What is it?

Separation anxiety disorder is defined as excessive anxiety, fear or avoidance behaviour upon separation from attachment figures. Until recently, to make the diagnosis of Separation Anxiety Disorder in an adult, clinicians had to establish that the characteristic symptoms first emerged during childhood or adolescence. We now know that the ‘adult-onset’ condition is quite common. It causes much distress, has an adverse impact on everyday functioning, and often occurs with other conditions, such as depression. Adult-onset Separation Anxiety Disorder has some features like those of other anxiety disorders, especially Panic disorder and Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD), and it can be a challenge to distinguish between these conditions. A large proportion of clients with anxiety disorders have symptoms which can be traced back to childhood experiences and environments but manifest as clinical symptoms during adulthood: and separation anxiety disorder is considered in the same way as these other conditions. Adult separation anxiety disorder refers to individuals whose symptoms started in adulthood, without documented evidence of related symptoms during childhood, as well as individuals who had a childhood onset and in whom symptoms persist into adulthood. Adults with prominent separation anxiety frequently experience strong fears that their attachment figure (usually a spouse or child) will come to harm and make attempts to remain in close contact with them despite troublesome impracticalities.