I’m curious about a few things:

  1. Does separation anxiety interact with autism?
  2. Can separation anxiety manifest when a person is separated not from a loved one, but from an activity or special interest?

My reflections on the following notes are as follows:

  • There does seem to be a link between separation anxiety and autism
  • Separation anxiety is often narrowly defined as involving attachment to other humans. However, this is not always the case: some authors write about attachments to the home environment and attachment to companion animals (dogs and cats).
  • I have written before about how autistic people often form connections with non-human entities. This can include animals, but it can also include special interests, calming activities, stimulating information, and so on.
  • So, it seems to me that the concept of attachment can readily extend to these other areas. Based on this, I feel that separation anxiety can also extend to separation from one’s special interests and other activities (especially in autistic people), and this idea seems strangely absent from the literature (as far as I can tell from half an hour of searching).

(Note that I don’t love the language used in the below papers, which appear to be operating from a pathologising paradigm rather than a neurodivergent paradigm. For more information on why I don’t like this, read the book Neuroqueer Heresies by Nick Walker.)

Pini et al 2025, Relevance of separation anxiety in the autism

spectrum and related disorders, Journal of Psychopathology

  • Symptoms of separation anxiety disorder (SAD) are common among individuals with autism
  • the development of insecure attachment patterns in individuals with autism, possibly due to the known difficulties in communication and social interaction presented by the patient and his family context, could promote the development of SAD and other mental disorders in continuity, such as BPD and eating spectrum disorders
  • It should be noted that an association between insecure attachment style and higher levels of separation anxiety has also been reported for eating disorders

Dowsett 2019, Adult Separation Anxiety Disorder: The Human-Animal Bond, Master thesis available online

  • (this thesis is from the University of Adelaide, neat!)
  • limited literature exists concerning whether this attachment figure must, in fact, be human
  • Attachment is conceptualised as extending to companion animals
  • Within research communities, conjecture existed over whether the term ‘attachment’ should be extended beyond defining a child’s relationship with their parental figure. Ainsworth (1989) conceptualised the term ‘affectional bonds’ to describe long-term ties with significant others in a more general sense, and attachment became one form of social provision inherent in adult relationships. Weiss (1974) described five social functions in coexistence with attachment including; social integration (sense of belonging); reassurance of worth (recognition of value by others); opportunity for nurturance (feeling needed by others); guidance (counsel or advice); and, reliable alliance (counting on others for assistance). This is important because different social provisions may be more crucial in particular relationships and during certain stages of the life cycle. In the late 1980s, the term ‘attachment’ began to gain acceptance as a theory with applications in adult relationships (Archer, 1997; Hazan and Shaver, 1987). It was determined that core components of attachment shared similarities across age groups, including a desire for physical closeness, distress at separation, comfort at reunion, and confidence from a secure base (Ainsworth, 1989, 1991; Hazan and Shaver, 1987).
  • It appears that attachment theory is a valid framework for considering human-animal relationships (Zilcha-Mano et al., 2012).
  • According to the DSM-5, separation anxiety involves developmentally excessive anxiety concerning separation from those to whom the individual is attached (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). By demonstrating that humans can form attachments to dogs, it is hypothesised that dogs may represent attachment figures within ASAD, a finding which may extend to other companion animals.