Attachment Disorder

[chrislife]

Does anyone here know anything about Attachment Disorder? I have a number of questions on the subject.
1. Do you know if there is a site with the diagnostic guidelines?
2. How early or late can it develop? Can it happen after infancy, like in the preschool years?
3. Do you tell the young person about it?
4. What kind of prognosis is there for teens with attachment disorder?
5. How is it differentiated from Oppositional Defiance Disorder?

I'd really appreciate any info you might have.
Thanks.
---Christina

 

[Leanna]

I have never heard of Attachment disorder and even got out my abnormal psych book to look it up and it is not in there. Does it have another name? And what is Oppositional Defiance Disorder? Is that like Antisocial Personality Disorder? You can't have that until you are an adult, but children with conduct issues can become adults who have APD. I doubt very much that someone as young as preschool has a disorder.... issues with obedience and respect maybe, but not a disorder. It could be ADD or ADHD but I wouldn't even rush to that conclusion. What's the problem?

 

[chrislife]

Most of the adopted children I've known have had attachment disorder. From what I've read, typically it forms when a baby is abandoned or suddenly taken permanently from his or her mother after bonding, but I've also heard of it happening with babies whose mothers never bonded with them to begin with. So I know that the trigger is generally thought to happen by 6-9 months, but I'm wondering if the trigger can happen later.

What I do know about attachment disorder and what it means is that a child does not bond normally. Typically it means, for example, that an adopted child has trouble bonding fully (or in extreme cases, at all) with his adopted family, but instead feels completely responsible to meet all of his own needs.

In adopted children, it's fairly straightforward. I'm wondering, though, how it might apply with children who are not adopted but have had other major upheavals early in life. Meanwhile, I guess I'm still googling for info.

---Christina

 

[BeanMak]

I did a google search and came up with a lot of web sites. This one gave LOTS of information
http://members.tripod.com/~radclass/

 

[Leanna]

Well to some of your other original problems, if you do think a child of yours has this I would definitely NOT tell them. Don't even talk about it where your other children can hear. Labels can do terrible things to people. It can become a self fulfilling prophecy, many studies have been done on this. In one study, they took a group of kids that tested the same and told the teacher that certain ones were "gifted" and others were not, and by the end of the year the ones they had told the teacher were gifted became gifted because they were treated gifted. I would be afraid if a kid heard they had an attachment disorder that it would only get worse rather than better, or develop even if its not there. Surely adopted kids have a hard time adjusting but that doesn't mean they never adjust either. It might just take some time and patience. If a kid thinks they have a problem forming bonds that might prevent them from ever trying.