What is an attachment disorder? Really need some input! Thanks..?

Question

I'm not talking about when a baby cannot be away from his or her parents.. I meant when someone that is an adult cannot get attached to a person even as a friend. They seem to be so emotionally distant and that nothing hurts them. One girl that used to be my best friend is like this-she seems to get more attached to "attention" (people praising her and giving her compliments) rather than anything meaningful that would resemble a friendship. I also have a guy friend that is very similar to this girl and it seems that he is also attatched to attention and control in any friendship/relationship he is in.

I don't have any contact with the girl because it was to hard to keep up any of the relationship with her. I felt like I had to praise her or compliment her in order to get her to want to be my friend. So I stopped talking to her and I don't hang out with her. With the guy I don't call him or text him. He tends to call me every week or three days to get attention. Slowly and hopefully I will completely stop talking to him to.

So I guess my question is, is this a real thing? Can some people really not be able to become attached to people in a friendship unless they are controlling them or getting lots of praise/compliments?

Answer 1

Sometimes you may just get the feeling that friendships don't last, or that you don't get the same response from other people, they are not as honest as you about everything. So one way of coping with this is not caring any more, not participating so much emotionally in such relationships.