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Love Me, Don't Leave Me: Overcoming Fear of Abandonment and Building Lasting, Loving Relationships
by
Everyone thrives on love, comfort, and the safety of family, friends, and community. But if you are denied these basic comforts early in life, whether through a lack of physical affection or emotional bonding, you may develop intense fears of abandonment that can last well into adulthood—fears so powerful that they can actually cause you to push people away.
If you suffer ...more
If you suffer ...more
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Paperback, 200 pages
Published
September 1st 2014
by New Harbinger Publications
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Start your review of Love Me, Don't Leave Me: Overcoming Fear of Abandonment and Building Lasting, Loving Relationships

Wonderfully written, Michelle Skeen shows not just what we do to hurt our relationships, but what we can do to stop sabotaging relationships due to core beliefs from the past (childhood and beyond.) You may never lose the fear of abandonment or mistrust and negative emotions, but you can help yourself to not fall back into that way of thinking everytime a trigger sets you off. It's a lifelong battle, but the book helps us to stop and be "mindful." We can react in a more positive way and not
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If you've ever struggled with building strong and healthy relationships despite fears, anxieties and roadblocks from your past, you must read Love Me Don't Leave Me. The main focus of this book is for people with a fear of abandonment, but it also goes in depth with other common anxieties that hinder relationships. I couldn't turn the pages of this book fast enough. Author Michelle Skeen, PsyD writes in a voice that at once makes you feel comfortable and understood . She introduces the reader to
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A lot to digest and a bunch of useful information that clarified my story a little bit is contained in this book. I read it because I'm very into knowing and understanding myself, which has been a very difficult thing throughout my life. "Love me, Don't leave me" brought to my awareness many of my behavior patterns and helped me understand plenty of the irrational things I do at times. I liked it very much!

This is not a theoretical analysis but a guidebook or manual if you will to overcoming the underlying fears and triggers that tend to change our perception of ourself and all of our interactions in life. Revealing these core beliefs with easy questions that help you identify the core fears active in yourself this helps you see and name your fears which is the first step in diminishing them though awareness and journaling. I really loved this book.

Disappointed - a rehash of material from other self-help and therapy books based on ACT, DBT, CFT and Schema Therapy. Brings nothing new, original or worthwhile to the table.
Having said that, it might still be useful to you, if you're not acquainted with the abovementioned therapeutic approaches.
Otherwise, imho, you'd better skip it and look somewhere else.
Having said that, it might still be useful to you, if you're not acquainted with the abovementioned therapeutic approaches.
Otherwise, imho, you'd better skip it and look somewhere else.

I read this book on and off throughout the period of a few months, sometimes getting distracted, sometimes sitting back to reflect on what I had read. For a long time, I thought I might have abandonment issues as a result of my upbringing and many of my early experiences, but it didn't quite hit me until I did something I regretted. I then thought to seek some help because that behavior had become a recurring pattern, and found this book.
It forced me to confront some self-sabotaging, negative ...more
It forced me to confront some self-sabotaging, negative ...more

This book started out a bit simplistic and cheesy---which is always why I steer clear of self help books. But I think if you actually do the diary entries, and PRACTICE each exercise, you definitely will notice yourself changing. I had to let go of my condescending attitude and just be open to the exercises. Now I have some of the exercises and example stories dog eared so that I can come back to them. I was pleasantly surprised with this book. As they say, 'Keep it simple, stupid.'

Reading this book feels like talking to your favorite psychiatrist. Michelle helps you identify your problem, which event might trigger the problem and how to handle your behavior.
There are plenty of exercises in the book as well as several examples that can serve as a good basis for your own reflection. The author strongly encourages us to keep a journal and practice mindfulness.
There are plenty of exercises in the book as well as several examples that can serve as a good basis for your own reflection. The author strongly encourages us to keep a journal and practice mindfulness.

This was a recommended book, not a choice for myself. I think it's more other things going on in my life than this book itself, but I found it really frustrating that in the first chapters it's a lot of assessment tests to label all the issues with you. And the worst part, is all of them end with "if you rated any of these as a 5 or 6, this is an issue for you, regardless of the overall score". It was sort of like it was trying to make you feel like you have all these problems. I definitely
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I bought this book as a present to someone who I thought would like it - and did - and ended up reading it myself, too.
Anyone who reads about the psychology of relationships should be familiar with the concepts, but the author packs them very personally and insightfully into a very useful self-help book. This is not the best work for someone looking for a textbook and admittedly the exercises may be quite difficult to carry out on your own.
Reading the book with another persons notes in it made ...more
Anyone who reads about the psychology of relationships should be familiar with the concepts, but the author packs them very personally and insightfully into a very useful self-help book. This is not the best work for someone looking for a textbook and admittedly the exercises may be quite difficult to carry out on your own.
Reading the book with another persons notes in it made ...more

This book is helpful for anyone who has fear of abandonment due to lack of trust and or emotional distress from past relationships, especially family relationships where the damage is done at a young age. It teaches you how to think and react differently in order to build and maintain longer lasting, healthier relationships with people you love.

Great book
Great book very helpful with the process of me becoming aware and understanding alot of feeling and behavioral patterns I have. And giving helpful tools too create change ...more
Great book very helpful with the process of me becoming aware and understanding alot of feeling and behavioral patterns I have. And giving helpful tools too create change ...more

A great book that offers tips and practical advice along with background history regarding fear of abandonment.
I highly recommend it! It helped me a lot ...more
I highly recommend it! It helped me a lot ...more

Disappointed. Very repetitive. As a stand alone book, not super helpful. Reads as if it is a teaser to get me to sign up for working with her, buying additional products from her. Spends far too much page space diagnosing. (Well I suppose we wouldn't have bought the book if we didn't already know we have some fears - sheesh). Writing style felt patronizing. Many of the "tips" and tools aren't reasonable. People don't pop out of nowhere with fear of abandonment. It's born out of having no
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I received an e-arc of this book through netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
The first impression of this book wasn't good. I felt patronized, as if the author didn't think I was competent enough to grasp a concept the first time around. And in the first few chapters particularly, I learned that there is such a thing as too many commas. If you're going to have that many lists of things just break out the bullet points.
Also, I didn't have any of the tragic, broken childhoods the author ...more
The first impression of this book wasn't good. I felt patronized, as if the author didn't think I was competent enough to grasp a concept the first time around. And in the first few chapters particularly, I learned that there is such a thing as too many commas. If you're going to have that many lists of things just break out the bullet points.
Also, I didn't have any of the tragic, broken childhoods the author ...more

I was not impressed. My hopes were high as I have a huge fear of abandonment that this book would be helpful, but for the most part not so much.
I probably would have given it 3 stars if all the fillers had been taken out. This book had a lot of repetition of ideas (read a little like when you have are close to the end of an essay, but you are a little short and you go back and add sentences here and there for no reason other than to stretch the page count.). It also had lists of things that just ...more
I probably would have given it 3 stars if all the fillers had been taken out. This book had a lot of repetition of ideas (read a little like when you have are close to the end of an essay, but you are a little short and you go back and add sentences here and there for no reason other than to stretch the page count.). It also had lists of things that just ...more

The idea behind the book is not bad, in fact it's really good, but I didn't like how it was developed. There are tons of repetitions in this book, which seem just a way to make the book longer - something quite astounding if one considers that the book is 180 pages long. I mean, 90 pages would have been perfect for such a book (or booklet), but here we just keep reading about the same ideas. Moreover, I found it a bit devaluing of possible significant others at times - like when it says the
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I found Skeen's book to be a helpful and comprehensive read that covered the causes of feeling abandoned, strategies for dealing with these feelings, and ways of managing the things that trigger these feelings. I was able to roughly diagnose my core belief and read about specific ideas for how to deal with this fear. I'm confident that I'm in a far better position regarding my dating life now that I have read this book.

Personally relevant. Helps with the identification of core beliefs that lead to unhealthy or maladaptive coping behaviors which get in the way of having successful relationships with others. The worksheets and thought activities are particularly helpful, though they does make reading this book in electronic format tricky.

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Michelle Skeen, PsyD, has a doctorate in clinical psychology. She is author of seven books, all designed to enhance relationships by emphasizing the importance of identifying core values and valued intentions, limited thinking, mindfulness, self-compassion, empathy, and effective communication and conflict resolution skills. Her passion is coaching individuals in creating and maintaining healthy
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“Your childhood is in the past, but your current situation is triggering your story and making you feel like you’re back in it. So your natural instinct—your biologically driven need to protect yourself—kicks in, and you are engaged in a behavioral reaction designed to rid you of the painful thoughts and emotions, but instead it makes you feel worse.”
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“It’s an old and familiar feeling. The emphasis is on how familiar it feels.”
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