AMERICAN INDIAN ADOPTEES: GUEST POST: Reactive Attachment Disorder by Levi Eagle Feather. Part One
Many times, emotionally, mentally and spiritually we become lost and tired within the hubbub of it all. What else can we do but feel lost. As far as adoption goes the whole basic, being separated from the herd to which you belong thingy. Something which we all have experienced is pretty much the icing on the cake of it all. It not only disrupted our natural experience of familial roots and belonging which is the core of our birthright, but it screwed with everyone else’s experience as well. It removed all of us at the same time from that first belonging which showed us and told us to whom and how it is that we belong. It’s been very hard for me to square myself with that even to this day!
While the boarding school process and the relocation process do basically the same thing that the adoption process does as far as removing one from the herd.
Knowing that “belonging” isn’t there is easy to understand. It also is easy to understand why someone might be skeptical about wanting to have anything to do with who and what they are being redirected to. And it doesn’t have anything to do with any wow factor or how cool something might be either.
Naturally, situations like this will affect ones behavior. The Mayo clinic says that some of the signs and symptoms of someone experiencing a RAD condition may include:· Withdrawal, fear, sadness or irritability that is not readily explained· Sad and listless appearance· Not seeking comfort or showing no response when comfort is given· Failure to smile· Watching others closely but not engaging in social interaction· Failing to ask for support or assistance· Failure to reach out when picked up· No interest in playing peekaboo or other interactive games [3]I was four when this all began for me. Since that time not much in my life has been acceptable to me. In a “feeling about it” kind of way. Something is always missing or just not quite right!
Lara Trace Hentz 