Attachment From My View Point

Hope and I survived the weekend. The psychiatrist Monday cancelled, but we got in touch by email and decided that all the clonidine was doing was making Hope tired, so we stopped the morning and afternoon doses.


I was a little surprised at the responses to my two last posts. I hadn't realized or  even considered how many people feel entitled to judge my lives' work.


Monday, after meeting with the waiver worker, we drove down to Philadelphia and had the pleasure of spending the evening with friends. On Tuesday, we spent most of the day with the Attachment Therapist. The Dad and I took the first two hours and then my friend brought Hope to join us.


It was a long and tiring afternoon. These are the things I took with me when we left.

• Hope experienced a lot of trauma, most of it when she was pre-verbal.

• She is on the severe end of the Reactive Attachment Disorder spectrum.

• There are small chinks in her armor that the Attachment Therapist thinks she can work with.

• Hope had much more difficulty maintaining eye contact with the Dad. She really struggled.

• Hope found it easier to maintain eye contact with me.

• The Attachment Therapist was pleased with what we have done so far.

• She thinks she will need 6 or 7 days for Hope's intensive instead of the usual 10.

 Now we have to match schedules.


Hope held it together  for most of the session. Of course, once Hope was in the car to go home, she fell apart and raged. We weren't surprised.

Attachment is so fundamental, I hope we can schedule Hope's intensive quickly. The Attachment Therapist believes that after Hope does the work of the intensive, all the other services she receives will  be much more effective.