Ghost Attachment Styles
Attachment styles, illustrated as ghosts. To learn more about attachment styles and how the way we tend to relate to others can be plotted on a spectrum, click here.
For a brief insight into each of these ghosts and how they go about haunting, continue reading:
Preoccupied Attachment Style
Preoccupied attachment, also referred to as anxious or ambivalent attachment, is an attachment style low in relationship avoidance and high in relational anxiety.
A person with a preoccupied attachment may be drawn into relationships and desire intimacy but may have a lot of anxiety about those relationships.
This attachment style is often the result of inconsistent relationships between caregiver and child in a person’s childhood. People with preoccupied attachment styles may not have had their needs met consistently during childhood. People who grow up in homes with parents who aren’t available consistently (due to their own mental health symptoms, incarceration, illness, or even big distractions like poverty, burnout, or having many children to tend to) may develop a preoccupied attachment style. Because children look to their early relationships with adults to make meaning and set norms, inconsistency can result in a lack of understanding regarding maintaining closeness in later adult relationships.
For this anxious little ghost and other people with preoccupied attachment, there is almost a chasing of sorts. A desperate seeking to find closeness, but not knowing how to sustain that closeness in a healthy way.
Hence, the ghost friend invades personal space to be with the person they are haunting because they do not know how to haunt in a healthy way that respects the needs on both sides of the relationship.
Avoidant Attachment Style
The avoidant attachment style, also known as dismissing-avoidant attachment, has low relational anxiety and high relational avoidance. A person who has a dismissing-avoidant attachment style may have an overall low anxiety about relationships but a general avoidance of close relationships.
Individuals with a dismissive-avoidant attachment style may also tend to have better self-esteem than those with a fearful-avoidant attachment style. The dismissive-avoidant is motivated by a “why bother, why risk” avoidance of intimacy instead of a “why bother, I’m not worth it” belief motivating the fearful-avoidant style.
This attachment style may form in childhood when caregivers are physically present but emotionally absent. While they are not neglecting a child’s physical needs – clothing, food, water, shelter, etc. – they are not cultivating emotional engagement. In fact, caregivers in this attachment style may emotionally withdraw even more as a situation becomes more emotionally intense.
Think: reaching out for support or comfort from a caregiver, and the caregiver responds with a “toughen up, get over it, that’s not a big deal” response. This creates a dynamic of wanting care and comfort but avoiding reaching out for it in order to avoid disappointment.
Hence, our ghost friend who wants to haunt the person but remains in their chair simply waiting for the attention of the person they want to haunt.
Secure Attachment Style
Secure attachment is marked by low relational avoidance and low relational anxiety.
A child develops secure attachment with their caregivers when they provide a sense of safety, attunement, comfort, and support. This type of caregiver is consistent in their responses (not perfect! but tuned in and responsive most of the time), which allows a child to build a foundation for understanding relationships and balancing boundaries and closeness.
Hence, our secure attachment ghost friend who wants to haunt the person but recognizes their haunting partner is busy doing something they love and trusts that they’ll be available later.
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Image Description for Screen Readers:
There are three doodles in this Ghost Attachment Style series.
The first doodle is a drawing of a grey and white brick shower with two soap bottles on the side of the tub. There is a ghost in the forefront of the drawing, who has an anxious expression, is saying, “Let me haunt you ALL THE TIME!!” Behind the ghost is a person who is scared and wrapped up in the shower curtain. The doodle has a yellow banner across it that reads, “Preoccupied.”
The second doodle is a drawing of a living room with brown floors, a white rug, and a dark green wall color that has a grey and pink heart crown moulding.. There is a picture hanging on the right side of the wall of a spider web, with a pumpkin ottomon below this that has a blanket spilling out. On the left side of the doodle is a brown side table with a light pink, textured lamp on it. In the middle of the drawing is a ghost sitting in an armchair with a flat affect who is saying, “It’s fine. I don’t need to haunt you. I’ll just be over here if you want to be haunted.” The doodle has a yellow banner across it that reads, “Avoidant.”
The third doodle is of an outdoor scene, with blue skies, brown ground, and green trees in the foreground. In the right side of the drawing, there is a person running who has dark hair and is wearing a yellow tank top with blues shorts. There is a ghost to the left side of the drawing with a happy expression who is saying, “I support her other interests and I know she’ll be around for me to haunt later.” The doodle has a yellow banner across it that reads, “Secure.”
Hi Lindsay, I love your drawings. Would I be able to use these on social media for the charity I work for? We are called Foundation for Change, based in London, and we run a psychology course for people with a history of addiction. we have a whole day on attachment and these would be perfect.
Hi Antonia! Thanks for your kind words about my art. My repost policy should tell you everything you need to know about sharing my art on social media, or you can click here to learn more about licensing my art for republishing on websites, and if you have questions please feel free to reach out via the contact form.