Surviving Your Child's Emotional Disorder
Part 1: Challengesby Susan M. Ward Living with a child who is diagnosed with an emotional disorder, such as reactive attachment disorder, challenges your perceptions of parenting, family, friends, support, and therapy.
Hannah, adopted at age six, was diagnosed with reactive attachment disorder (RAD) two years after she became my daughter. The diagnosis related to her early years in Russia. RAD can be triggered during the first three years of a child's life when they are learning to trust and love. If babies and toddlers are subjected to poor caregving, neglectful parenting, separation from parents, inattentive parenting, abuse, or multiple homes, they are at risk for reactive attachment disorder. Hannah lived through a combination of these traumas.
When I got Hannah's diagnosis, I was glad to finally have an explanation for her behaviors, and a plan to help her heal. At the same time, I was overwhelmed and scared. Before I adopted Hannah, RAD was the one diagnosis I knew I didn't want to deal with. Now, it was kicking me in the shins.
Kicking me in the shinsUnfortunately, kicking me was one of Hannah's many rage-filled behaviors that I was quite familiar with. Hannah's violence toward me was the underlying challenge that I dealt with on a daily basis before we found the right therapist. Additionally, Hannah was oppositional, controlling, lacking in trust, hyper-vigilant, and unable to understand cause and effect in certain situations.
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Finding the right therapist > Page 1,
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[Susan Ward is the founder of Heritage Communications and maintains Older Child Adoption Online Magazine. She adopted her daughter, Hannah, at age six from Russia.]
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