Reactive Attachment Disorder (DSD)

Reactive Attachment Disorder or just in general attachment disorders, has a typical onset seen before the age of 5. The disorder normally originates in the stage of infancy. As the child reaches their preschool and school-age years, the serious effects of the disruption in attachment relationships start to present themselves and manifest. As the child reaches the stage of adolescent and then through adulthood, the forms of the disorder are more commonly seen in the relationships that the person develops. These relationships often are surrounded by mistrust and the ability of building a supportive, intimate, and sensitive relationship is often lacking. Children who are diagnosed with RAD develop a severe impairment in their value system due
To these children, their behavior is logical and have the attitude that “No-one cared about me, so why should I care about anyone?”. (Fernandez, 2015)The question that then comes into consideration when exploring the disorders of RAD and DSED is how these specific attachment disorders develop during childhood. Starting as an infant, our environmental background is crucial to the way we develop. In cases of children diagnosed with RAD or DSED, the environment that they reside in is one that is considered to be seriously adverse and neglectful caregiving. These environments may be one containing physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, parental alcoholism, parental drug use, parental mental illness (i.e. maternal depression), and absence of a consistent primary caregiver such as the child being institutionalized/orphanage, foster care, maternal/paternal incarceration, and parental abandonment (Hornor, 2008). With DSED specifically, many of these children have been subjected to multiple foster homes or have lived with different caregivers causing for multiple disruptions in their attachment