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Reactive Attachment Disorder

by Ms. Curious
(Europe)

I know that Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) is normally associated with children but I've heard that adults have it too. Can anybody tell me about adult RAD symptoms and treatment? Do adults with RAD talk differently from other people? Do they act differently?

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RAD
by: C. D'Alessandro

My parents put me in an orphanage when I was 3 and would come to visit at first, but after a while they stopped. I often wondered if they had some mental disorder that would deaden their feelings that had as Mom and Dad to me. This has hurt for many years. They came from loses in their childhood, they both lost their Moms from TB when they were young children. My mom was placed in an orphanage too. My dad became an alcoholic. They were poorer then poor and had 7 children only to keep 4. I would finally like to know if parents such as mine could have such a mental disorder. I do believe my mother was bipolar. Thanks for your reply.

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Reactive Attachment Disorder
by: Anonymous

The Following information is from:

http://www.attachmenttherapy.com/adult.htm

Unresolved childhood attachment issues leave an adult vulnerable to difficulties in forming secure adult relationships. Patterns of attachment continue through the life cycle and across generations. New relations are affected by the expectations developed in past relationships. There is a strong correlation between insecure adult attachment and marital dissatisfaction and negative marital interactions. If an adult does not feel safe with others, he/she will tend to be either rejecting of their partner or overly clingy.

Depending on the genetic personality style of the individual and the early life events experienced, insecurely attached adults fall in one of two categories of insecure attachment:

AVOIDANT

Intense anger and loss
Hostile
Critical of others
Sensitive to blame
Lack of empathy
Views others as untrustworthy
Views others as undependable
Views self as unlovable or "too good" for others
Relationships feel either threatening to one's sense of control, not worth the effort, or both
Compulsive self-reliance
Passive withdrawal
Low levels of perceived support
Difficulty getting along with co-workers, often preferring to work alone
Work may provide a good excuse to avoid personal relations
Fear of closeness in relationships
Avoidance of intimacy
Unlikely to idealize the love relationship
Tendency toward Introjective depression (self critical)

ANXIOUS/AMBIVILENT

Compulsive Caregiving
Feel overinvolved and underappreciated
Rapid relationship breakups
Idealizing of others
Strong desire for partner to reciprocate in relationship
Desire for extensive contact and declarations of affections
Overinvests his/her emotions in a relationship
Perceives relationships as imbalanced
Relationship is idealized
Preoccupation with relationship
Dependence on relationship
Heavy reliance on partner
Views partner as desirable but unpredictable (sometimes available, sometimes not)
Perceives others as difficult to understand
Relationship is primary method by which one can experience a sense of security
Unlikely to view others as altruistic
Sensitive to rejection
Discomfort with anger
Extreme emotions
Jealous
Possessive
Views self as unlovable
Suicide attempts
Mood swings
Tendency toward anaclitic depression (dependent depression)

GOALS OF THERAPY

Identify early losses
Mourn the loss of that which never was but yearned for deeply
Provide closure to the unresolved relationship longings with parental attachment figures

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