Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD): The Essential Guide for Parents

by Keri Williams, Rebekah Digavero (Editor)

No platitudes or false hopes here, only practical suggestions that actually work! Adopting or fostering a child with Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) is beyond challenging. They may have violent outbursts, engage in outlandish lying, steal, play with feces, and hoard food. With histories of early childhood trauma, kids with RAD too often break even the most loving of caregivers. Many parents of these children feel utterly isolated as family, friends, and professionals minimize the struggles.

Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) - The Essential Guide for Parents comes from a parent who’s in the trenches with you. Keri has lived the journey of raising a son with RAD and has navigated the mental health system for over a decade.

Genres: Parenting, Psychology, Mental Health

112 pages, Paperback

Published May 14, 2018

Reviews

[Kelsey Bowers · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book validates parents of children with RAD….. feels good to know you’re not alone. Still looking for recommendations on books with advice on how to keep siblings of children with RAD safe especially at night time when everyone else is asleep

[Heather Pledger · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this book in hopes to gain some information on RAD. My daughter has recently been diagnosed and I wanted something that made me feel supported. I did feel like I wasn’t alone but her generalization about RAD also terrified me. She made it seem like children with RAD are heartless monsters. I feel like this book did more harm than good.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Needed to here I’m not alone

This is a good book for parents new to RAD. I appreciate the reminders through the book that it isn’t is (moms) that caused this. I also appreciate the acknowledgment of the ugly side of RAD. Good book for some validation and resources.

[bryan fenske · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great resources and advice

I think as parent(s) we prepare for anything, give everything and expect nothing.We all hope that by subscribing to that philosophy that everyone will live happily ever after at the end. Yeah, not so much in this case. I read this book as an additional resource for PPT/PRIDE classes. I'd recommend this to any foster or adoptive parents before you do that "behaviors" form the agency asks you to fill out. I found the info more informative coming from a parent's POV (who is with the child 24/7) rather than a shrink or a social worker who spends only 1 or 2 hours/wk with the child.

[Sue Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

You are not alone!

This book has been a blessing for my daughter. She is a fulltime step mom to 3 children. They all came to her with issues which she has worked very hard to help them overcome. However, her middle daughter has spiralled out of control. At first we thought she might have Attention Deficit but that was ruled out. My daughter has gotten family counseling, as well as individual counseling. As a result her daughter has learned a higher level of manipulation. Your book has helped us to better understand the situation. My daughter cried when she realized that she wasn't alone and she is understanding that her journey is far from ending.

[Sonia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential in understanding your child and your options

Kerri gives easy to understand and concise points on what to expect when the worst is at your doorstep. Great reminders and hints on protecting your RAD Child, yourself and the glass children who suffer silently. This easy read give real, raw reality to what families, caregivers live daily and how they become “broken”too. The reality that the overall mental health world is ill prepared, ill informed to help these children and esp families who are barely keeping it together.

[Meagan Palmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a middle school teacher, it was so good to hear this perspective. Knowing I have students whose parents are fighting this battle with them gives me so much more understanding of how to partner with those parents from my end of things. There are valuable practical strategies stakeholders in a family could use to show support to families going through this.

[kennedy parrish]

I understand that this was written from the perspective of a parent, and not a trained clinician, counselor, or mental health worker, but still. The generalizations in this book are pretty extreme. I am not sure if I would call this essential, or even a guide. It's probably helpful for normalizing and validating individuals' experiences, but not super useful beyond that.

[Amanda Rene Sowers-Durbin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reads more like a pamplet

Good information and a quick read. More like an introduction to RAD than anything else. Will recommend to new RAD parents struggling to understand this diagnosis.

[Kristen Adkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent Book

Please read this book if you are considering adoption or have adopted a “difficult” child. RAD is no joke or to be taken lightly. It has torn my world up side down. I’m thankful for this resource and the honest author!!! The resources in the book are a blessing.

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential to read

This a book to pass on to family members and friends so they may grasp an underdog RAD and what you as a parent deals with. The book was comforting I knowing someone's undress what a parent with a child diagnosed with RAD deals with on a daily basis.

[Tiffany Mcinerney-richardson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a straightforward book filled with real and personal experience. The author provides good information and quite a few resources for parents struggling to find the appropriate help with this difficult condition.

[Nathan Gesner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short, but helpful

This book contains what was missing in her first book. Keri provides sample letters to share with family, friends, or police/medical responders. She I cludes resources for help groups and an important list of things you should or shouldn't do.

[Kristin Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short, concise, eye opening book. Williams describes crazy-making behaviors you wouldn't think a child would do, but which are typical of children with RAD, a result of childhood trauma.

A great educational resource for folks who foster or adopt children.

[Sandra Burns · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow

I have seen some documentaries on this. So sad, some people should not have kids. Especially if all they are going to do is hurt them in some way.

[Amy Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok resource for parents, basically to normalize the experience. Doesn’t contain much useful for counselors hoping to help children.

[Apzmarshl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great resources, ideas, and finally some understanding. Good ideas on documentation and preparation for further intervention.

[Jen Gienke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Truth

Accurate reflection of life with RAD kids. Not much in the how to but validating. Also good internet information available.

[Cindy Lohr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Informative

Truthful, painfully truthful. Brought tears to my eyes as I related to the author. A must read for parents of a child with RAD

[Craig Carignan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay but it just seems to be a disaster guide. I haven't seen it.

[Sarah Larson anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent!!! Highly recommend to parents of RAD kids and for the parents to share with friends and family.

[Corey Hare · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunningly Accurate

Excellent resource for parents raising kids with RAD. Much needed guide that provides resources and information for parents. Very Helpful!

[Valerie Bryant · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of fear tactics and paranoia. I think the author needed some distance from her experience before writing this book.

[cindi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing

I'm a mental health counselor with two clients with potential cases of RAD! This will be so helpful for their families

[Marisa Devine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not a parent of a child with RAD, but one of my students is diagnosed with RAD. Very helpful in understanding how to structure his programming going forward.

[Liz Meyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very beginning introduction. If you’re just getting started on the RAD journey, this is helpful. However, I was really hoping for more in depth suggestions of what to DO in parenting a RAD child.

[Deborah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good information but I wanted more modalities to help provide a better outcome.

[Tye Brantley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have a son with RAD and I felt heard in the best of ways. Thank you!

[James H · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to read this book because somewhere, someone diagnosed me with said disorder years ago. And as a teen, I asked my parents what that meant for me, and all I can recall is, RAD means I can only sustain one meaningful relationship at a time. Which devastated teenage me.

So years later, when I picked up this book, I thought I was going to read and learn what RAD is more in depth. But instead, I was met with page after page, chapter after chapter of what a parent should do when dealing with a child of RAD. Which is fine! Don't get me wrong, it's all good information! But come on, when you're talking about a disorder, go in depth on what it is, what it means and how it impacts one's life. I wish the author went more in depth about the disorder in a clinical/educational way.

Putting that aside, yes, everything in here is true, I read this book and was replaying those gruesome days where I would rage exactly how it's described here. Rages ranging from half an hour to 10 hours!!! Yes! 10 hours! Where I destroyed my room, threw paint everywhere, tried to jump out of a window, yanked doors off of its hinge! And yes, manipulation/triangulation is a thing! I personally used it countless times on my mom and dad, I saw with my very eyes my parents almost getting a divorce over WHAT I SAID AND DID!!!! I cannot stress to you how serious this is!!! But I will tell you, the bear hug works! I still remember to this day what that bear hug from my dad felt like in the midst of my rage. And it calmed me down and I went to go to sleep right after he let me go. I was exhausted after all of my rages.

I'm just rambling now but yes, coming from an adopted child at 8, and re-adopted 8 months after that adoption failed, this book rings true. And!!!!! Here's another book I personally love!
"Adoptive Parent, Intentional Parent -Stacy Manning" READ THIS BOOK!!!! THIS IS ADOPTIVE PARENTING BIBLE!!! I swear this book helped me because a functioning adult that went from 10 hour rages, throwing rocks at my car, hitting, breaking things (expensive things), saying the meanest things to my parents, death threats, and yes, many many suicide ideations, attempted suicide, put on suicide watch, went to half a dozen different therapists, an encounter with the police, and so much more. What Stacy Manning teaches you in that book is what saved me.