This is a disorder that people might not even realize that they go through. With multiple changes being made in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), separation anxiety was included as something that not only children and adolescents go through but also adults.

Separation Anxiety occurs when a person experiences excessive fear or anxiety concerning separation from those to whom the individual is attached. The individuals could be anyone from family, friends, roommates, or their partner. The person in concern could be anyone close to the anxious individual.

The individual, as the result, can go through constant worry or fear about the concerned person being unable to do anything apart from that. They could also have extreme distress before and after their separation, extreme worry about losing them, think about various situations and events that they could be in, have persistent fear of being alone, and even have nightmares about them.

How is it diagnosed?

A diagnosis is made by a professional psychologist or psychiatrist by using the criteria provided by DSM V-TR. The person needs to have a minimum of 4 symptoms to be diagnosed as the same. The symptoms need to be persistent and lasting for at least six months in adults.

How does the separation anxiety develop?

There could be a lot of reasons for separation anxiety to develop, especially in adults. There could be a set of life events in the person's life to go through this. For instances like a loss of an important figure or being separated away from them. They would also have fear of them getting abducted or injured, extreme hesitancy to leave their loved ones alone, difficulty in sleeping without them, constantly keeping an eye on them, and having anxiety attacks thinking about anything happening to them.

This could also be related to other mental health conditions, which could be like generalized anxiety, OCD, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, etc. Genetics could also be one of the combining factors.

Do children who have separation anxiety also develop it when they grow older?

Separation anxiety has been previously viewed as a childhood disorder, explaining its onset of symptoms developing before 18 years of age.

It is a part where children of younger age, especially developmental age of 6 months to 3 years, go through this normally. When symptoms do go beyond this age, into late childhood, the child may be diagnosed with separation anxiety disorder.

The symptoms for both adults and children are similar. The difference is in the association. The separation anxiety in children is associated with fear or anxiety of losing their parents or caregivers. These could lead them to not try to participate or socialize, which leads them to finding it difficult to make friends. For adults, the anxiety is more found towards their spouses or children.

There are not a lot of thorough researches that can back on the fact that children who had separation anxiety will be able to develop it in the future when they grow older. But it seems to be very much less often.

Treatment

With the help of the doctor's recommendations, they could suggest treatment through psychotherapy, medications, or they could combine both. A lot of this is also dependent on the severity of the anxiety in the person.

One of the first treatments to be used is always a different set of therapy methods, like CBT—Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, DBT—Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, and exposure therapy. As CBT and other behavior therapies tend to be helpful in finding how to support and manage these fears as an individual. It also helps in finding a better balance between what we can do to focus better in.

It also helps to have both family therapy and a support group. A lot of anxiety is especially developed when the person has lost a significant other or someone they were very close to. This could lead the person to be deeply unsettled, causing them to experience extreme anxiety, fear, or protectiveness in the caution of losing someone again. Family therapy can help the families come together to discuss how they can help the concerned person to reduce that anxiety and help in handling it better. It also educates everyone in the family to learn more about separation anxiety. Support Group can help them connect to similar people who go through the same experience.

Anxiety medications also help to balance out along with the psychotherapy. The provider can prescribe anti-anxiety medications or antidepressants to help adjust better. As a provider, they have to be very clear and explain both the effects and side effects of the medicines given.

It is very difficult to predict how a person who is going through separation anxiety will feel in the next few years. The only thing we can do is provide the best chance at making sure that they feel less anxious and more in control of their thoughts. Having consistent visits to your therapist and having follow-up appointments can help with that.