attachment

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My hfa/15 year old dd is adopted too...we got her at 12 days old. She was originally diagnosed ADHD/ODD in 2nd grade, then AS in 6th grade and now Aspergers/social anxiety in 9th grade. I think she may have rapid cycling bipolar too but my psych dr is not ready to diagnose that yet. She has always had somewhat of an 'attachment' problem with us too...I'd like to learn more about that. She is attached and shows it by her dependency yet she won't say "i love you" or hug us or anything...and she didn't do it too often BEFORE she became a hormonal teenage girl either!

maralee

Re: Hello, I've just joined this list. Need help.

Hi Geraldine,Welcome to the list and welcome to the world of confusing diagnosis'. I, like you, would have some serious questions about an AS diagnosis due to the conditions your daughter endured the first years of her life. I, too, am an adoptive parent and I know of many parents who have adopted from Russia. Russia is notorious for their children with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome/Effect and Attachment Disorders. Both of these conditions can be confused with AS, and/or can be in addition to AS. I have four children on the spectrum and two of them have FAS/E. What I have learned over the years is that the actual diagnosis isn't so much the issue as the characteristics and how they are individually addressed. I am seeing so much cross-over between AS disorders and BP disoder and FAS/E that I think a lot of times no one will ever really know what caused these behaviors in children who have been adopted. In our case, the birthmother of our two with both FAS/E and AS was known to the system as a severe alcoholic and she appeared to have FAS/E herself. Her parents, too, were alcoholics.If you'd like I can give you some good sites to research FAS/E and Attachment Disorder. I belong to some really goo groups that deal with this every day. One woman I know adopted all three of her daughters from Russia and they had all had horrible beginnings in an orphanage. They all have FAS and Attachment Disorder. I can put you in touch with her.Your daughter sounds SO SIMILAR to my ten year old son! He is totally obsessed with Egypt and mummies and dead bodies (I don't know what a "bog person" is, but it sounds like something that would definitely intrigue him). He also says and does outrageous things. He is currently attending a prvaie therapeutic school, paid for by the district, because they could not longer handle him in public school.Anyway, let me know if I can help!na Geraldine