Does Fear Keep You from Getting Close to Another?

Mary experienced a string of five broken romantic and sexual relationships in the past.

Since her teenage years onwards, almost all of the men she'd been in a relationship with cheated on her.

Now at 30, she has become fearful and anxious.

Her panic attacks at times manifest during social occasions involving men. Because of this, she backs off from people around her.

She has become afraid of befriending or dating new men, for fear of being lied to, used, betrayed, or manipulated again.

This is sad. Mary is afraid. So she hides. She hides her true self. Her fears do terrible things to her self and relationships.

How do you get the confidence and courage again to be close to others? To take the first step and connect with someone in intimacy?

In therapy and counseling, the fear of intimacy is a psychological wound that needs healing.

It takes one into a deep process of recovery and freedom from fear that keeps a person from being her true self and deepening relationships.

Paul, in a letter to Timothy, writes:

 "God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self discipline" (2 Tim. 1:7).


from Dr. Angelo O. Subida, Psychotherapist http://www.drsubida.com/2019/03/does-fear-keep-you-from-getting-close.html