood experiences on their attachment styles.

"A lot of the research shows that it's like 34% to 35% of the time, we need to have our needs met as a child by a primary caregiver."

• This quote emphasizes the surprisingly low threshold of caregiver responsiveness required for children to develop secure attachments.

• Labels such as "anxious" and "avoidant" are useful but should not be overemphasized or lead to over pathologizing oneself.
• Anxious attachment is characterized by a lack of self-trust and an overreliance on relationships for reassurance and well-being.
• Avoidant attachment manifests as a strong sense of independence and viewing close connections as threats to individuality.
• Attachment styles are influenced by childhood experiences such as inconsistent parenting, overbearing caregivers, emotional oversharing, love withdrawal as punishment, and trauma or abuse.

"The anxious is more of a structure of somebody who feels like they can't trust themselves, and so they have to over index and rely on relationship."

• This quote describes the core issue of anxious attachment: a reliance on others for self-assurance due to a lack of self-trust.

• Anxious individuals are hyper-vigilant about their partner's well-being and the state of their relationships.
• They often question their self-worth and seek constant validation from their partners.
• Anxious attachment can lead to behaviors such as over-texting, oversharing, and love bombing as attempts to secure reassurance.
• Anxious attachment stems from a childhood need for close attention to a caregiver's responses to avoid punishment or loss of love.

"They're very fixated in on how's the other person doing? How's the relationship doing? And how are my behaviors and choices going to affect the relationship versus how am I doing?"

• This quote highlights the external focus of individuals with anxious attachment, who prioritize the well-being of their relationships over their own.

• Self-regulation and self-soothing techniques are crucial for managing anxiety and fostering a sense of self-worth.
• Breath work, including specific techniques such as box breathing and a breathing strategy for anxiety disorders, can help regulate the nervous system and reduce anxiety.
• The role of the nervous system in attachment styles is often underestimated, and cognitive strategies alone are insufficient for developing secure attachment.
• Developing self-validation routines, such as gratitude journaling with emotional and intellectual anchoring, can help build self-esteem.

"You have to learn how to soothe yourself and regulate yourself in the face of that anxiousness, that fear, that worry of, am I enough?"

• This quote underscores the importance of learning self-regulation techniques to manage the anxiety associated with anxious attachment.

• Anxious individuals may benefit from developing competencies and a robust internal system of self-validation to reduce dependency on others for validation.
• Exposure therapy, such as saying no to a partner or engaging in activities that challenge one's anxious tendencies, can be beneficial.
• The process of healing from anxious attachment involves detaching self-worth and safety from external sources and developing it internally.

"You have to begin to give yourself the validation that you're seeking from others."

• This quote emphasizes the need for individuals with anxious attachment to cultivate self-validation instead of relying on external validation from partners.

• There are general tendencies for men to be more avoidant and women to be more anxious, but these are not strict rules.
• Cultural narratives and socialization contribute to these tendencies, with men encouraged to isolate during difficulties and women encouraged to seek communal support.
• Men with anxious attachment may experience additional shame due to societal expectations of masculine independence.

"Traditionally men are more avoidant than women think. Traditionally women are more anxious than men."

• This quote reflects observed generalities in attachment styles across genders, influenced by societal norms and expectations.

• Shame can develop as a protective mechanism in early life but can become a destructive force when used as motivation for achievement.
• High achievers may use shame to propel themselves to success, but this can lead to negative outcomes in personal relationships and mental health.
• Understanding the role of shame in one's life is crucial for individuals with anxious attachment and those seeking to achieve without self-destruction.

"Shame is something that a lot of men feel but are very disconnected from. But shame develops early on to protect us from getting punished by our parents."

• This quote explains the origin of shame as a protective response and its potential harmful impact when used as a motivator in adulthood.

• Discusses how individuals seek validation and acceptance, and how reaching the top doesn't resolve underlying issues.
• Recognizes that even after achieving success (money, status, cars, relationships, houses), one might still feel fundamentally fractured, leading to a collapse of their sense of self.

"This is a much bigger problem because all of the. Was it the money? No. Was it the status? No. Was it the cars? No. Was it the women? No. Was it the house? No. You go, oh, okay. I'm fundamentally fractured and broken, and I imagine that that's where the full house of cards starts to collapse."

• The quote highlights the realization that external achievements do not fix internal feelings of brokenness, leading to a personal crisis.

• Observes a cultural shift where women are encouraged to be more avoidant.
• Explores the use of shame, especially on social media, as a means to enforce behavioral change.
• Notes the negative psychological and relational outcomes of over-relying on shame for self-correction.

"People try and deploy shame as a behavioral change mechanism or a behavioral change tool."

• The quote explains that shame is used by individuals and society as a tool to influence behavior, though it can be harmful.

• Explains that anxious attachment involves reliance on others, while avoidant attachment is about self-reliance.
• Describes how emotionally distant caregivers and premature independence contribute to avoidant attachment.
• Discusses the impact of inconsistent caregiver responses and rejection of needs on developing avoidant attachment styles.

"Anxious is I have to rely and trust in others. So how avoidant is formed is through a couple key things."

• The quote outlines the fundamental differences in how anxious and avoidant attachments are formed, with anxious being about dependence on others and avoidant about self-reliance.

• Describes how avoidant individuals may appear fine externally while experiencing internal turmoil.
• Discusses the tendency of avoidant individuals to hide their emotional state and struggle with intimacy and vulnerability.
• Highlights the challenges avoidant individuals face in therapy and relationships due to their inability to express their needs.

"They've become incredibly proficient. Like a secret agent."

• The quote metaphorically describes how avoidant individuals can hide their true feelings, appearing well-adjusted while internally struggling.

• Distinguishes between dismissive avoidants, who downplay the need for connection, and fearful avoidants, who are terrified of intimacy.
• Fearful avoidants often have a history of trauma that makes relationships feel dangerous.
• Dismissive avoidants have learned that their needs are irrelevant, leading to a pattern of minimizing their desires.

"Dismissives are going to be more dismissive of attachment. They're gonna be more dismissive of needing connection."

• This quote clarifies the behavior of dismissive avoidants who tend to devalue the importance of attachment and connection.

• Describes the loneliness and yearning for connection felt by avoidant individuals.
• Avoidants may experience a sense of being unfixable and fear that they will sabotage relationships.
• They may struggle with perfectionism and the belief that their needs are not a priority.

"At the core of it is this kind of brutal aloneness where you want connection."

• The quote captures the internal conflict of avoidant individuals who desire closeness but feel it is unattainable due to their perceived flaws.

• Suggests that anxious attachment may receive more social sympathy than avoidant attachment.
• Discusses the guilt and shame experienced by both anxious and avoidant individuals regarding their attachment behaviors.

"The anxious attached person's behaviors are more socially acceptable in our current culture versus the avoidant person's behaviors."

• The quote reflects on how society tends to view and judge the behaviors associated with different attachment styles.

• Avoidant individuals may use control and manipulation to meet their needs instead of expressing them directly.
• They may criticize partners as a means to coerce them into fulfilling their needs, such as intimacy.
• Such tactics can be counterproductive, leading to the opposite of the desired outcome.

"You can never criticize your way into great sex."

• The quote humorously conveys the ineffectiveness of using criticism as a strategy to achieve intimacy, highlighting a common avoidant behavior.

• Emphasizes the importance of understanding the origins of one's avoidant attachment.
• Encourages avoidant individuals to prioritize and express their experiences and desires.
• Advises shifting from blame to ownership of behaviors and using shutdowns as opportunities for reconnection.
• Suggests co-regulation exercises, like synchronized breathing with a partner, to build trust and intimacy.

"You have to race to repair, you know, so if you're the avoidant person or relationship, you have to be the one that starts to practice repairing after a disconnection."

• The quote recommends proactive efforts by avoidant individuals to repair relational rifts as a way to overcome their natural tendency to withdraw.

• Practicing synchronized breathing with a partner can align breath and heart rates.
• After 20-30 breaths, partners' heart rates will start to synchronize at the lower pace.
• This exercise can help co-regulate and create intimacy between partners.

"And as you breathe with her, what will happen is your breath rate per minute will match with hers. And after about 20 breaths, your heart rates will start to sync up."

• The quote explains the physiological synchronization that occurs when partners breathe together, leading to matched heart rates.

• Synchronized breathing is recommended as a habitual practice rather than a post-conflict reaction.
• Regular practice can create intimacy and help avoidant individuals acclimate to closeness.
• It can be used in various situations to foster connection and is not ideal for those with avoidant attachment immediately after conflict.

"It's something that I would recommend people just practice a couple times a week in relationship."

• The quote suggests incorporating the breathing exercise into regular relationship routines to build and maintain intimacy.

• Synchronization begins around 20 breaths, taking approximately 4-5 minutes.
• Closing eyes and tuning into the body can help reduce anxiety and fear.
• The exercise helps reacclimate the nervous system to trust in oneself or the relationship, which is crucial for healing attachment dysfunction.

"About four to five minutes is where you want to land."

• The quote specifies the duration needed to achieve synchronization of breath and heart rates during the exercise.

• Avoidant individuals need to practice getting uncomfortably close to overcome resistance to intimacy.
• Resistance is a protective mechanism against perceived threats.
• Trusting the relationship is vital, especially for avoidant individuals, and this exercise can aid in that process.

"You have to practice getting uncomfortably close. For the avoidant person. You do not want to get close. You do not want to be known."

• The quote highlights the challenge avoidant individuals face in overcoming their resistance to intimacy and the importance of practicing closeness.

• Fearful avoidant attachment is a combination of anxious and avoidant attachment styles.
• It is characterized by a desire for intimacy coupled with feelings of being unlovable and distrusting others.
• It is less common and those with this attachment style should seek professional support.
• They must work on self-regulation and choosing trustworthy people to open up to.

"The essence of the disorganized attachment. If you really genuinely feel like you have disorganized attachment, I would strongly recommend finding somebody that knows about how to work with attachment to support you."

• The quote advises seeking professional help for those who identify with having disorganized (fearful avoidant) attachment and underscores the complexity of this attachment style.

• Attachment cannot be improved in isolation; it requires participation in relationships.
• The quality of relationships is a significant predictor of happiness and longevity.
• Personal development within relationships is necessary to improve relational skills.

"When it comes to getting better at relationships, you have to do that in relationships."

• The quote emphasizes that improving attachment and relational skills can only be done through engagement in relationships, not in isolation.

• You don't need a clear memory of childhood to understand attachment patterns.
• Sensations and general feelings can provide insight into formative experiences.
• Understanding the origins of relational issues can lead to recognizing patterns that may have developed in childhood.

"You don't have to have this vast memory bank of what happened in your childhood."

• The quote reassures that a detailed memory of childhood is not necessary to identify and work through attachment patterns.

• To support an anxious partner, inquire about their feelings and avoid trying to solve their problems for them.
• Encourage them to identify their needs and support their self-regulation efforts.
• For an avoidant partner, confirm their willingness to connect and offer consistent invitations without pressure.
• Emphasize choice and avoid threats or demands, as these can entrench avoidant behavior.

"If you are in a relationship with somebody who is the anxious partner... do not try and solve it for them."

• The quote advises against solving problems for an anxious partner, suggesting instead to support them in finding their own solutions to manage anxiety.

• The podcast concludes with appreciation for the insights provided on attachment and relationships.
• Resources for further exploration include the website mantalks.com and the book "Men's Work."
• The podcast emphasizes the importance of understanding and improving attachment in relationships.

"The best place is mantalks.com. We've got live events and retreats for guys."

• The quote directs listeners to resources for men looking to work on their attachment issues and personal development.