Attachment Disorders
Attachment is an important connection that develops between children and their parents/caregivers. This connection starts to grow immediately, within the first few years of life and is the foundation which fosters a child’s healthy development of emotions and social connections with others. This bond is instinctual, as babies instinctively seek out protection and safety and parents instinctively protect their offspring.
Healthy attachment to caregivers gives children a secure setting to explore their environment safely, learn basic trust, and cultivate their own identities and core beliefs about themselves and the world around them. These lessons learned as children endure into adulthood and serve as templates for healthy relationships, coping skills, and secure attachments as parents with their own children.
What Happens When Healthy Attachment Doesn’t Happen?
Children with Attachment Disorders have failed to develop a secure attachment to their parents/caregivers or have developed maladaptive attachments. Children with Attachment Disorders are more likely to have emotional (depression, anxiety), behavioral (aggressive, defiant), and cognitive (negative thoughts about self, attention issues) problems as they grow. They then perpetuate this pattern as parents.
High-Risk Factors for Attachment Disorders
Families struggling with:
High stress (marital conflict, divorce, etc.)
Substance abuse
Poverty
Domestic violence
Abuse or Neglect
Prolonged absence (prison, hospital, etc.)
Parents/Caregivers who struggle with:
Psychological disorder(s) (Bipolar, Post-partum Depression, etc.)
Poor attachment to their own parents/caregivers as children
Teenage parenting
Children with Attachment Disorders can be challenging to treat because of the fact that coping mechanisms learned through healthy or unhealthy attachment become ingrained in a child’s (and later an adult’s) daily functioning. These core beliefs become the filter through which a person interprets everything in life. These children are not impossible to treat, however. Psychological counseling can help someone with Attachment Disorder develop healthy attachments and can help change negative core beliefs and negative thoughts about themselves, others, and the world. Connect with the Intake Team at Avenues of Counseling and Mediation to get set up with one of the counselors in our Medina or Akron, Ohio offices who specialize in Attachment Disorders.
Also, Family Therapy can help parents learn how to enhance and encourage the growth of healthy and secure attachments with their children as they mature.