The Truth About Adoption and Childhood Trauma

LITTLETON, Colo. - Oct. 6, 2019 - PRLog -- Colorado Springs, CO – Next month is recognized as National Adoption Awareness Month with a particular focus on the needs of children currently in the foster care system. The number of foster kids still seeking adoption and a loving home has been steadily rising since 2012.

Many adopted kids adjust to their new families and life in a new home very well. As parents know, raising kids can be both rewarding and challenging. But raising a foster or adopted child can sometimes bring additional complications – especially if the child experienced trauma in his early years.

In the most extreme cases, the child may have a rare and serious condition that has a big impact on society: Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD). RAD is the same mental illness attributed to the Parkland school shooter and suspected in quite a few serial killers. Symptoms include extreme anger and violence.

Despite giving tremendous love and support to RAD kids, traditional parenting techniques seldom work. Raising a child with RAD is frustrating, lonely, and frightening. Still today, there is very little help available to desperate parents.

Gina Heumann, an award-winning Adoption Advocate and best-selling author knows this firsthand. Her adopted Guatemalan son was severely neglected by his foster mom since birth. For 12 long years, Gina and her family suffered the undiagnosed impact of RAD in their child.

"I became afraid of my own child. One night when he was seven, I was roused from a sound sleep with a punch to the head because he was still mad that I took away his video games eight hours earlier. He often told me he wished I were dead", Gina shares. She spent years seeking treatment for her son, who was repeatedly misdiagnosed by therapists.

"My son hit rock bottom when he was 12. After being dragged out of school in handcuffs for assaulting a teacher, he was taken to the juvenile assessment center. It was at that point that we finally found the right interventions and mental health practitioner to help him heal." Gina explains that today her son is a normal 15-year-old high school sophomore achieving things she never thought possible.

Now on a mission to assist more parents and teachers in helping RAD kids, Gina's compelling story of survival and unconditional love is documented in her book: Love Never Quits (https://www.amazon.com/Love-Never-Quits-Infertility-Attac...). Whether you have or know a child with RAD, are considering adoption, or just feel wrongly judged as a parent for your kid's behavior, this is a must-read book.

Join Gina at Indie Author Day this Saturday, October 12^th at Library 21c, 1175 Chapel Hills Drive, Colorado Springs, CO 80920. The event goes from 11am to 4pm. More details (https://ppld.librarymarket.com/indie-author-day-2019).