What is Avoidant Detachment Disorder?

Are you struggling with your teen’s behavior? Does your teen have a diagnosis of avoidant detachment disorder, and you’re looking for more information about it? Learning more about avoidant detachment disorder can help parents feel more confident in their ability to support and help struggling teens. It can also help parents learn more effective ways of coping with everything they are faced with.

An understanding of avoidant detachment disorder

To start, it’s essential to understand what attachment styles are. Attachment styles are patterns of behavior or attitudes we display when we connect with those around us. Consider your childhood. Your essential needs, like shelter and food, may have been met.

But you could not connect with your primary caregivers because they didn’t meet your emotional needs. Often, children in foster care or in overseas orphanages are seen with avoidant detachment disorder.

Our parents or other caregivers shape our attachment styles as we grow through life. The closeness, affection, and responsiveness of our parents and caregivers could lead to attachment styles that include one of the following:

• Anxious
• Avoidant
• Disorganized
• Secure

Children who have grown up in households like this often disregard their own needs and struggle to maintain the peace in the home and avoid upsetting their parents or caregivers. They still feel anxiety and sadness. They still struggle with mental health, but they learn to keep it private and deny how important it is to work through these feelings.

Avoidant attachment style is not something we grow out of without the help of mental wellness professionals and therapeutic solutions. It’s also an attachment style that can stay with someone into adulthood. And potentially have an impact on their friendships and romantic relationships.

How you can help your struggling teen

There is no quick fix or easy solution for avoidant detachment disorder. The healing process can take time and will require significant work for the teen and parents. Perhaps one of your teen's most important first steps is learning to establish and build upon self-love.

Self-esteem can be almost non-existent for those struggling with avoidance detachment disorder, which makes it an important part of the healing process. It’s also crucial that teens have a stable and steady home where they can feel safe expressing themselves.

From this point, teens can begin building meaningful and strong connections with others in their lives. These connections can be based on safety, respect, and mutual trust.

Getting your teen help as soon as possible helps him get the right start he needs. There are several options for treatment. Finding the treatment that will work well for your teen can take some time. It’s important not to give up if the first option you try does not provide the positive results you’re looking for.

Some of the treatment options for avoidant detachment disorder may include the following:

• Outpatient therapy with mental health professionals who have experience working with avoidant detachment disorder and teenagers.
• Medication options that can help teens struggling with depression and anxiety. Medication is not suitable for every teenager, so discuss it with your teen’s doctor to ensure it is the right option for him.
• Yoga and meditation. This is an excellent way for a teen to slow down and reconnect with himself, and it’s a great activity you can do with your teen as a part of connecting with him.

It’s also important to treat your teen as an individual who can make some of his own decisions. Involve him in the decisions surrounding the therapies that he begins. Listen to the things he says about how he feels about his treatment.

Ensure your teen knows you are always ready, willing, and able to listen to or talk with him. Open communication with your teen will be one of the most vital ways you bond and form a healthy relationship with one another.

Useful coping tips for parents

How do you cope as a parent to a teen with avoidant detachment disorder? The way that you manage everything your teen is going through will have an impact on his relationship with you. It will also help to keep you from burning out and sacrificing your mental health as you work to help your teen.

These coping tips just might help you along the way:

• Make sure you’re going to therapy to address your mental wellness and needs.
• Get support for yourself from family and friends. Therapy is essential, but being able to vent or get advice from family and friends can help you better cope.
• Take time to enjoy things that help you to relax. Whether that’s running, reading a book, or just quietly reflecting on your day on your patio.
• Focus on physical health as much as mental health. Eat well, stay hydrated, and get plenty of sleep. If your physical health isn’t where it needs to be, you’ll struggle with your mental health even more.

Avoidant detachment disorder can be hard to navigate. But with the right resources, it need not be as much of a challenge.

At Liahona Academy, we pride ourselves on being able to work with teens from all backgrounds and with a wide range of mental wellness concerns. If your teen is struggling with avoidant detachment disorder, we can help. We have treatment plans that are adjusted to fit the needs of the individual.