One of the known risks of adopting a child from an orphanage is Reactive Attachment Disorder. Individuals with the most serious level of this personality disorder are unable to give and receive love. They cannot develop the ability to form successful relationships, or accept responsibility
One of the known risks of adopting a child from an orphanage is Reactive Attachment Disorder. Individuals with the most serious level of this personality disorder are unable to give and receive love. They cannot develop the ability to form successful relationships, or accept responsibility for their actions, and lack cause-and-effect thinking, empathy towards others, and a conscience. They are typically angry, oppositional, defiant and do not trust others. While Insecure Attachment can be ambivalent, avoidant or disoriented-disorganized, Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) is a continuum, from very mild attachment issues to the severe cases of extreme autistic or sociopathic behavior. Some people prefer to label milder cases as attachment problems, and limit the term Reactive Attachment Disorder to serious cases.
Until recently, many adoptive parents assumed that only post-institutionalized children adopted as toddlers and older were at risk of developing Reactive Attachment Disorder and that babies under age one would quickly and completely overcome early emotional deprivation once they were in a loving family. Indeed, this may be a factor in choosing only to adopt an infant. But many adoptive parents are discovering that children who seemed to have attached well as infants begin to display symptoms of attachment problems as toddlers, preschoolers, or in elementary school. As they grow older, new inappropriate behaviors, typically more extreme or excessive than developmentally normal, may indicate emerging unresolved attachment issues.
WHY DO POST-INSTITUTIONALIZED CHILDREN DEVELOP ATTACHMENT PROBLEMS?
For normal emotional development, babies need a primary caregiver who responds quickly, consistently and lovingly to their demands, so they learn that their needs for food, clean diapers, pain relief, etc will be met. Through these interactions, they develop trust and attachment. Babies need to feel that their world is safe and secure. The baby has an internal cycle of need-rage-relief-trust, which should be completed hundreds and hundreds of times. Babies also need a one-on-one interaction with a caring individual who cuddles, plays interactive games, sings and talks to them. They need to be touched, to receive and give smiles, and to get lots of eye contact from a loving caregiver. This consistent, constant, warm and playful interaction with the caregiver is how a baby learns to receive and to give love.
Orphanages cannot provide continuous individual one-on-one c