Attachment Disorder in Adults: Signs, Symptoms, & Help

Attachment disorder in adults refers to various difficulties associated with reading emotions, showing affection, and trusting others. Attachment disorders often begin in childhood and can affect everything from a person’s self-esteem to the satisfaction they feel in relationships. Mental health treatment can help people with attachment disorders become more aware of their attachment styles and learn how to communicate their needs properly to prevent depressive or anxious symptoms.

What Are Attachment Disorders in Adults?

Attachment disorders are based on attachment theory, which is how we connect, trust, and attach ourselves to others. This theory focuses on relationships, such as the dynamics between a child and a caregiver or the relationship between two romantic partners.

There are four types of attachment styles:

• Secure attachment: Positive emotional bonds with self and others.
• Anxious attachment: Desire for intimacy, anxiety in relationships, feeling like others are emotionally unavailable to them.
• Avoidant/dismissive attachment: Trouble with intimacy, feel uncomfortable with closeness and affection, seek independence.
• Disorganized attachment: Intense, chaotic relationship patterns that usually consist of a combination of desiring closeness while pushing people away.

These attachment styles usually emerge in childhood, and they continue to impact the types of relationships the individual has throughout their life.

Types of Attachment Disorders in Adults

According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), there are two childhood attachment disorders - each of which produces symptoms that ebb and flow over time - reactive attachment disorder and disinhibited social engagement disorder. However, an adult who is suspected of having an attachment disorder must have shown symptoms between the ages of nine months and five years.

In the same cases, children receive appropriate treatment for attachment disorder, but if not, the individual may struggle with long-term problems like self-esteem and relationship problems in their adulthood. Below we discuss the two main types of attachment disorders in adults:

Reactive Attachment Disorder in Adults

Reactive attachment disorder (RAD) is a rare condition that takes root when a child doesn’t maintain healthy attachments with caregivers. Those struggling with RAD usually don’t find comfort in others. For this reason, they rarely show positive emotions when socializing with caregivers. Instead, they may be sad, irritable, or unhappy.

This lack of a positive or proper attachment often happens when the child doesn’t have their needs met, often in situations of neglect or abuse. Because RAD focuses on symptoms present in young children, the DSM-5 states that signs must be recognized before the age of five.

Below are common reactive attachment disorder symptoms in adults:

• 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
• Resistance to receiving love
• Control issues
• Anger problems
• Impulsivity
• Distrustful
• Inability to fully grasp emotions
• Feelings of emptiness or numbness
• Lack of sense of belonging

Disinhibited Social Engagement Disorder in Adults

Disinhibited social engagement disorder (DSED) is a disorder that impacts one’s ability to form strong, meaningful, and long-term relationships with others. Children with this condition also won’t usually show a typical fear associated with strangers. Instead, they tend to be overly friendly or preoccupied with gaining a stranger’s attention.

Like RAD, DSED emerges in childhood and is often a response to a lack of proper care from a caregiver. Some children with this condition also grew up in settings like orphanages and shelters and received little one-on-one attention.

Common disinhibited social engagement disorder symptoms include:

• Being overly excited when interacting with new people.
• Being excessively friendly, chatty, and wanting to touch strangers (in ways that are outside of age-appropriate or cultural norms.)
• Feeling unconcerned about being left alone with a stranger or feeling safe leaving with them.
• Disinterest in talking with caregivers during emotionally challenging times.
• Feeling excited instead of shy or scared when meeting strangers or unknown people.
• ‌They are extremely friendly, chatty, or physically close with strangers.
• ‌They behave in a socially unacceptable manner (according to social or cultural norms.)
• ‌They feel safe leaving a safe space to go away with a stranger.
• ‌They don’t ask their caregiver before going away with a stranger.
• They don’t hesitate about going away with a stranger.
• ‌They are impulsive and socially disinhibited.
• ‌They have not been cared for adequately or have a history of trauma or abuse.

Attachment disorder symptoms in adults usually present themselves in childhood. Attachment disorders are formal psychiatric disorders that can affect individuals in their adulthood if they did not receive proper treatment as children.

Attachment disorders are also linked to childhood trauma, neglect, and abuse. For this reason, individuals with attachment disorders may also struggle with co-occurring disorders like anxiety disorders, depression, ADHD, eating disorders, and more.

How Can Different Types of Relationships Affect Attachment Security?

The nature of your relationships can significantly influence your sense of attachment security. According to research, attachment styles are not fixed and can evolve over time, shifting based on your experiences in various relationships.

• Negative Relationships: Experiencing an unhealthy or toxic relationship can erode your sense of attachment security, making you feel more anxious or avoidant.

• Positive Relationships: Conversely, being in supportive and loving relationships can enhance your attachment security, helping you feel more secure and confident in your connections.

This means that your attachment style with one person might differ from your attachment style with another, depending on the dynamics of those relationships. Over time, accumulated experiences from different relationships can lead to more substantial changes in how secure you feel in forming and maintaining bonds with others.

The quality of your relationships plays a pivotal role in shaping and reshaping your attachment security throughout your life.

What Hormone Is Associated With Fostering The Process Of Attachment?

The hormone linked to the development of attachment is oxytocin. Neuroscientists have discovered that certain neural networks in the brain are specifically designed to initiate and support this bonding process. Oxytocin plays a crucial role in facilitating and nurturing these connections.

What Do Neuroscientists Believe About The Nature Of Attachment?

Neuroscientists view attachment as a fundamental human necessity. They propose that specific neural networks in the brain are devoted to initiating this crucial emotional bond. Additionally, they identify oxytocin, a hormone, as a key player in nurturing and strengthening these connections.

Our Florida Mental Health Rehab Can Help

Our Banyan Mental Health Center can help people with attachment disorders learn to manage their symptoms, process trauma, and manage any co-occurring mental health disorders they have. Although we do not specialize in attachment disorder treatment, we do offer other programs at our treatment center for mental health that can help adults with attachment disorders understand the source of their disorders and symptoms.

To learn how our Florida mental health treatment can help you or a loved one regain their mental well-being, call Banyan Treatment Centers today at 888-280-4763.

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