Everyone thrives on love, comfort, as well as the security of family, friends, and community. But if you’re denied these fundamental comforts early in life, whether through a lack of physical affection or emotional bonding, you might develop intense doubts of abandonment that may last well into adulthood-fears so powerful they can in fact cause you to push people away.

If you have problems with fears of abandonment, you might have underlying emotions of anger, pity, fear, anxiety, depression, and grief. These about Like Me, Don’t Keep Me: Overcoming Fear of Abandonment and Building Lasting, Loving Relationships feelings are extreme and painful, and when they surface they can lead to a number of negative behaviors, such as jealousy, clinging, and emotional blackmail. In Like Me, Don’t Keep Me, therapist Michelle Skeen combines approval and commitment therapy (Work), schema therapy, and dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) to assist you identify the root of your anxieties. In this book you’ll understand how schema coping behaviors-deeply entrenched and automatic behaviors rooted in child years experiences and fears-can take over and make you inadvertently sabotage your romantic relationships. By recognizing these coping behaviors and understanding their trigger, you won’t only gain powerful insights into your own brain, but also into the minds of those around you.