Attachment Disorder: The Inability to Connect, or Too Clingy?

One of the strangest and most complicated types of behavior disorders is known as attachment disorder. It has no definitive set of symptoms, can only be developed during a specific time span, and manifests itself as different behaviors as a person ages. This can make diagnosis and treatment a daunting task, especially since a huge part of understanding attachment disorder comes from an evaluation of the child's relationship with their primary care givers.

Attachment disorder is the failure to form normal attachments and relationships to familiar figures, especially caregivers. Children with this condition have distorted or a complete absence of age-appropriate relationships or attachments. It is thought to be caused when young children (ages 6 months to 3 years) are neglected, have many different caregivers, are abused, or are ignored. Though these experiences can be distressing to children over 3 years of age, it is not believed to cause attachment disorder.

Depending on the age of the child, symptoms and behaviors can be different. A child with attachment disorder may exhibit behaviors such as:

Attachment disorder is commonly seen in adopted children that spent their early development being shifted through foster care or with negelctive parents. Diagnosis can be difficult for families, because it requires a deeper look at how the child was treated when they were often too young to communicate or care for themselves, which is often outside the control of the concerned caregiver for a variety of reasons, but mostly because the caregiver is usually not the child's parent or guardian when they were infants.

Thankfully, children suffering from attachment disorder can be helped through the guidance of trained and experienced health care professionals and are capable of reaching their full potential both socially and educationally.