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"I don't ever want to wake up alone again! I'm tired of being alone. Being alone is cold. Being alone is... lonely."
Holo, Spice and Wolf

This is when a character just can't seem to bear the thought of being left alone under any circumstances. Whether it be from a Friendless Background or a belief that Loners Are Freaks, they may frequently want to be assured they are not alone by others, such as by seeking out company the moment they realize they're by themselves. Ironically, these characters still tend to lack friends for some reason or feel the effects of solitude despite all their efforts not to. Since they are not usually isolated by choice, they will often hate Eating Lunch Alone, will probably never use the phrase Leave Me Alone! (although saying Please, Don't Leave Me is certainly likely), and may even prefer walking Alone in a Crowd rather than staying at home and being reminded they have no one to talk to or hang out with. In cases where the character does have either a Limited Social Circle or only one friend, expect them to cling to any of their friends (including pets/plants/inanimate objects) like a lifeline in order to escape their feelings of desolation.

Characters who have experienced severe isolation, Parental Abandonment, All of the Other Reindeer, or one of the obvious downsides to immortality can often develop this trait. Shy characters can fall victim to this as well. May lead to a case of Lonely Together, if the character finds nobody but other lonely people for company. It also tends to be a common justification for I Just Want to Have Friends. Don't Split Us Up may also be the cause of this. Contrast The Hermit or any introvert for that matter.

Definitely Truth in Television since humans are social creatures by nature, although many of us share a similar desire for privacy as well. In fact, Go Mad from the Isolation is a well-documented occurrence for people who have become truly isolated for an extended period. Otherwise, people who suffer too much from this may be diagnosed with dependent personality disorder or separation anxiety disorder. Some people with an extreme form of this may also be suffering from autophobia, literally the fear of being alone. This fear is actually a major symptom of Borderline Personality Disorder; people sufferring from it often have a fear that people close to them are planning to leave them, which might be real or imaginary. Sometimes they will take desparate measures to stop someone from leaving them, which unfortunately just causes a self-fulfilling prophecy.


Examples:

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    Anime & Manga 
  • As revealed later on in 3×3 Eyes, this is Yakumo's greatest phobia, stemming from his awful infancy (his father was detached and rarely at home, his mother was too young and often beat him up under stress). Yakumo's genuinely helpful character is secretly his way to be of use to others so that they won't leave him.
  • The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You: Shiina Usami hates being alone in any way, shape, or form. She describes it as "Reverse Trypophobia"; where standard trypophobia is defined as a fear of clusters or patterns of holes, Shiina is freaked out by empty space or single objects. She tries to integrate herself into the Rentarou Family despite not actually being a girlfriend because for someone who prefers crowds and physical closeness it was perfect to her. Upon being accepted as Rentarou's 28th girlfriend, everyone surrounds Shiina in a hug that leaves her in bliss.
    Shiina (happily): I'm gonna drown in this crowd!
  • Bleach has the Espada of Loneliness, Starrk, and his Fraccion Lilynette. They were once the same Hollow, but their control over their immense power was so wild that other Hollows died from being in their presence too long and they went so far as to split off a part of their being into a companion just so they'd have someone around to keep them company.
  • In Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, it is the grander issue in what initially appears to be just Zenitsu wanting to flirt with girls, he really has developed a fear of living his life alone and unloved as an orphan; at first when he was a kid Zenitsu just wanted to be friends with wandering orphans like him, but his moods pushed them away, then when he grew up to be a teenager Zenitsu desperately wanted to become a family with a bride as soon as possible, opening the path for him to get scammed by several shady girls who took advantage of that. After all the bad past experiences Zenitsu is then found by the old man Jigoro, who would go on to become his beloved master, someone Zenitsu considers to get his own grandpa, then his demon-slaying colleagues Tanjiro and Inosuke, eventual close brother-in-arms, and finally his demon girl crush, Nezuko; by then Zenitsu's fear of being alone is en route to disappearing, as he finally found people who made him feel like has a family to belong.
  • Lucy from Fairy Tail grew up without friends, was neglected by her father, and lost her mother at a young age. She had nobody to talk to throughout most of her childhood except her Celestial spirit Aquarius who treated her poorly most of the time. One reason why she puts up with the crazy wizards at her guild is that they're the closest friends she's ever had.
  • Fruits Basket:
    • Akito Sohma fears being alone/abandoned so much that he rules the Zodiac by fear to keep them from leaving. The whole "being forced to live as a guy" thing probably doesn't help much, either.
    • Tohru is later revealed to have a case of this. She would never actually admit it, of course, but she's secretly afraid of being alone and abandoned after her mother fell into a deep depression after her father's death, to the point of neglecting Tohru and later almost committing suicide.
  • Ryuuichi from Gakuen Babysitters is shown to be this after a fever-induced nightmare about his parents on the day of their ill-fated plane crash, only in the dream they take Kotaro with them, and Ryuu is stopped from getting him back by an invisible wall. Kotaro is Ryuu's only blood relative, and being orphaned was traumatic enough for Ryuu that he's terrified of losing Kotaro as well.
  • Ryou of Gourmet Girl Graffiti doesn't really recognize she is this in the beginning, thinking her food no longer tastes as good was a problem of her cooking skills rather than this trope. She only noticed that in episode 4, when her cousin skipped her weekend visits and Ryou found her cooking turning bland again.
  • Imaizumin-chi wa Douyara Gal no Tamariba ni Natteru Rashii: ~DEEP~: Imaizumi is implied to not be doing mentally okay without anyone being there for him.
  • Fubuki from Inazuma Eleven cites this trope when Gouenji leaves him alone in the rain.
  • Haruka from Kotoura-san is highly introverted, but even she admits this about herself towards Manabe in Episode 1.
    Haruka: "There's nothing else I can do! I don't like being alone, either! I don't want to hurt people, or get hurt! But what I hate the most is... is when... the people I care about leave me!"
  • The Mazinger saga: Tetsuya Tsurugi is arrogant, prideful and loud to annoying extremes. This is justified since he is an orphan, and he thinks people only value him because of his skill in piloting Great Mazinger. At the end of the series, when Kouji Kabuto returns, he gets incredibly jealous because he thinks everyone will replace him with Kouji and will forget him. And then he would be alone again, and he... can not stand the thought of it.
    Tetsuya: All the battles I have fought so far... I have fought them to prove to the world that I exist!
  • This is why Yuni from Mewkledreamy made Tsugi and Hagi. He was never found by anybody after falling down the sky until The Nightmare Queen decided to give him life right away. He just had to literally make his own friends so he can never be alone again.
  • This is the main reason Kanna from Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid used to pull pranks on her parents, as they purportedly have a hands-off approach to parenting and believed in leaving Kanna to her own devices. Thing is, she went too far and they banished her from their presence. When her only means of companionship in their world, Tohru, supposedly died, she was elated when she found out that she had indeed survived and followed her to the human world to try to bring her back. Unsuccessful in this endeavor, powerless and effectively homeless, Kobayashi invites her into her home to live together. This earns Kobayashi a place in her heart. One chapter in Kanna's Daily Life focuses on her fears of being home alone when she wakes up from a nap to discover that Kobayashi and Tohru have not yet returned home.
  • The eponymous character from Naruto grew up deprived of any friends or much familial support, so he often tries drawing excessive attention to himself by causing all kinds of mischief to make people notice him.
  • Most of the cast of Neon Genesis Evangelion have abandonment issues. One of the series' overhanging themes is that people are afraid of being alone but they are also afraid of being hurt by others. Shinji and Asuka are especially prone to this behavior and serve as the series' crowning examples. According to supplementary material, the reason that Asuka returned to the real world alongside Shinji at the end of End of Evangelion was because he needed her above all, even if they had hurt each other.
  • The main character in Othello is so afraid of being left without friends that she'd rather spend time with girls who only bully and take advantage of her due to her shy, non-confrontational nature.
  • Persona 4: The Animation has this happen to Yu Narukami. It is first demonstrated in the fight with Shadow Mitsuo, who subjects Narukami to an Ironic Hell wherein his friends drift apart and he is left alone. It comes to a head in the True Final Episode when Narukami's desperation to stay with his friends causes him to fall into a trap set by Izanami, and it is only with the help of Margaret, the Social Links he forged, and his own Shadow that he comes to terms with this anxiety.
  • In Phantom Thief Jeanne, Maron is introduced as a lonely girl who has been living by herself in an apartment while her parents have been working abroad for years. Although she tries to pretend to be strong and plucky, she is actually quite fragile inside and easily falls apart when she learns her parents have divorced after they unexpectedly contact her one day over the telephone. Also, while she does have a social circle of people who care for her, she is still absolutely terrified of feeling abandoned again (after her parents), and later entreats her love interest, Chiaki, not to leave her alone while she cries into his chest.
  • In Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Mami reveals how lonely she feels having to work alone as a Magical Girl and becomes overjoyed upon hearing Madoka say she wants to become a Magical Girl and fight alongside her. So overjoyed, in fact, that she gets reckless in her fight against a Witch and is brutally killed.
  • The Quintessential Quintuplets: Nino seems to be a downplayed example. She feels that her sisters have distanced themselves from her since the time they were children, and she's not happy about it. Part of her early antagonism towards Fuutarou comes from the fact that she fears he will drive the wedge between them even further.
  • The main characters of Yugami-kun ni wa Tomodachi ga Inai play with this trope.
    • Chihiro is a more downplayed example. Because her family moved around a lot growing up, she's never had any close friends and even went through a period where she wouldn't associate with others because she knew she'd have to move away soon. At the start of the series, her family's moved into a town where they'll stay for years to come and this causes her to want to make friends again. She even says that having nobody to speak to at her new school could cause her psychological damage, but this is Played for Laughs.
    • Conversely, Yugami, who sits beside her in class, averts this trope as he has no qualms with being isolated by his peers and is astonishingly optimistic.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!: Yami Yugi and Mai. In the former case, it's almost directly stated — he sometimes needs to know his friends are supporting him before he can persevere during a tight spot in a high-stakes duel, and Yugi at one point notes how lonely he must've been waiting in the Millennium Puzzle in the dark of his tomb for thousands of years. Word of God said the isolation was the cause of his more Knight Templar attitude when he was first released, and that his friends are his strength. With Mai, it's more the case that she grew up surrounded by people she couldn't trust and isolates herself as an adult, but secretly wants friends and is easily swayed into hanging out with the group.

    Comic Books 
  • This has been a part of the personalities of Superman and Supergirl for decades:
    • In the Pre-Crisis universe Clark felt very alone when he was Superboy because he could never play with kids his own age, there was no one like him, and no one could relate to him. Before graduating, his foster parents died, and he felt even more isolated and a bigger outcast. When he met his cousin Kara he felt incredibly happy because he had a family again, someone he could feel connected to.
    • Pre-Crisis Supergirl faced almost the same hardships after arriving on Earth. Fortunately Kara already had a blood relative she could talk to, but she spent several months living in an orphanage until she was adopted. She hated the place because she felt utterly alone and friendless in a strange land.
    • In Superboy #80 both cousins talk about this.
      Superman: Many years ago, when I lived in Smallville as Superboy, I could never play with kids my own age for fear of giving away my identity! Oh, how I longed for a human playmate who was super, like myself!
      Supergirl: I know how you feel! I, too, dare not play with anyone my own age!
    • In Many Happy Returns, Superman tells Linda he feels very alone because — even though he's the greatest and most loved hero in the world — he has no social life.
    • Superman feeling alone and without friends plays out in modern stories such as Kingdom Come — in which he had lost his parents, wife, cousin, and friends — and Superman: Secret Origin — in where he didn't dare play with anyone for fear of hurting them.
    • In Batgirl (2009), Kara and her friend Stephanie Brown — the then-current Batgirl — watch a cheesy movie. Most of the audience laughs out loud when Dracula cries out he is alone, but both girls cannot laugh about it. They know what being alone is like, and they don't find it funny at all.
    • Post-Flashpoint Supergirl was a lonely, angry teenager. Her family and friends were dead, she could not bring herself to trust her cousin, and she didn't manage to make friends or fit in with humans. Her issues of alienation, grief, and anger got worse until she flew off the handle.
  • Transformers: More than Meets the Eye. Spotlight: Hoist reveals that the title character's greatest fear is being left completely alone. This fear stems from a traumatic accident from before the war.
  • Young Justice: Secret comments on this:
    ...used to be I could float for hours...days...make no sound...be...alone...but now...now...I'm so afraid of silence...of being alone. Can't take the quiet...or still...still like the grave.

    Comic Strips 
  • One Garfield storyline, which ran the week before Halloween in 1989, is unique among Garfield strips in that it is not meant to be humorous. It depicts Garfield awakening in a future in which the house is abandoned and he no longer exists. According to the author Jim Davis:
    During a writing session for Halloween, I got the idea for this decidedly different series of strips. I wanted to scare people. And what do people fear most? Why, being alone. We carried out the concept to its logical conclusion and got a lot of responses from readers. Reaction ranged from "Right on!" to "This isn't a trend, is it?"

    Fan Works 
  • Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): In this MonsterVerse fanfiction, Godzilla thinks on this trope, remembering how he's heard other Titans and creatures desperately call out for any kind of companionship, and thinking he would've done the same if he'd been younger when he became the Last of His Kind.
  • A Crown of Stars: At the beginning of the fic, Asuka declares that she is alone and she needs nobody. Her older self swiftly replies that both know that that is a lie: She hates being alone but is too afraid and wrecked to try anymore.
  • Advice and Trust: Asuka, obviously. The difference here is that she's actually explicit about showing it to Shinji (and, eventually, Rei) after they become a couple. Unlike in canon, she isn't alone anymore thanks to having Shinji, and she is extremely protective of that as a result. When Gendo has Shinji and Asuka detained for insubordination after the fight with Bardiel, Asuka is starting to panic as the forced isolation sets in...until she hears Shinji knocking a familiar beat against the wall in the cell next to hers. It immediately pulls her out of the spiral and helps her get through the whole thing.
  • Anchor Foal II: Caramel possesses a slightly irrational need to be in a romantic relationship at all times, but is entirely unable to keep a mare's attention for more than a short period. This has driven him into a cycle of spending extravagantly in an attempt to keep his current partner's attention for that much longer, which in turn has brought out a near mark-level talent for juggling multiple short-term loans in such a way as to never let any of them quite come due.
  • The Child of Love: Before meeting Shinji, Asuka was alone and she said herself she was all right with that. But after hooking up with Shinji, she can not lie to herself anymore and she admits she hates it.
    Asuka:"I was alone! ALONE! I was fine with that! But...now...I don't want to be alone anymore...it hurts! Being alone was nothing but pain!"
  • Laffey in Chronicles of the Siren War has developed a serious fear of being alone after being constantly shunned by her former superiors and crew, not to mention her long separation from her closest friends. In fact, her habit of guzzling down bourbon stems from a desire to drink her loneliness away. This fear also drives her to be extremely clingy to Thorson, the first person to show her attention in a very long time, and she will push herself to the very limit in order to be useful to him. She slowly gets better, especially once she starts reuniting with her old friends.
  • England in many Hetalia: Axis Powers fanfics, including (but not limited to) Family Ties and What a Brother, What a Bother. This takes his canonical loneliness and wish to be closer to some people (such as America) to a logical conclusion — that he hates perceived abandonment from anyone and truly hates that he's pushed everyone he cares about away.
  • In the beginning of Supergirl story Hellsister Trilogy, Kara is feeling very lonely. Her birth parents live in another galaxy, her adoptive parents are barely there, and she can't keep a steady relationship. Clark and Lois' wedding just rubbed salt into the wound.
    Mom and Dad. Half a galaxy away, in a world that was out of phase with her universe right now.
    Foster Mom and Dad, in Midvale, almost as distant from her emotionally as her real parents were physically.
    And those damned flowers from somebody else's wedding.
    Then she took her bath, went to bed, and slept, crying only a few tears in the process.
  • Gentaro in Horseshoes and Hand Grenades after being resurrected from death. He was brainwashed by Ophiuchus to believe that his friends deliberately left him to die, but Tears to Shed states that he doesn't like being trapped in his loneliness. This is proven in Tears-6 as he states that he would like servants to talk to (but will insist that it is not friendship).
  • In the Star Trek: The Original Series Kid Fic Insontis, McCoy is forced to leave baby!Kirk alone for twenty minutes due to a medical incident. He returns to find him sobbing in a corner.
  • Tsuruya in Kyon: Big Damn Hero is portrayed that way. Having lived all her life as a Lonely Rich Yakuza Princess and just recently found not only friends but True Companions, she reacts strongly to anything which may threaten them or her relationship with them. This comes to a head when she (almost desperately) seeks for a way to make amends for something that Haruhi will later admit was just her own bottled-up jealousy getting the better of her.
  • The One I Love Is...: The three Children suffered from this in the original series, but it greatly increases because of the events of the fic. Rei no longer wants to be alone, and Shinji and Asuka (who was good at pretending otherwise) hate it now. The former tells he was used to being alone before but after being in a Love Triangle, he can not stand it. And the latter sobs to Shinji she is sick of being alone during a "The Reason You Suck" Speech to herself.
  • The Second Try: This was a big part of Shinji and Asuka's personalities in the original series: they hated being hurt by other people but they also hated loneliness. At the same time, it was one of the hindrances to their relationship. Now they have finally gotten over their fear of each other, their fear of loneliness has intensified, and spending any lapse of time not knowing what has happened to each other drives them crazy.
  • Megan in Falling in Deeper fits this trope to a T. She not only hates being alone but also seems to have a phobia of it. Then she gets sent to a solitary confinement...
  • Two examples in Thousand Shinji:
    • Shinji's greatest desire was to find someone who cared for him. He didn't want to be alone ever again.
      In the end, all I really wanted was someone warm at my side at night. Is that such a terrible thing to wish for? To not be lonely like this, to know that when you go to sleep there will be someone who loves you waiting to smile at you in the morning?
    • Asuka hates loneliness. So what if her relationship with Shinji is warping her and slowly turning her into a monster? It's better than being alone.
      But damn it, it was better to be loved as monster than alone as a human.
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion: Genocide gives several examples:
    • While Shinji is keeping watch over a comatose Asuka, he thinks he’s alone and he hates it.
    • Asuka has been alone since she was three, and she hates it. In chapter 8 she tells Shinji about it:
      "I don't want to be alone! I don't want to be afraid! I don't want to feel like this! I don't want to be weak! I don't want to cry! I don't want to be hurt!"
  • Yang in RWBY: Scars has abandonment issues after her biological mother left when she was a baby and her stepmother died when she was only a few years older. Yang's abandonment issues begin to come to light more after her sister and two friends begin dating while she stays single.
  • Denounce the Evils:
    • Jessie was (seemingly) abandoned by her mother and doesn't know who her father is, Throughout her life, almost everyone she's loved has left her. As a result, she has a hard time letting herself get too close to others.
    • Delia has abandonment issues because her father ran off when she was a child and her fiance abandoned her later in life.
  • In This Bites!, living this way is described as a Fate Worse than Death for a pirate captain. It's what drove Captain Omatsuri into helping Lily get food in exchange for making clones of his old crewmates. And the thought of his crew dying pushes Luffy into despair.
  • Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail: Chloe hates being alone because she's not into Pokémon like everyone expects her to be and is more into the macabre. She hates the idea of having to go back home because she knows that no one truly cares for her as they do Pokémon. She later moves on from it by having support from everyone on the Train and apologizing for all the mistakes she made. By the time she returns and the sequel starts, she has people supporting her.
    • Like in canon, Grace Monroe made the Apex because she didn't want to feel this because of not having her parents' love and a lack of friends. But she did this by creating the Apex, teaching them that they should hurt others in an attempt to be superior and give her a sense of superiority and pride. Unfortunately, the actions she made in order to avoid being alone ends up with her more alone than ever, especially upon learning how messed up her philosophy was.
  • Time to Disinfect: Mari's perfectionist tendencies ultimately stem from abandonment issues, with her having convinced herself that nobody will want to be around her if she can't "do things right". Her tearfully admitting just how afraid she is of being alone ends up being key to helping Sunny understand her after their argument.

    Films — Animated 

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Adriana of I Knew Her Well goes to parties and falls in love all the time just so that she doesn't spend time alone.
  • Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver. While he eventually takes some measures to avoid his loneliness and become "a person like other people", he outright laments this fact in his narrative:
    Travis: Loneliness has followed me my whole life. Everywhere. In bars, in cars, sidewalks, stores, everywhere. There's no escape. I'm God's lonely man.

    Literature 
  • Christopher Boone from The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is an inversion of this trope since he states several times in the novel that he prefers being alone. This is because he cannot relate well to other people, owing to his Asperger's syndrome.
  • The Dresden Files: Harry Dresden shows signs of this; though he is quite happy to spend long stretches of time in solitude, one of his greatest fears is that all the people he cares about will someday be gone and he will "die alone".
  • In Frankenstein, the Creature at one point approaches and earnestly begs of his creator Victor Frankenstein, who had abandoned him out of disgust for his grotesque appearance, to create another monstrous being like himself (except female this time) because he can no longer bear his continued isolation and constant rejection by other humans at the mere sight of him.
  • In Priest-Kings of Gor Vika of Treve, a slave of the Priest-Kings, hates being alone even though she must be alone most of the time. She's a chamber slave and cannot leave her chamber, where she is the slave of any man assigned the chamber as his temporary quarters.
  • In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, there's a variation where Harry tells Dumbledore he's figured out that he can't just lock himself away and mourn Sirius because Sirius would hate Harry to be alone.
  • Issei Hyoudou of High School D×D, most obviously when he can't sleep properly without someone else in the bed. Despite his usual bedmates being his stonking hot King Rias Gremory and hopelessly lovestruck Asia Argento, and his status as a Lovable Sex Maniac, this isn't sexual. Past experiences and deeply-buried but crushing self-worth issues mean waking up alone and thinking he'd dreamed all the girls around him is a terrifying thought he never completely gets over.
  • Monster of the Month Club: "Doesn't like to be alone" is a trait noted on the card that came with Sweetie Pie, the February Selection, and she proves it by not wanting Rilla to leave her in the attic (apparently she doesn't consider Icicle as company).
  • Delia has abandonment issues in Pocket Monsters: The Animation because her father abandoned her and later her husband did as well. Delia, however, refuses to show her pain.
  • Rebuild World: Despite Akira's insistence on working alone, he's gotten used to having Alpha at his side to guide him along the way. He's painfully lonely and scared when she isn't around to help him and is relieved whenever she comes back, but he never admits this to her because it'd open him to her teasing.
  • RWBY: Fairy Tales of Remnant: In "The Two Brothers", the Old God found himself alone in an empty universe, no matter how far he travelled or how many planes and realms he visited, he found no sign of life beyond himself. He was so lonely that he split himself in half to create a companion. However, this act destroys him as an entity, and the two beings that result are entirely new entities. Each brother thinks they are the original and the other is the "companion", and they often end up at war with each other. They decide to combat their loneliness by creating the world of Remnant, and the creation of humanity is their attempt to call a truce to their warring by creating something together.
  • In Shakugan no Shana, Shana fought for years with only the bodiless Alastor for company. She meets Yuji and gradually falls in love with him. At one point, she fights a monster by herself. Yuji shows up right as she wins. Shana cries against him and says it now hurts whenever she's alone.
  • Shellpeople in The Ship Who... books are paired with normal human "brawns" as partners and Handy Helpers. Helva, having lost her first brawn and then being assigned a succession of temporary ones only for the duration of a mission, is impatient and annoyed with CenCom for not giving her another. When she manages to buy her way out of Indentured Servitude she contemplates the dream she'd shared with her first brawn, to make a run for the Horsehead Nebula, but the idea of being alone for as long as that would take doesn't appeal. After a burst of sharp grief and pain on his loss she likes to be around people.
    • After a traumatic experience in which she lost her first brawn, Carialle spent two years in intensive therapy, afraid of the dark and of being left alone. After recovering she was reluctant to get a new brawn who might, like her first, die, but hearing other brainships talk about their brawns awakened a yearning in her and she met one that she cared about very much indeed. Sometimes when they're on assignment and he's sleeping or otherwise unavailable and she has no one else to talk to, Carialle has vivid and unpleasant flashbacks.
  • Holo from Spice and Wolf is characterized by an intense fear of loneliness due to the hundreds of years she spent in solitude while watching the humans around her grow old and die.
  • Star Wars Legends: Tash Arranda shows signs of this early in Galaxy of Fear. She's bookish and likes some quiet, but becomes anxious when she's left alone. This is explicitly because she's an Alderaanian orphan and half believes that when people leave her, she's not going to see them again. As the series progresses she becomes more comfortable with it.
  • Taken to an extreme by the Tyrar in Transpecial. They are highly social animals and need to be surrounded by several of their own kind in order to be happy. A tyrar who is completely alone will sicken and eventually die.

    Live-Action TV 
  • The Aquabats! Super Show!: Jimmy the Robot seems to have a problem with separation anxiety, becoming distressed when he wakes up to an empty Battletram in Floating Eye of Death. In fact, he's so sensitive about being left alone that he doesn't seem bothered at all when he's forced to spend weeks as a caretaker for his mindless, zombified teammates (plus a concussed Crash). If anything, he seems delighted: his entire team may be incapacitated, but he gets to spend time with his best friends.
  • Breaking Bad: Jesse goes through this phase in the first half of Season 4, due to being haunted by the guilt of shooting and killing Gale. He enacts a three-day long party at his house, constantly plays thunderously loud music from huge speakers, practically begs Walt to come hang out with him after work, and eventually lets his home degrade into a crack den simply because it's still preferable than being alone with his thoughts.
  • Season 2 of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend shows that Josh is this — though he tries to insist that he's okay being single when he's left alone with his thoughts in "Thought Bubbles", they quickly turn... dark. By the end of the episode, he's started dating the first girl to show interest in him.
  • Doctor Who:
  • Friends: Chandler. When Joey moves out of their apartment, he's openly distressed and quickly finds a new roommate despite admitting he can afford his apartment by himself. He also worries that all the other friends will get married and leave him behind, begging to be allowed to come over for holidays when this happens. This probably stems from his unorthodox and neglectful parents, who divorced when he was a child and sent him to boarding school, so the friends were the first stability he'd ever known.
    Chandler: You'll see, you guys are all gonna go off and get married, and I'm gonna end up alone. Will you promise me something? When you're married, will you invite me over for holidays?
  • Interview with the Vampire (2022):
    • "...After the Phantoms of Your Former Self": Lestat de Lioncourt opens up to his boyfriend Louis de Pointe du Lac about how terrified he is of being alone over long stretches of time.
      Lestat: There is one thing about being a vampire that I most fear above all else... And that is loneliness. You can't imagine the emptiness... A void stretching out for decades at a time. You take this feeling away from me, Louis. We must stay together and take precaution, and never part.
    • "Like Angels Put in Hell by God": Lestat discloses to Louis and Claudia that after Magnus had turned him, he had to figure out vampirism on his own because his maker had committed suicide, and it contributed to his abandonment issues.
      Lestat: No grand history of vampiric origins or physiology, no rules, no counsel. Just a sweeping hand to a pile of money and the sight of him throwing himself into a fire. And then I was alone. [...] It's why I don't particularly like being abandoned.
  • Red Dwarf:
    • An episode saw the crew meeting alternate reality versions of themselves. The Cat, as expected, met a humanoid Dog who would get nervous anytime he was left alone.
    • A lesser example is the main character Lister. It is explained that humans hate being alone and since Lister was the only known survivor of the accident that wiped out the crew, the ship's computer decided to bring back his bunkmate as a hologram.
  • Sabrina the Teenage Witch had an episode where it's revealed that Hilda doesn't enjoy feeling lonely. Zelda's response to this is to buy a dog.
  • Sherlock: Ironically, even though Sherlock never knew what it was like to have friends. When he met John, he didn't want to be alone again. As in, he didn't want to be abandoned by him, and even if he didn't, he didn't want him to get killed. John is this, too. Before he met Sherlock, he was so alone, and — yeah.
  • Star Trek: Voyager: It's revealed that Seven of Nine is absolutely terrified of being alone. Despite being assimilated by the Borg, they still acted as a single unit and were always together, but she forms a true significant bond with the Starfleet crew after they released her from the collective and show genuine respect for her. However, when the crew is required to go into stasis for a month and task Seven to take charge of the ship, she nearly loses her mind and hallucinates her greatest fears coming after her.
  • Dean Winchester from Supernatural. His main fear is that everyone will eventually leave him, likely stemming from seeing his mother killed by a demon when Dean was a young child.
  • The Twilight Zone (1985):
    • In "A Saucer of Loneliness", Margaret is an extremely lonely middle-aged waitress who spent years dreaming about what it would like to be with a man. After so much time, however, she has given up hope that it will ever happen. She lives with her alcoholic mother, who cruelly reminds her at every opportunity that she doesn't have a husband and probably never will. Margaret is so unhappy in her life that she often cries herself to sleep. One day while walking near the beach, a Flying Saucer appears and communicates a message to her telepathically. She is harassed by the media and members of the public to reveal the contents of the message but she refuses to do so as it was private. Margaret eventually places copies of the message in various bottles and throws them into the ocean. A man finds one of these bottles and, after preventing her from committing suicide, reveals that he knows that the message was from an alien being who was even lonelier than Margaret.
    • In "The Call", Norman Blane leads a very lonely, secluded life. The opening narration states that his greatest fear is that if he vanished tomorrow, no one would notice and his greatest sadness is the realization that he is probably right. However, Norman receives a new lease on life when he dials a wrong number and it is answered by a woman named Mary Ann, who is just as lonely as he is. They form an instant bond and talk for hours every night but she declines his offer of a date. After tracing the number to the Civic Art Gallery, Norman discovers that Mary Ann, whose surname is Lindeby, is the ghost of an artist who is inhabiting her last work, a bronze sculpture of herself. Norman is initially shocked and disturbed, cutting off all contact with Mary Ann. He later changes his mind and confesses to Mary Ann that he has fallen in love with her. That night, he breaks into the gallery after closing and turns into a bronze sculpture himself so that he and Mary Ann can be together forever.
    • In "The Trunk", Willy Gardner is an extremely shy and introverted man who manages the rundown Hotel Winchester. He has no friends (other than a cat) and has spent most of his life waiting for human companionship. Willy is a frequent object of fun for the local hoodlums Danny, Rocco, and Cap and is disrespected by everyone with the exception of Mrs. Kudaba, an elderly permanent resident of the hotel. When he finds a trunk that grants wishes, Willy thinks that he can finally end his loneliness but it doesn't take him long to realize that his new friends are only interested in him because of what they think he can do for them.
    • In "Cat and Mouse", Andrea Moffatt leads a very lonely life and spends most of her time dreaming about True Love. She turns down her co-worker Carl's offer of a date as he doesn't match her idea of Prince Charming. Andrea is delighted when she meets Guillaume de Marchaux, who seems to be just like the charismatic, virile lovers found in the romance novels that she loves reading. However, it turns out that Guillaume simply uses women for sex and then moves on.
  • The Walking Dead: Michonne discovers that she's no longer capable of working alone anymore because she formed a strong bond with Rick and his friends while surviving the zombie apocalypse together.

    Music 
And the opening lines are...
I'm sleeping my way out of this one/With anyone who will lie down
  • The Reba McEntire song "The Fear of Being Alone."
    So don't say that word
    Not the one we both heard too much
    You may think you do but you don't
    It's just the fear of being alone
  • The R.E.M. song "World Leader Pretend" is about struggling with self-imposed isolation/loneliness.
    This is my world, and I am the World Leader Pretend.
    This is my life, and this is my time.
    I have been given the freedom to do as I see fit.
    It's high time I razed the walls that I've constructed.
  • "Autophobia" by Stream of Passion is about a couple stuck in Destructive Romance because both are too afraid of being alone.
  • In "Darkest Part" by Red, the narrator says he's so afraid to be alone.

    Tabletop Games 
  • Dungeons & Dragons: Illithids (mind flayers) despise not being around mentally-controlled thralls, due to a combination of their desire to dominate others and the psychic feedback from those under their control keeping them calm. They also don't function well out of range of their settlement's elder brain, and as such occasionally bring a "brainmate" (a small bud from the elder brain) with them when they absolutely must go on missions out of its radius.

    Video Games 
  • Laharl from Disgaea has some huge abandonment issues that he deals with on a regular basis in the series. It has been with him since his mother sacrificed her life to save him because Laharl feels like she abandoned him. It is even lampshaded in Disgaea Infinite, where a Prinny servant states:
    Prinny: You would be surprised to know how much Lord Laharl hates being alone, dood...
  • In Don't Chat with Strangers, Lucy gets very angry if you disappear on her.
    YOU LEFT ME
  • Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends reveals Lu Lingqi, the daughter of Lu Bu, to be this, hinted to be the result of a past trauma. Her motivation to join the Ambition Mode campaign is particularly touching.
    Lu Lingqi: I'll continue to fight until we live in a world where nobody is lonely!
  • Subaru of Ensemble Stars! is a Perpetual Smiler who never seems to worry about anything and is described as a natural genius in both school and idol work, but he needs to be around other people or his mood drops immediately, as is shown in the last part of the Main Story. In "Onibi" when the others discuss their fears he can't really think of anything — until, that is, the group is separated and he is left alone in the darkness. He immediately freaks out and gets scared, not regaining his typical cheer until Kouga retrieves him.
  • Compilation of Final Fantasy VII:
    • Red XIII of Final Fantasy VII has abandonment issues since he is psychologically the youngest of the group - not even adding the fact that he's the Last of His Kind, which is a cruel fate that a youngster such as he has to possibly face.
    • Aerith in Final Fantasy VII Remake is this too. She hides it behind a cheerful, positive demeanor, but it's revealed in Chapter 11 that Aerith is secretly afraid of abandonment, which the monster Eligor tries to exploit by casting a hallucination spell that makes her relive a childhood memory of being left all alone during a game of hide-and-seek. Her loneliness is increased tenfold when knowing she's the last Cetra, as well. She's close to crying in relief when Cloud and Tifa manage to save her from Eligor.
  • Kindred from League of Legends has a piece of dialogue where Lamb tells Wolf about a man who was very lonely, because all things must meet him yet all things shun him. Because he could not bear to be alone, he took an axe to himself and split himself in two so that he would always have a friend. One in-game interaction with Fiddlesticks has it recognize the deepest fear of whatever opponents it faces, and for Kindred, it's simply "Grey Man...", implying that despite being the personification of death itself, Lamb and Wolf are terrified of becoming one and lonely again.
  • In Fire Emblem Fates, Kana, the Avatar's child, has this trait. As with all the second-generation characters, their parents had to hide their kids safely in a Pocket Dimension, to prevent monsters from killing them. Kana apparently was hit the hardest by this, as seen at the end of their recruitment chapter. The Avatar doesn't think Kana is ready for combat and decides to leave him/her behind after giving them their dragonstone to control their ability to transform into a dragon. Kana then tearfully begs to join the party, saying they really want to go along with the Avatar, and that they hate continuing to wait while thinking the Avatar may never return. The Avatar apologizes, having had no idea that their child felt this way from the beginning. Kana then joins the party.
  • The Brooding Mawlek boss in Hollow Knight is described in the Hunter's Journal as being an extremely social creature, which only becomes aggressive when left alone for too long. Unfortunately, the one you find is seemingly the Sole Survivor of its colony, given the corpses scattered around its room, giving you no choice but to defend yourself with force.
  • In The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, the Skull Kid is revealed to be characterized by this in his backstory (as recounted by Anju's grandmother) after he was forced to part with his good friends the Four Giants one day. Feeling lonesome and frustrated by his loss, he apparently took out his anger on the rest of Termina until he eventually got banished by the Four Giants for his behavior. Later on, however, he manages to find new friends in Tatl and Tael after meeting them on a particularly rainy day, and also happily befriends Link at the end of the game, after he is finally rid of the effects of the Majora's Mask. Much to his delight, he also reaffirms his friendship with the Four Giants in the epilogue as well.
  • Mass Effect: Implied to be the case with Commander Shepard since the soldier has gained allies who're his/her True Companions and the thought of them separating doesn't feel the same. Taken to a high point when the Clone Shepard envies the commander for having friends who care about their well-being while the clone will never know that joy.
  • Flora, Professor Layton's adopted daughter, absolutely hates to be left behind by herself and will sneak along on his various cases to avoid it. She even tells him in the second game, when he figures out that it's her in disguise, that "I just didn't want to be all alone again." Considering that she grew up a Lonely Rich Kid and a literal Girl in the Tower following the deaths of her parents, her feelings are understandable.
  • Ess from Puyo Puyo Tetris, as shown when she yells at Tee when he runs off without her. According to Yoshino Utako, the game's scenario writer, this is due to Ess still being traumatized by losing Ex, her real father; it gave her a terminal fear of being left alone. This usually characterizes itself as extreme possessiveness of those she does love, claiming that they "belong to her".
  • In Shadowverse, Luna doesn't like to be alone, hence why she revived her "parents" as ghosts and wanting to kill people to make new friends.

    Visual Novels 
  • Miu Iruma from Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony may be a crazy and perverted inventor, but she is also a desperately lonely girl at heart, and it is strongly suggested that she acts the way she does in an attempt to cover it up. Her loneliness is evidently a sore spot for her as she is embarrassed to admit her Friendless Background when Kaede confronts her about it in her second Free Time Event with her, and in Ultimate Talent Development Plan, she quickly gets dispirited when Toko points out that people cannot put up with her vulgarities, perpetuating her lack of friends. Ultimate Summer Camp has Miu telling Kaede that she is bewildered that Toko, whom she claims is an even bigger pervert than she, has a friend in Komaru (to which Kaede replies that Toko is much less abrasive), and she specifically tells Kaede not to stand her up when they both arrange a sleepover. Her Love Suite Event also suggests that Miu has severe abandonment issues, making her loneliness worse; in the middle of an otherwise pleasant Childhood Friend Romance fantasy, Miu tries to invoke a Baby Trap plan, believing that it is the only sure way to keep her beloved by her side and prevent him from abandoning her.
  • Rika from Mystic Messenger. Her horrific childhood led her to develop a severe fear of being "forsaken" and abandoned, and to cope, she built up both a shiny happy facade of boundless optimism to go along with her compulsion to help people she felt had been forsaken just like her, and a willingness to intimidate others to keep herself safe when she felt threatened, which only fed into her self-loathing and Sanity Slippage that led to the main game's events.

    Webcomics 
  • Fuzzy from Sam & Fuzzy hates being abandoned, left out of the loop, ignored, overlooked, or in any way being alone with no one to depend on (especially if it's due to 'betrayal' by the other person, which is his Berserk Button due to his Mysterious Past).
  • Stand Still, Stay Silent: Tuuri has a record of wanting to include other people in her activities with little regard to whether the other person is interested in the activity or not:
    • Of the two members of her family on the expedition, Tuuri is the only one who really wanted to participate. Her younger cousin Lalli, who happened to be able to fill one of the other slots, was roped into it by her. Later in the comic, Lalli mentions once being dragged into picking blueberries by Tuuri despite not liking blueberries.
    • When Mikkel sneaks out on an escapade, Tuuri wants to follow him, but Reynir is perfectly fine staying in the tank until Mikkel comes back. Tuuri manipulates Reynir into coming with her anyway, one day after one of the Plague Zombie monsters roaming outside the tank almost bit Reynir.
    • In a flashback to her childhood, Tuuri assumes her older brother will like the idea of stealing a boat from the harbor of their safe island and going to explore one of the nearby unsettled, possibly Plague Zombie-infested islands. Her brother responds by dragging her away from the harbor with plans to tell their parents about it.
    • In addition to the above, Tuuri looks extremely bored when left alone in the tank during the expedition's first mission.

    Web Original 
  • The Lizzie Bennet Diaries: Lydia Bennet seems to have a touch of this, most obviously in Life of the Party, where she'd rather drive to her sister's house in LA (implied to take all night) than face being by herself.
  • Strongly implied for Sparadrap in Noob. His attempts to get new people in the guild include players from enemy factions and more than one Non-Player Character. He misses people that have left the guild despite the fact that some of them have performed a Face–Heel Turn. The third novel has him admit to having his in-game pets keep him company when his guildmates happen to not be playing.
  • The Nostalgia Critic has got a bad case of it, even going so far as to think a care home where you're abused is better than spending your dying days isolated.
  • RWBY: Salem was trapped in a tower, isolated and alone, by a cruel father until rescued by a hero with whom she fell in love. Unable to cope with his premature death from sickness, she attempts to trick the gods into resurrecting him; punished for her crime, she turns humanity against the gods, who increase her punishment by leaving alone, unable to die, on an empty planet. When the God of Light reincarnates her lover to guide humanity to redemption, they reunite and raise a family until Ozma realises how evil she's become and attempts to take away their children for their own safety. This triggers a battle so brutal that their children die in the crossfire; both immortal, she and Oz have been trapped in a cycle of pain and violence ever since, with the fate of humanity at stake.

    Western Animation 
  • Marcy Wu from Amphibia reveals that she sent herself and her friends to Amphibia on purpose because she learned her dad got a new job out of state and was planning to move. Not wanting to leave her only friends, she hoped that she and her friends could have adventures forever. However, when her secret is revealed, she breaks down crying, admitting she didn't want to be alone.
  • Animaniacs (2020): "Fear and Laughter in Burbank" seems to suggest being alone, with no one to laugh at his jokes, is Yakko's greatest fear. When he's lured into an empty office building, Yakko freaks out and nearly gets his soul eaten by Nickelwise the clown - and is notably the only Warner sibling whom he manages to scare.
  • In Arcane, Powder has had a serious problem with being alone ever since her parents died. When Vi and her brothers leave her behind on a mission, she swiftly descends into a screaming meltdown. After losing her second family, she's so emotionally devastated that she throws herself at Silco, the guy who was just trying to kill her family moments ago and was preparing to kill her, because she needs someone to cling to. Throughout Acts 2 and 3 of the first season, she finds herself having to choose between her surrogate father and her sister, and the threat of losing either wreaks havoc on her already fragile mental state. In the end, after she's accidentally killed Silco and realized that she and Vi have changed too much for things to go back to the way they used to be, she is left alone again, and ignites war between Piltover and Zaun out of grief and rage.
  • BoJack Horseman: One of BoJack Horseman defining traits is his fear of being alone, to the point that the first season had him sabotaging Todd's rock opera in order to keep him as an unwanted houseguest.
  • On Daria, Daria and Jane are an Only Friend example — Daria especially since Jane is generally more willing to socialize. This is best seen in "See Jane Run" (Daria is clearly cracking after Jane starts hanging out with friends from the track team) and "Is It Fall Yet?" (where a temporary break-up in their friendship leaves both lost).
  • Sheila the Thief from Dungeons & Dragons (1983) turns out to be this, specially in the episode that exposes the kids to what they fear the most. Sheila's biggest fear is to be alone, so she's dropped in a large desert where she's the only living being — by the time the spell is done, the poor girl is in a Troubled Fetal Position and crying her heart out.
  • Cosmo on one episode of The Fairly Oddparents when he says that he hates being alone when Wanda ends up missing, but it turns out that he was the one who took Wanda so she wouldn't face Level 13 probation.
  • Beef Tobin from The Great North has this fear after his wife cheated on him and left him for another man and moved to Pennsylvania with him. He became determined to keep the rest of his family together because he was afraid of them leaving him too.
  • Grace and Simon from Infinity Train both hate being alone as revealed in Book 3.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
    • Rainbow Dash hates being left alone.
    • Pinkie Pie also doesn't take very well to being isolated at all.
    • Twilight Sparkle plays with this since she started out very aloof and uninterested in making friends for most of her life. But when she finally learns to bond with others, she likes what she finds, and while still liking occasional seclusion, she is often shown to have huge insecurities at the thought of losing her friends and being alone again.
    • Princess Celestia herself has this problem. When she briefly takes over her sister Luna's nightly duties in "A Royal Problem," she realizes everyone else is asleep. She spends a few minutes talking to herself, chastises herself for it, and then continues talking to herself. This contrasts with Luna, who assumed Celestia's duties of "smiling and being adored by everypony" would be easy, but her nature as a loner makes it much more difficult than expected.
      Princess Celestia: I don't know how you do this alone.
      Princess Luna: So, um, did you talk to yourself?
      Princess Celestia: Um, a little.
  • The Owl House: At the start of "O Titan Where Art Thou", King's dream-self gets transported into the In-Between realm from "Yesterday's Lie". There, he sees the Collector, in some sort of spherical prison high above him. The Collector is laughing to himself, obviously overjoyed at the prospect of leaving his prison, until he noticed King. As King starts to wake up, the Collector begs him not to leave him alone. Rewatch Bonus for "Yesterday's Lie", where it's been pointed out that as Luz explores the In-Between realm, you can hear a voice whispering "Stay here. Stay here."
    Collector: (laughs) Almost free, almost free!
    King: Luz? Hooty? (floating) Whoa! Whoa! Is someone there?
    Collector: I won't be alone. I won't be alone anymore!(laughs)
    King: Hello? Hello?
    Collector: Who said that? Who's there?
    King: What?
    (King starts to wake up)
    Collector: (increasingly desperate) Wait! Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait! Don't leave, come back!
    • A later episode, with The Collector already freed and having turned King into his playmate has him ask King to please let him sleep with Francois while he's away. When King refuses, since he only lets Luz touch it, he still asks him if he can just leave it sitting on the night table looking over him so he won't feel alone. King relents.
  • Ready Jet Go!: Jet secretly fears being alone. Even when his parents or friends aren't around, he still usually has someone with him — Sunspot. Jet is a very social person and wants to be friends with everyone. In "My Three Suns", he has a daymare about him being abandoned by Sean and Sydney. He's left all alone in a dark void and screams in anguish. And in "Jet 2" he gets very upset because he thinks Sean and Sydney don't want to be friends with him anymore.
  • T.J. Detweiler from Recess has been shown to Go Mad from the Isolation without his five best friends.
  • Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles writes Raph as having a crippling fear of being alone to the point where he goes savage if he doesn’t have someone with him. In “Man vs. Sewer”, he has a small freakout when he doesn’t know his brothers went to get their tubes and a bigger one when the Sando Brothers tell him he’s all alone.
  • She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: Adora doesn't have much of a problem being alone in normal circumstances, but she hates sleeping alone. She's spent her entire life sleeping in a Horde barracks surrounded by soldiers, so when she is given a big fancy room to herself, she has no idea what to do with it. After she accidentally destroys the bed, she ends up sneaking into Glimmer's room because she just couldn't sleep. Glimmer and Bow decide to have a sleepover with her for a week until she gets used to her new environment.
  • The Season 2 Big Bad of Wakfu Qilby the Traitor is secretly afraid of being alone. This is why he never actually finished off Yugo and the Dragons despite having many opportunities to do so and engaged in completely unnecessary schemes instead: deep down he really just wanted to convince them that he was right so they could be friends again.

 
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Yakko's Worst Nightmare

Nickelwise tortures Yakko by luring him to where there's no one around to yak at or to laugh at his jokes.

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