I thought I'd post a quick update on my daughter Julia. Most of you know she is 7, adopted about 17 months ago from Russia. Recently, we received a RAD diagnosis.
However, we started attachment therapy yesterday (with a real attachment therapist) and it appears we are dealing primarily with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and this leads, in Julia's case, to some attachment problems. The trauma comes from being born in the hospital in Russia and signed over immediately to the orphanage. Hence, most of the trauma is physiological, not psychological, hence the need to treat it a particular way.
Now we just have had two sessions with this doctor (and only 1 in which he worked with Julia), but I must tell you that I think he is on to something.
Anyhow, this is a good example of why it is important to find a good attachment therapist (NOT a regular therapist who does cognitive/behavioral therapy). If he had continued to try and treat her RAD w/out treating the PTSD, we would have gone nowhere. And that's about as far as we'd gone anyhow.
Here is an excellent overview of it and its connection to orphans.
http://www.attach-china.org/ptsd.html#anchor1548260
SO, those of you reading up on attachment and reactive attachment, include PTSD in orphans on your reading list.
Mike