Teen Mom Star Amber Portwood's Daughter Leah Decides To Begin Therapy To Address 'Abandonment Issues’ With Her Mom!

Amber Portwood’s daughter is ready to begin her healing journey.

As Teen Mom fans know, things have been strained between the reality star and her 16-year-old daughter Leah Shirley. Amber, who suffers from bipolar and borderline personality disorder, recognizes she has been distant from Leah over the years, sometimes going months without seeing the teen, which is why she “doesn’t want to be around” her mom — and now fears everyone will leave her with no explanation.

During an episode of Teen Mom: The Next Chapter on Thursday, the teenager recognized she has “abandonment issues” due to Amber. Instead of holding in all that anger, Leah shared that she wants to learn to “forgive” her momma and thinks the best way to do so is through therapy. She told her dad, Gary Shirley:

“I just think I have a lot of issues because of Amber in the experiences I’ve had. I want to overcome that so I can be able to forgive her and just move on, and I think that it would help to have someone to guide me on how to forgive someone because it’s hard for me to do that.”

How mature of Leah! While the high school student doesn’t remember the moment she realized Amber “wasn’t there” growing up, she knows she suffers from “abandonment issues from her not being around.” Leah also understands her mom had challenges in life, but that doesn’t make their estrangement hurt any less, nor does it stop her from questioning whether others, like her stepmom Kristina Shirley, will abandon her as well. Oof. She added in a confessional:

“I do know that there’s a lot of things going on that makes it difficult for her to be able to be there for me. I feel like it does affect me every day because I’m always scared that Kristina is going to leave me. I’m always scared that people are just going to leave me for no reason.”

That is so heartbreaking!