I have noticed something for a while now on here and was wondering what you guys think of this.

I feel like a lot of people use the words attachment and dependency interchangeably.

To me, attachment is the feeling of having some sort of bond to a person. This bond might take many forms, but there's some kind of connection. However, if I feel attached to somebody, it would not lead to me falling apart if that person vanished from my life (whether on purpose or not). I mean, yes, I might grieve, be sad, angry, all that. But I could easily find new fulfilling relationships that make up for this one. It might never be the exact same, but just as good. As an example with my T: if I'm attached and the T terminates me, I'd probably be angry and sad, I'd grieve the loss of the relationship. But I'd also feel that I can replace my T. I'd go out, find a new one and continue the work.

Now, dependency is a bit different. While of course there's also attachment going on, it's much stronger. It's the feeling of 'without this person, I can't continue the same way'. I'd not only grieve if the relationship ends, I'd not see any point in finding somebody new or I'd at least feel that nobody could have a similar relationship with me. So, if my T would terminate me and I'm dependent, then I'd grieve, but I'd not feel like I could go out and find a new one. I'd maybe try (and at some point hopefully realize that I was indeed wrong about it not being similar), but it would feel quite hopeless, like my T was the only one who understood me or could help me.

Maybe another example to see some form of contrast: imagine somebody's T is on vacation and they are in some sort of crisis that they can't deal with on their own. If the person is attached to their T, but not dependent, they'd know they are in crisis and need help, maybe they'd even feel that their T would encourage them to reach out to someone. So they'd go to a doctor, a second T that can fit them in or to the ER, depending on the situation. They'd get some kind of help that keeps them going until their T is back. They'd probably prefer to then work with their T again, because that's the person they are most attached to, but until then they can somehow ask for help from others.
But if there was dependency, it would look more like this: the person feels that the only person that can truly help them is their T. And the T is not there. They'd freak out about that fact, get even more upset, and end up either somehow contacting their T (even if this is futile), might use unhealthy coping skills and so on. It's not about what exactly they do, the important part is that they realize that they'd need outside help, but they feel the only person that can help is T, so they'd not reach out to anyone else until T is back.

Maybe I am just reading a lot of posts the wrong way, but it feels to me that often people say 'I'm attached to my T' and then afterwards talk about feelings so strong that to me it doesn't sound like just being attached, it sounds like some form of dependency. So I wonder what other people's definition of these two words is, what exactly is attachment to you and how does it differ from dependency?