Reactive attachment disorder is most common among children who experience physical or emotional neglect or abuse. While not as common, older children can also develop RAD.
Bowlby identified four types of attachment styles: secure, anxious-ambivalent, disorganised and avoidant.
The most difficult type of insecure attachment is the disorganized attachment style. It is often seen in people who have been physically, verbally, or sexually abused in their childhood.
Causes of attachment issues
Their caregiver responds inconsistently or is unreliable in their care. The child has multiple or changing primary caregivers or insensitive caregivers. The child experiences neglect. They experience trauma.
Attachment trauma may occur if there are traumatic experiences in the home while a baby is forming the bond, and it also may result from the absence of the primary caregiver, such as from divorce, serious illness, or death.
Children who have attachment issues can develop two possible types of disorders: Reactive Attachment Disorder and Disinhibited Social Engagement Disorder. Children with RAD are less likely to interact with other people because of negative experiences with adults in their early years.
"Disorganized attachment style is said to be the most difficult of the three insecure attachment styles to treat or change," Feuerman says. But it's important to know that your attachment style can shift over time — you can develop a secure attachment style by changing the way you act and think.
The results indicated that anxious and avoidant attachment styles significantly predicted both history of divorce and single versus partnered relationship status.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is Associated with Attachment Insecurity. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 7(2), 179-198.
Individuals with an anxious attachment style are characterized with: Being clingy. Having an intensely persistent and hypervigilant alertness towards their partner's actions or inactions.
Some studies showed that differences in attachment styles seem to influence both the frequency and the patterns of jealousy expression: individuals with the preoccupied or fearful-avoidant attachment styles more often become jealous and consider rivals as more threatening than those with the secure attachment style [9, ...
Being disconnected or disengaged from the feelings of other people (detachment) Withdrawal from connections. Inability to maintain serious romantic or platonic relationships. Inability to show affection.
A pediatric psychiatrist or psychologist can conduct a thorough, in-depth examination to diagnose reactive attachment disorder. Your child's evaluation may include: Direct observation of interaction with parents or caregivers. Details about the pattern of behavior over time.
Machiavellian personalities are scheming and deceitful by nature, and very manipulative in relationships. People with certain attachment styles — namely disorganized and anxious-avoidant — are more prone to developing Machiavellian personalities.
Narcissists have insecure attachment styles that are either avoidant or anxious, or some combination. People with insecure attachment styles feel a basic insecurity stemming from relationships with early caregivers.
People with an anxious attachment style are constantly seeking more intimacy and reassurances in their relationships, often coming off as "needy" partners, whereas people with an avoidant attachment style tend to do the opposite and push others away out of a fear of intimacy.
People who are high in attachment-related avoidance fear being dependent on others and opening up. People with insecure attachment styles (anxious or avoidant) tend not to approach conflict head on.
What is toxic attachment? Toxic attachment denotes the way in which we form our closest and most intimate bonds. More often than not, when we talk about toxic attachment, we're talking about behaviors like jealousy, dominance, manipulation, selfishness and desperation.
Most often, anxious attachment is due to misattuned and inconsistent parenting. Low self-esteem, strong fear of rejection or abandonment, and clinginess in relationships are common signs of this attachment style.
Patients with both bipolar and unipolar depression displayed significantly higher scores on attachment-related avoidance as compared with patients with epilepsy and non-clinical participants. Also, patients with bipolar depression scored significantly higher on attachment-related anxiety than all other groups.
As predicted by the attachment theory, negative life events (including parental loss during childhood) were important factors in changing the attachment pattern for the remaining 28% of the participants (Waters et al., 2000). People with different attachment patterns can exhibit different grief reactions (Field, 2006).
If parents are neglectful or physically abusive, children may be more likely to develop insecure attachment styles (e.g., avoidant or anxious).