• Question: Can the detrimental affects of a poor early attachment be reversed or treated in later life?

    Asked by Alice to Ben, Sam, Kirsty, Maggi, Rose on 15 Jun 2017.
    • Photo: Kirsty Miller

      Kirsty Miller answered on 15 Jun 2017:

      Hi Alice! Good question! Yes, I think pretty much any negative psychological experience can be treated. If a person is aware of negative things happening as a result of their mental state, then they can try to deal with it themselves – understanding is key to solving problems as if you’re aware of how your past affects your actions then you are in a position to change your behaviour. Of course people can receive counselling, or go to individual or group therapy to talk through any negative experiences, or to help them understand why they behave or feel certain ways. Therapy is generally pretty successful, and it is usually well within a person’s control to recover from a negative start.

    • Photo: Sam Carr

      Sam Carr answered on 16 Jun 2017:

      Well, I’d say that the research suggests that children who have had VERY poor early experiences are left with significant levels of mistrust, anger, insecurity, lack of self-belief, and other quite challenging psychological consequences. If you think of insecurity on a sort of continuum, with “very secure” children at one end and “very insecure” children (as I’m describing above) at the other end (with lots of children in between) – then those at the “very insecure” end are pretty disadvantaged. We’ve learned from research that such children are unlikely to ever become the “very secure” children in some sort of miraculous change of their internal world – because some of the funadamental building blocks just aren’t going to allow that to happen. However, what we do find is that with love, care, and really patient, warm, nurturing relationships such children can move along the continuum a little bit – “towards” being more secure – and that’s progress in many cases.

    • Photo: Rose Turner

      Rose Turner answered on 17 Jun 2017:

      Hey Alice, I think Sam and Kirsty have got this question covered! Also, there are some researchers that look at how childhood attachment styles relate to adult attachment styles which you might be interested in of you’re interested in how childhood experience can impact adult relationships.

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