An Overview Of Reactive Attachment Disorder

Facilitating Developmental Attachment is a book about the theory behind and a treatment for attachment disorder, focusing on children who have been fostered or adopted due to abuse or neglect. Daniel Hughes gives a detailed therapy plan of how to help these particular children begin to form the secure attachment that is crucial to living a fulfilling life.

Reactive attachment disorder is described (Kress & Paylo, 2014) as a disorder in which the child received extreme neglect by the primary caregiver and as a result does not form emotional bonds with others. Recent studies, state Kress & Paylo (2014), show that all children in order to develop emotional bonding with others need their basic physical and emotional requirements met. This was also the case with the little girl in the HBO &

Reactive Attachment Disorder is a common infancy/early childhood disorder. Reactive attachment disorder is located under the trauma- and stressors-related disorder section of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manuel of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), Fifth Edition. It is normally diagnosed when an infant or child experience expresses a minimal attachment to a figure for nurturance, comfort, support, and protection. Although children diagnosed with reactive attachment disorder have the ability to select their attachment figure, they fail to show behavioral manifestation because they had limited access during the early developmental stage. Some disturbed behaviors include diminished or absence of positive emotions toward caregiver. In addition,

The Strange Situation is meant to be a snapshot of the relationship between infant and caregiver, and provide insight into the dyadic patterns that define this bond. Securely attached children are thought to have a primary caregiver who is sensitive, available and receptive to their infants needs. Insecure-avoidant children have primary caregivers who are intrusive, controlling and hurtful. These caregivers may be present in the infant’s life but unable to understand their infants needs, and provide the correct response. Caregivers of insecure-ambivalent infants have been found to be unresponsive to the needs of the infant, and very often unavailable. The effect of this treatment is that the infant is starved for affection and attention. The infant also feels the need to amplify their needs in an effort to reach their caregiver (Barnett & Vondra, 1999).

My act of courage is when I found out that i had Reactive Attachment Disorder. You can get this from being abused when you were a little kid or a baby. Well in my case I was abused by my mom for two years. She abused me since the day I came home from the hospital till the I was almost three years old and got put into foster care so I got away from the person who was abusing me for a couple of month's. I just found out on January tenth, 2017 at a meeting that I had to go to that I had Reactive Attachment Disorder. You can also get this from being separated from your parents for a while and I was whenever I was put into foster care I was separated from my real mom for the rest of my life and my sister's and brother's dad died when I was

Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) was first introduced just over 20 years ago, with the publication of DSM-III (American Psychiatric Association, 1980). In the DSM-IV. The disorder is defined by aberrant social behavior that appears in early childhood and is evident cross contextually(1994). The disorder describes aberrant social behaviors in young children that are believed to derive from being reared in caregiving environments lacking species-typical nurturance and stimulation, such as in instances such as maltreatment or institutional rearing. (First, M., & Tasman, A. 2010) . In cases of RAD two major types of abnormalities have been cited; these include an emotionally withdrawn/inhibited type and an indiscriminately social/disinhibited pattern (First, M., & Tasman, A. 2010).Conditions in in foreign orphanages and institutions such as, multiple caregivers, maltreatment, abuse, neglect, and others contribute to the inability for internationally adopted children to form secure attachments. All of these factors contribute to internationally adopted children being at a higher risk to develop attachment disorders such as RAD and other behavioral problems.

The attachment theory is a theory proposed by John Bowlby. The theory basically states that infants need to be attached to someone in order to have successful relationships as they grow older. Bowlby says, “Attachment is a deep and enduring emotional bond that connects one person to another across time and space”

Reactive Attachment Disorder is a psychological disorder which effects children and adults in the United States. Reactive Attachment Disorder or “RAD”, “is a rare but serious condition in which an infant or young child doesn't establish healthy attachments with parents or caregivers” (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2014). Adolescents suffer from reactive attachment disorder in the United States due to a lack of appropriate parent care which can be cured through seeking the assistance of professionals.

Priority is to make sure the child is in a safe and comfortable environment, one that will meet the physical and emotional needs of them and next is to change the relationship between the child and the caregiver. However, I find it difficult to understand if a child is in a situation severe enough to inflict that type of emotional damage on them, who is paying enough attention to know there is a problem to begin with? So now we have a family in therapy trying to get to the root of the problem, to understand why the primary caregiver shows no emotion towards the child. The child must essentially be reprogrammed in hopes of being able to function more normally, but what lasting damage is already done. If they don’t show any signs of success towards recovering from RAD, what happens then? Unfortunately, society also suffers from emotionally traumatized

The DSM – IV – TR (APA, 2000) described two subtypes of the disorder which was identified to be caused by pathogenic care as evidenced by persistent disregard of the child’s emotional and physical needs (Corbin, 2007, p. 540). The subtypes are:

It mainly focuses on developing a safe, stable, nurturing environment with positive interactions with caregivers (Shi, 2014). Individuals with reactive attachment disorder require change and the restructuring of the development process. Per United Behavioral Health (2016), possible therapeutic techniques include infant/parent psychotherapy and interaction guidance. The infant/parent psychotherapy focuses on “attachment, trauma, cognitive behavioral, and social learning theories” to treat traumatized children and families with a final goal to restore a sense of trust and safety within the relationship and family (United Behavioral Health, 2016). Whereas interaction guidance is a strength based intervention using positive reinforcement to reshape behavior and observable interactions within the relationship, which is comparable to behavioral therapy. In addition to those two types of therapy, psychoeducation for caregivers and inexperienced parents is important for them to learn that their abilities as a parent affects their child. Not much research has been done do to the ethical standards and “do no harm” to

Reactive attachment disorder is a unique disorder in its onset, impact on all aspects of life, and diversity of subtypes. In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual – IV (DSM- IV), reactive attachment disorder was characterized by two subtypes; the disinhibited and the inhibited subtypes. The inhibited subtype was identified as being withdrawn, unemotional, and having difficulty forming any sort of significant relationship with others. The disinhibited subtype’s most defining characteristic was indiscriminate friendliness, and overwhelming trust for strangers. While the two subtypes seem like completely different disorders that have no relation, the reason they were originally put together in the DSM-IV was their origins. These disorders originate from severe maltreatment in childhood, and are fairly rare because of the level of severity necessary for the disorder to develop. Their common origin hints at a problem within the attachment relationship as a potential source of difficulties. The name itself is derived from a reaction to pathogenic care in early childhood.

There is no standard treatment for RAD, and there is no “magic” pill that fixes it. Though, it usually includes a lot of the same elements, which includes psychological counseling, medication, and family or play therapy. Another element is close and physical contact with the child and special education services. It usually involves a team of professionals who specialize in attachment disorders. It is crucial to try to treat RAD as early as possible. The main goal of treatment is to try to provide the child a safe, secure, and loving environment so “that the child can begin and continue to form a relationship with the parent or caregiver, to help the child increase their self-esteem and form positive relationships with the people and world around them” (MFMER,

Although he was diagnosed with a multitude of behavioral and psychological disorders, Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) was to blame for the behaviors I had noticed. Even though neither I nor my mother knew what this disorder entailed, I asked her questions to develop an understanding. I wondered why he was socially distant, why he acted so violently, what happened to make him this way, and if he would ever become “normal.” Throughout the years, my mother and I worked together to create a basic understanding: Isaac was abused and neglected as a baby, so he was unable to learn how to connect socially. With this primitive explanation, I was able to understand both Isaac’s struggles and the problems his family must have faced. Additionally, I was able to begin the journey of understanding that there’s more to people than meets the eye; everyone has gone through incredible experience that I could never

Attachment theory is a concept that explores the importance of attachment in respect to direct development. “It is a deep and enduring emotional bond that connects one person to another across time and space” (Bowlby, 1969; McLeod, 2009). It is the relationship that develops within the first year of the infant’s life between them and their caregiver. The theory also relates to the quality of the attachment that is shown in the behavior of the infant (Rieser-Danner, 2016). Attachment theory shows that infants need a close nurturing relationship with their caregiver in order to have a healthy relationship. Lack of response from the caregiver