Abandonment Issues, as defined by Wikipedia, is a behavioral or psychological condition that results from the loss of one or both parents. Abandonment may be physical (the parent is not present in the child’s life) or emotional (the parent withholds affection, nurturing, or stimulation).
A teenager or child can feel abandoned when they are not actually abandoned. For example divorce, death, birth of another sibling, death of a sibling or moving to a new neighborhood, community or state can cause feelings of abandonment.
Sometimes teenagers or children can feel abandoned because of an economic situation rather than a parent actually abandoning them. We live in a world where both parents must work and sometimes more than one job is needed to make ends meet.
Feelings of abandonment include:
- Rejection
- Neglect
- Feeling ignored
- Loneliness
- Forsaken
- Given up
Adopted teenagers often have issues of abandonment and attachment. The official term is Reactive Attachment Disorder or RAD. Reactive Attachment Disorder is characterized by markedly disturbed and developmentally inappropriate ways of relating socially in most situations.
Due to abandonment, adopted teens brain development can be different; they can also have identity issues, independence issues and intimacy issues.
Feeling abandoned is real to the person experiencing it. Sometimes therapy is needed to deal with these feelings. Sometimes getting out of the current situation can be very helpful.
Triumph Youth Services is a licensed residential treatment center with an accredited school for teen boys and young men. They provide 24 hour supervision and the staff and clinicians at Triumph Youth Services specialize in working with adolescents with Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) and abandonment issues using Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). The clinicians are licensed and approved as mental health professionals to provide individual, group and family therapy.
Reference
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abandoned_child_syndrome
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/abandoned
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactive_attachment_disorder
