Teen Attachment Disorder

Is your teen struggling with issues associated with adoption-related Attachment Disorders? We have information regarding Attachment Disorder Treatment Centers that can help. Use the Contact Link on the right.

Many residential treatment centers work with teens who struggle with Attachment Disorders. These teens sometimes exhibit complex problems. Does your child exhibit any of the following behaviors?

Attachment Disorder Awareness: Does Your Teenager Struggle With Any of the Following?

• Avoidant Behavior
• Distant or Aloof Behavior
• Anxious Clinging Behavior
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Difficulty Coping with Stress
• Poor Relationships with Others

Have there been symptoms or diagnoses of this or other disorders?

• Family Conflict, Argumentative, Abusive Behavior
• Blatant Disregard of Rules
• Can't Accept "No" For an Answer
• Abrupt Change in Personality
• Never at Fault - Shifts Blame to Others
• Uncontrollable Anger - Poor Emotional Control
• Can't Accept Feedback - "Above the Law"
• Manipulative - Pits Parents Against Each Other
• Lying - Stealing - Sneaky Behaviors
• Lack of Motivation - Lazy - Resists Tasks
• "I hate you," attitude
• "You can't make me," attitude
• Substance Abuse - Alcohol or Drugs
• Skips School - Truancy
• School Suspensions - Authority Problems
• Grades Have Fallen - Academic Problems
• Can't Keep Friends - Peer Problems
• Danger to Self or Others
• Runs Away or AWOL
• Conduct Disorder - Diagnosed or Observed?
• Poor Choice of Friends - Easily Misled
• Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD)
• Bipolar Disorder - Diagnosed or Observed?
• Low Self-Esteem or Poor Self-Image
• Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)
• Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD)
• Depression - Diagnosed or Observed?
• Attempted or Threats of Suicide (Ideation)
• Drug Abuse or Addiction
• Alcohol Abuse or Addiction
• Smoking or other Tobacco Use
• Sexually Active - Risky Behavior
• Cutting - Self-Harm or Mutilation
• Adoption Issues - Associated with RAD
• Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD)
• Eating Disorder (Anorexia, Bulimia)
• Learning Disabilities - Diagnosed?

This page has been enhanced to provide you with as much information as possible to help with Attachment Disorders and Treatment Centers that work with adoption problems.

Review the resources below and in the columns of this page. InsightPros.Com is committed to providing you relevant information to serve your needs as a parent or guardian of adopted teens with Attachment Disorder. Check back often and thouroughly research this site as we continually add and alter the resources provided.

Unfortunately, Love Doesn't Always Conquer All

Christine and Tony Edwards live in an elegant house in a quiet country village. They are friendly, charming people who have spent 30 years raising their six children. But it has not been easy. Their world was nearly blown apart by Ruth, their adopted daughter. She was so traumatised by her pre-adoption experiences that not only was she incapable of integrating into the family, but she was on a mission to disrupt it for everyone else.

The Edwards, both teachers, took Ruth into their home when she was 10 months old. They were well aware of the emotional problems children suffer when they spend several years in care before being adopted, but thought that with a baby, they would not have the same worries. The couple clearly love children and already had four of their own when Ruth came to them. "We were told that her natural mother never saw her after she was born and that she wasn't shown much affection in her early months," Christine says. "We thought that if we loved her enough, she would recover. We were never warned to expect anything else."

By the age of five, Ruth was exhibiting a range of outlandish behaviour. "She would never make eye contact, and her body was very stiff," Christine says. "She couldn't accept affection and she hardly ever slept. She told blatant, ridiculous lies from an early age and was very violent, smashing up furniture and throwing ornaments. She was also stealing, but the biggest problem was that she seemed to want total control of everything around her. Even issues such as getting dressed and eating meals became a battle.

"We always treated her as our own and we all felt sad about what she'd been through. I ran the house around her, trying not to upset her because she'd get so angry."

What the family didn't know was that Ruth was displaying classic symptoms of attachment disorder - an inability to form ordinary human relationships. In the past, this condition has always been associated with children who have been damaged by early years in care, and who were placed with a family when it was too late for them to adjust. But professionals are realising that attachment disorders may develop in babies who are adopted at only a few months old - or younger.

Sheila Fearnley, a psychotherapist who has spent most of ther professional life in this area, says: "These children are not able to form positive attachments. Their early attachment cycle was abnormal and they didn't learn how to receive bonding and affection." The beginnings of the disorder, she believes, may even develop when the baby is still in the womb.

"If the pregnancy is concealed or unwanted, if abortion is attempted or if the child is separated from its mother at birth, the baby comes into the world with negative messages."

The result is that these children seem to live in another dimension. "I call them 'bubble' children," says Ms Fearnley. "They can't make emotional connections. One boy said to me 'It's like Japanese. I can hear every word you say but I don't understand it.' "

Other indicators of the condition include cruelty towards animals, lack of conscience, a pre-occupation with blood and gore and what Tony Edwards describes as a "very deep, penetrating and sinister stare". One of the most frustrating aspects is that normal parenting will not penetrate the "bubble" - all the love and accommodation the family showed toward Ruth had little apparent effect.

By the age of 14, Ruth was almost out of control. She regularly threw carving knives round the house, carried weapons of broken glass and spent the nights roaming inside and out. The family were on tenterhooks. Things came to a head one day when she made a frenzied attack on the house - breaking furniture, tearing down shelves and smashing windows. It took several police officers to restrain her. Ruth was removed from the family home and placed in residential care.

The family admit their immediate feeling was one of tremendous relief. "We were also very hurt and confused," says Christine. "She'd been with us nearly all her life. We thought, how could it come to this?" Ruth stayed in care until she was 17, with the family visiting regularly. Christine attended every case conference in the hope of trying to understand her daughter's problems. But little progress was made, largely, the Edwards feel, because Ruth's problems were never fully recognised. After coming out of care, Ruth's life continued along similarly chaotic lines - back with the Edwards for a short while, there was even one occasion when she tried to set fire to them.

Twenty-five years after Ruth was adopted, her family has finally been proved right. She is in a psychiatric unit, diagnosed as having a form of attachment disorder which stems from experiences in her babyhood.

The diagnosis, says Christine, gave her and her husband "an overwhelming sense of relief. At last we can make some sense of all the pain we've been through." Two years ago, the Edwards discovered the Attachment Parents' Network, set up to help parents of such children by a charity, Parent to Parent Information on Adoption Services. One of APN's most important functions is to show parents that they are not alone and that their child's problems are not their fault. "I used to feel so desperate I thought I might fall apart," recalls Christine. "Just knowing about attachment disorder would've been a great help."

To continue this article, please click here: RAD Programs

Author: Julia Brosnan, The Independent (London), August 6, 1996

Bibliography for "Unfortunately, Love Doesn't Always Conquer All"

Julia Brosnan "Unfortunately, love doesn't always conquer all". Independent, The (London). Aug 6, 1996.

(For additional information relating to Attachment Disorder Treatment Options, see: Attachment Disorder Adoption, Attachment Disorder Treatment Centers, Attachment Disorder Treatment Options, RAD Programs, RAD Schools, RAD Treatment, Reactive Attachment Disorder in Teens, Reactive Attachment Disorder Therapy, and Reactive Attachment Disorder Treatment)

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