Attachments

Buddhists understand attachment as a root cause of human suffering. What they mean by this is an exaggerated need to be with someone, something or achieve a specific outcome. It's taken me quite some time to understand this as human beings need to form connections and goals to be fully human. Detachment, seemed to me, to negate full humanity. However, I have come to the realization that the attachment that causes suffering is related to a need for control. When we are very attached to someone, something or an outcome, we become control freaks that seek to micromanage another person or thing or control each and every circumstance in order to gain a specific outcome. The problem is attachment that spurs the desire or need to control that which is really beyond our control. Buddhists are not suggesting complete detachment or a lack of goals. Instead they are asserting that if we let go of the need to control everything and everybody in our environments we will not suffer so much.