adoption trauma
Relinquishment's lasting scars
Adoption trauma refers to the psychological and emotional distress that can result from being separated from biological parents, particularly in infancy or early childhood.
The term encompasses grief, attachment difficulties, identity struggles, and feelings of abandonment that adoptees may experience throughout their lives.
Some extend the concept to include trauma experienced by birth parents who relinquish children.
The term is used primarily in therapeutic and adoption-community contexts, though its scope and clinical validity are debated: She's been working through her adoption trauma in therapy.
- attachmentConnection or fondness
- attachment disorderDisrupted emotional connection capacity
- abandonmentAct of leaving permanently
- bondingForming close connections
- lossBeing without something
grief · identity · identity crisis · rejection · inner child · separation · relinquishment · birth mother · birth parents · reunion · search · roots · healing · trust · maternal · foster · orphan · disconnection
- adoptionbirth parents, birth parent, birth mother, home study