Anuptaphobia is the fear of staying single. The fear of not having someone to go home to after your 9-5 job, cook dinner for or have children with, or to take you out on Friday nights. Yet our lifestyle is specifically designed to make it difficult for us to have time to relax and form healthy relationships with others. We are obsessed with work and marriage and love. Even the people in ads on TV for cat litter are happily married with children. We have countless holidays which either stress the importance of being in a relationship or having a family to go home to.

We are so desperate to not be alone that we will often latch onto anyone who comes our way or act like we're entitled to have someone in our lives. Marriage is often engaged in on a whim and divorces just as quickly,

I am not even twenty, and yet I feel the weight of being single on my shoulders. Yet, I make a point of not ever just being with someone for the sake of being alone. On those nights when being alone hurts most, I light a few candles, close my eyes, and think of my past loves and tell myself that this is all worth it because when I find someone, I will not have been beaten and battered by years of pain and drawn out by relationship after relationship.

The irony is, once we have someone, we are still terrified of losing them and having to join the hunt again.

See also: Avoidant Personality Disorder