Natalia Grace’s life story has been tragic thus far. Born with a rare form of dwarfism – spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita – in Ukraine in 2003, she was first given to an orphanage in the country before an American family, Kristine and Michael Barnett, adopted her in 2010.
Though, in a plot arc ripped from the 2009 movie The Orphan, the Barnetts became obsessed with the idea Natalia was actually an adult conman posing as a child and planned to eventually murder them, prompting the couple to abandon the girl in an apartment in Lafayette, Indiana, before they moved to Canada with their biological children in 2013, when Natalia was only about nine years old.
Then, as revealed in the third part of the docuseries covering her life, The Curious Case of Natalia Grace, the family who took her in next, Antwon and Cynthia Mans, allegedly abused and controlled her, though they have not responded to requests to comment on these recent accusations.
Now living with Vince and Nicole DePaul, Natalia spoke with their family friend Melissa, who specializes in reactive attachment disorder, or RAD.
Does Natalia Grace Have Reactive Attachment Disorder?
Nicole DePaul confirmed that Natalia did receive an RAD diagnosis, which she claims helps explain some of her odd behaviors and encourages more patience with the troubled girl.
“Did she probably do weird things in the past? Yeah,” Nicole said. “[But] when you take in a child, you take that child as your own. You don’t just get rid of them when they don’t fit into your puzzle.”
Others have encouraged Natalia to go to therapy before, but according to her, “I don’t like to put my stuff on people.” Though, Melissa says her behavior aligns with what can be expected from someone suffering from the disorder.
What Is RAD?
Reactive attachment disorder is most commonly found in people who didn’t bond with caregivers at a young age or people who have suffered abuse and neglect.
According to psychological literature, several factors make someone more likely to develop the disorder, including: having many different parent figures, like multiple foster care situations; being taken away from their primary caretakers after bonding with them emotionally; experiencing several traumatic losses early in life; or having parental figures who didn’t try to become emotionally close to them or spending time in an institution, like an orphanage, where they didn’t have a loving parent figure.
It can cause life-long struggles and often requires counseling and therapy to alleviate symptoms, which include difficulty bonding with others in the future, throwing tantrums, habitual lying and other antisocial behaviors.
How Does RAD Affect Natalia Grace?
Given Natalia’s troubled family history, as well as the media attention she received as a young child, it’s most likely she faced several of the potential cause situations during her youth. She was abandoned by her mother in an orphanage first, then again very publicly after being accused by her adoptive parents of being a sociopathic conman, and finally was forced to escape an allegedly abusive situation with her second adoptive family.
Though confirming cause situations doesn’t necessitate a diagnosis, Natalia has said she “does not like being left.” And that she has “had so many people walk out of my life,” that she worries that “I’ll be a little more broken than I was before.”
While it seems Natalia has a stable and loving home now, she still expresses behavior in line with symptoms of the disorder, which can also comorbidly exist with other personality disorders commonly found among abused and neglected children.
Hopefully, Natalia can continue receiving counseling while living with the DePauls to sort out exactly how she should move forward to build her life back up again.
