What is Reactive Attachment Disorder in Adults?

Making strong, safe emotional connections is important for relationships and better mental health. But for some people, early experiences of neglect, loss, or not getting enough care can make it hard for them to trust and connect with others later in life. These conflicts and lack of enough care during early stage of life cause reactive attachment disorder in adults.

If the symptoms of reactive attachment disorders which start in childhood not treated well lasts in adulthood as well. Reactive attachment disorder in adults make it difficult for adults to connect with others. This cause in adults to trust others to talk with others about their feelings. In this article we will tell you how to diagnose reactive attachment disorder in adults? How you can treat it?

Diagnostic criteria of Reactive Attachment Disorder in adults?

Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) start to develop in early childhood. This cause lack of interest and emotional bond of child with caregivers. The diagnostic criteria of reactive attachment disorder is adults according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5-TR, is:

Diagnostic Criteria A.

Individual with reactive attachment disorder show emotionally withdrawn and inhibited behavior toward adult caregivers. These behaviors are shown as

1. The individual rarely seek emotional comfort when he or she is distressed.
2. The individual rarely respond to comfort from caregivers when distressed.

Diagnostic Criteria B.

Individual feel significant emotional and social disturbance from at least two of following mentioned symptoms:

1. Lack of emotional and social response to others.
2. Limited positive affect.
3. Unexplained episodes of sadness, irritability and fearfulness with adult caregivers.

Diagnostic Criteria C.

Child if have experienced insufficient care evidenced by one of the following:

1. Persistently lack of comfort, care, and affection from caregiving adults.
2. Change of primary caregiver repetitively that did not develop stable connection between individual and caregiver.
3.  Unusual nurturing setting for individual limit the opportunities for individual to form selective attachments.

Diagnostic Criteria D.

The care according to diagnostic criteria C is responsible for the behaviors mentioned in criteria A.

Diagnostic Criteria E.

The diagnostic criteria of RAD does not match with the diagnostic criteria of ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder).

Diagnostic Criteria F.

The symptoms mentioned above must appear before 5 years of age.

As children need more affection, and strong and stable emotional connection with their care givers. When child do not get affection and care from care givers they start to hiding their feelings and start to keeping others at a distance from them. Reactive attachment disorder is mostly diagnosed in children but it is also diagnosed in adults.

How Early Childhood Experiences Affect Attachment?

How you interact with other people is greatly affected by what you went through as kids. When a child gets a lot of love, attention, and comfort all the time, they form a stable attachment, which means they believe they can trust others and that connections are safe.

When caregivers don’t meet a child’s emotional or physical needs, the attachment becomes weak. As time goes on, the child might start to think that emotional connection leads to rejection or sadness.

A child who was neglected during crying episodes or resided in an unstable setting, such as foster care, may exhibit attachment disorders. These things set off emotional patterns that last into adulthood, making it hard to make and keep healthy relationships.

What does it mean for adults to have reactive attachment disorder?

When Reactive Attachment Disorder lasts into adulthood, it has small but important effects on feelings, behavior, and relationships. Adults with RAD frequently find it difficult to express affection, trust others, or receive love.

Common signs of Reactive Attachment Disorder in adults.

1. Adults who find it hard to connect emotionally may stay away from relationships altogether.
2. Not making eye contact can be uncomfortable and show that you are emotionally distant.
3. Individual feel numbness, trouble in showing their feelings when they are upset.
4. Lack of strong bonding with caregivers in childhood causes trouble and afraid of rejection.
5. Individual feel emotional withdrawal from others.
6. Individual always have fear of closeness. They avoid making close and strong emotional connections with others.
7. Individual with RAD try to control their relationships due to the fear of losing them.

Symptoms of reactive attachment disorder can look like those of other mental health problems, like autism spectrum disorder, depression, or personality disorders. That’s why it’s so important to get a correct RAD diagnosis from a mental health professional.

How RAD is different from Autism Spectrum Disorder?

Reactive Attachment Disorder and autism spectrum disorder share certain symptoms, such as evading eye contact and difficulties in forming social connections; however, their etiologies are different.

RAD is caused by not getting enough emotional support or care when you were a child, which makes it harder to trust and bond with others.

Autism, on the other hand, is a neurodevelopmental disorder with biological origins that affect behavior, social interaction, and communication.

Knowing the difference helps doctors give the right treatment for Reactive Attachment Disorder and not make mistakes in diagnosis.

The Emotional Consequences of RAD in Adults:

Adults with Reactive Attachment Disorder often have profound internal conflict, as they want for intimacy while fearing rejection. They may want love and connection, but when things get too emotional in a relationship, they pull away from other people. People with RAD show jealousy, emotional distance and mistrust. They have difficulty to handle criticism from others. Some unresolved traumas of childhood make people more anxious and hopeless.

How to treat Reactive Attachment Disorder in adults?

The good news is that adults with Reactive Attachment Disorder in adults can get better with time, patience, and the right kind of treatment. Setting up trust, learning how to control your emotions, and making healthy attachment patterns are all important parts of healing.

1. Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy helps people find and change their negative thoughts into more positive ones. For instance, an adult with RAD might think that “people always leave,” which would make them stay away from personal relationships. CBT works against these kinds of thoughts by encouraging more balanced thinking, like “Some people can be trusted.”

This method lowers stress, makes it easier to talk to each other, and helps relationships last longer.

2. Attachment Therapies

This therapy helps people see how things that happened to them as kids affect their relationships as adults. It focuses on building stable attachments by gradually becoming more aware of your feelings and learning to trust others.

3. Group Therapy

Being in therapy with supportive friends or family members’ helps people be more open about their feelings and understand each other better.

4. Mindfulness Exercises

Mindfulness helps adults deal with their feelings instead of avoiding them. It helps the healing process, lowers the amount of time you spend thinking too much, and gives you better control over your emotions.

5. Long-term help

It takes time to get over Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD), which is very common in early life. For long-term growth, you need to go to therapy regularly, join support groups, and do activities that help you become more aware of yourself.

How to make emotional connections that are good for you?

It takes time to learn how to make healthy emotional connections, but anyone can do it. Here are some small but helpful things you can do to heal:

• Know when you feel distant, defensive, or scared of getting close.
• Be honest with others.
• Don’t keep your feelings to yourself; tell people you trust how you feel.
• Set limits, healthy limits make relationships feel safer and more predictable.
• Empathy is the ability to feel what someone else is feeling without judging them.
• Celebrate progress, every little thing you do to build trust and openness is important.
• As an adult, it may take work to build a stable relationship, but it can change your emotional life for the better, making your connections more fulfilling and your mental health better.