By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
  • Health
    • Mental Health
    Health
    Healthcare organizations are operating on slimmer profit margins than ever. One report in August showed that they are even lower than the beginning of the…
    Show More
    Top News
    improving patient experience
    6 Ways to Improve Patient Satisfaction Within Hospitals
    December 1, 2021
    degree for healthcare job
    What Are The Health Benefits Of Having A Degree?
    March 9, 2022
    custom software development is changing healthcare
    Digital Customer Journey Mapping and its Importance for Healthcare
    July 21, 2022
    Latest News
    Grounded Healing: A Natural Ally for Sustainable Healthcare Systems
    May 16, 2025
    Learn how to Renew your Medical Card in West Virginia
    May 16, 2025
    Choosing the Right Supplement Manufacturer for Your Brand
    May 1, 2025
    Engineering Temporary Hospitals for Extreme Weather
    April 24, 2025
  • Policy and Law
    • Global Healthcare
    • Medical Ethics
    Policy and Law
    Get the latest updates about Insurance policies and Laws in the Healthcare industry for different geographical locations.
    Show More
    Top News
    Can Thinking Younger Make You Live Longer?
    April 20, 2011
    Image
    Obesity’s Outlook Unchanged
    June 13, 2011
    When It’s An Emergency Elderly Not Treated As Well in Hospitals
    July 16, 2011
    Latest News
    Building Smarter Care Teams: Aligning Roles, Structure, and Clinical Expertise
    May 18, 2025
    The Critical Role of Healthcare in Personal Injury Recovery: A Comprehensive Guide for Victims
    May 14, 2025
    The Backbone of Successful Trials: Clinical Data Management
    April 28, 2025
    Advancing Your Healthcare Career through Education and Specialization
    April 16, 2025
  • Medical Innovations
  • News
  • Wellness
  • Tech
Search
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: Here’s How Our Attachment Style Impacts Our Health
Share
Notification Show More
Font ResizerAa
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
Font ResizerAa
Search
Follow US
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Health Works Collective > Wellness > Here’s How Our Attachment Style Impacts Our Health
Wellness

Here’s How Our Attachment Style Impacts Our Health

Kara Reynolds
Last updated: October 14, 2020 7:09 pm
Kara Reynolds
Share
8 Min Read
our attachment style
Shutterstock Licensed Photo - WAYHOME studio | stock photo ID: 442889452
SHARE

When you and your partner fight, do your feelings toward them go from hot to cold? Do you act like the stereotypical “helicopter parent,” getting overly involved in every aspect of your child’s life to the point that it strains your relationship? 

Contents
What Are the Four Attachment Styles? Eight Ways Your Attachment Style Impacts Your Health 1. It Has Its Roots in Our Core 2. It Affects Our Closest Relationships3. It Influences Our Parenting Style4 It Strains Our Cardiovascular Systems 5 It Influences Our Weight 6. It Can Lead to Feelings of LonelinessIt Can Create Unnecessary Stress7. It May Worsen Chronic Pain 8. It Can Exacerbate Anxiety and Depression Our Attachment Styles Impact Our Mental and Physical Health 

If so, the driving forces behind your behaviors may lie in how you relate to others. Your attachment style doesn’t stop at relationships, though — it can also impact your mental and physical health. 

What Are the Four Attachment Styles? 

There are four primary attachment styles. You can take an online quiz to discover where you fall: 

  • Secure: Folks with this style form the most positive bonds when others. While they appreciate love and friendship, they recognize that everyone leads separate lives. They make like the old song says and hang on loosely without letting go. 
  • Preoccupied: Those who fall into this category have an intense fear of abandonment. Because these folks will do anything to avoid rejection and loneliness, they often cling too tightly to those they love. 
  • Dismissive: When this sort hears “no one is an island,” they think, “yeah, right.” Those who fall into this classification guard their alone-time and privacy. 
  • Disorganized: May folks who fit this style suffered trauma in childhood or later in life. They want to have relationships, but they fear getting too close. 

While most people learn their style in childhood, your past does not have to dictate your future relationships with others. After you understand more about how your style affects your health, you might seek therapy, which can help. 

More Read

Are Non-12 Step Programs the Future of Rehab?
Tips for Living with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)
The NextGen Muscle Training – EMS Muscle Stimulators
Nursing Homes in Maine Are Best in Nation
Fish Oil May Help Boost Immunity

Eight Ways Your Attachment Style Impacts Your Health 

How does your attachment style affect your mental and physical health? Here are eight ways. 

1. It Has Its Roots in Our Core 

Although you can alter your attachment style, the one you display today stems from incidents in childhood. You may have been so young that you don’t remember specific events that influenced you. 

As such, you might assume it’s something you can’t change, and that false belief might drive you into depression. You might think, “I can never learn to trust again — what’s the point of relationships?” Start reaching out to the uplifting influencers in your life anyway. A positive social circle helps heal past wounds, as does therapy. 

2. It Affects Our Closest Relationships

Your relationships with your spouse, kids and other close friends and family significantly influence your mental health. Numerous people seek therapy after a divorce, for example, but addressing your attachment style might prevent the split. 

You could pass on anxiety to your kids. While research suggests a hereditary link, genes only explain 30 to 40 percent of the variability. The rest comes from upbringing. If you have a preoccupied attachment style, your excess worrying could provide the impetus to make your child more fearful. 

3. It Influences Our Parenting Style

Psychologists recognize three basic parenting styles, and your attachment may influence your pattern: 

  • Permissive parents: These folks might go beyond sparing the rod and spoiling the child to letting kids do nearly anything they want. Those with a dismissive or disorganized attachment style might become this type of parent. 
  • Authoritative parents: These moms and dads run a tight ship and supervise nearly every aspect of their child’s lives. They may emphasize obedience over emotion, and those with either preoccupied or disorganized attachment styles may fit this profile.
  • Authoritative parents: These people follow the ideal parenting pattern of blending caring with discipline. Those with secure attachment files often fit this profile. 

4 It Strains Our Cardiovascular Systems 

Excess stress created by disorganized or preoccupied attachment styles doesn’t only spur habits like overeating or alcohol abuse. It can rewire the circuits in your brain to keep your blood pressure high, placing considerable strain on your heart. 

5 It Influences Our Weight 

Dismissive, disorganized and preoccupied attachment styles can lead to family contact. This tension amps up your production of cortisol. While this stress hormone suppresses appetite in the short term, when the drama never relents, your body craves more food to prepare for ongoing battle. Worse, you tend to choose empty calories. 

6. It Can Lead to Feelings of Loneliness

Any attachment style can fall prey to loneliness, but those who are disorganized may suffer most. People with this profile  might desperately want to build a secure connection with others  but lack social skills. Isolation can exacerbate multiple health problems, but therapy can help you learn ways to bond. 

It Can Create Unnecessary Stress

According to the American Psychological Association, chronic stress is linked to the six leading causes of death. 75% of doctor visits stem from the condition. While seeking help costs money, it’s less pricey than open-heart surgery. 

7. It May Worsen Chronic Pain 

Your hormones signal your body to increase or decrease inflammation. For those with conditions like Crohn’s or rheumatoid arthritis, imbalances can lead to painful flares. Improving your emotional state by bettering your attachment style could lead to less frequent downtime. 

8. It Can Exacerbate Anxiety and Depression 

Finally, preoccupied, dismissive or disorganized attachment styles can directly or indirectly lead to anxiety and depression. For example, someone with a dismissive profile might lose their job for making too many mistakes and thinking, “no one cares anyway, so what’s the big deal.” When financial hardship occurs, they could sink into despair without a support system. 

Someone with a preoccupied attachment style could fly into a panic if their kids aren’t home the second they see streetlights glow. Over time, these ingrained overreactions can balloon into an anxiety disorder. 

Those with disorganized patterns often have past trauma. When they can’t form positive relationships in the present, they lack the social support they need to process their emotions and move forward. 

Our Attachment Styles Impact Our Mental and Physical Health 

Your attachment style impacts your mental and physical health. You owe it to yourself to discover your pattern and take meaningful steps to make it more secure.

TAGGED:attachment style
Share This Article
Facebook Copy Link Print
Share
By Kara Reynolds
Follow:
Kara Reynolds is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Momish Magazine, an inclusive parenting magazine filled with parenting hacks, advice, and more to keep your beautiful family thriving. As a mom and stepmom, Kara hopes to normalize blended families and wants her readers to know that every family is beautiful and messy just how they are. When she's not writing, Kara enjoys pilates and likes a little coffee with her cream. Find more from Kara on Twitter @MomishMagazine.

Stay Connected

1.5kFollowersLike
4.5kFollowersFollow
2.8kFollowersPin
136kSubscribersSubscribe

Latest News

Clinical Expertise
Building Smarter Care Teams: Aligning Roles, Structure, and Clinical Expertise
Health care
May 18, 2025
Grounded Healing: A Natural Ally for Sustainable Healthcare Systems
Grounded Healing: A Natural Ally for Sustainable Healthcare Systems
Health
May 15, 2025
Learn how to Renew your Medical Card in West Virginia
Learn how to Renew your Medical Card in West Virginia
Health
May 15, 2025
Dr. Klaus Rentrop Shares Acute Myocardial Infarction heart treatment
Dr. Klaus Rentrop Shares Acute Myocardial Infarction
Cardiology
May 13, 2025

You Might also Like

Track This Bill – Extending the Dependent Care Credit

March 22, 2012
Healthy Sleep tips
Wellness

7 Proven Ways to Fall Asleep Quickly and Naturally

June 24, 2022
In-a-british-study-smokers-who-received-motivational-text-messages-were-twice-as-likely-to-quit-as
Mobile HealthSocial MediaWellness

TEXTING, NOT SMOKING

June 8, 2012

FAT FREE = DANGER! (How I hate fat-free half & half)

August 21, 2012
Subscribe
Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!
Follow US
© 2008-2025 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?