Teenager just diagnosed - adult prognosis?

Our 16-year-old daughter was just diagnosed with RAD, after years of anxiety, explosive behavior, multiple therapists, diagnoses of mood disorders, etc. She also has some important language processing issues.

We are very concerned about what this may mean for her ability to live independently. From what we're told, she has little to no ability to see the consequences of her actions (so she is impulsive), doesn't really have an internal sense of right-and-wrong (apart from "what will my parents think?"), and it will be a very long road for her to get even a bit of ability to trust and connect to people.

This is all very scary to us. Do we need to expect that she will live with us forever? What are the chances she will be able to live independently in (at least) her early 20s? Either data or personal experiences could be very helpful. Thank you!

Oh my! You are telling my story!

16 yrs female step-daughter (SD) was diagnosed with Attachment Disorder (RAD) a few months ago too.

Long story short, my now husband got custody of this 2 kids and moved in with me 3 years ago. Both kids were subjected to severe parental alienation from their father at the hands of their mother and the SD was also subjected to Munchausen by Proxy abuse by the mother.

I don't know what the prognosis is for adulthood, I guess that would depend on the child and their willingness to accept the therapy and make the changes that is required.

After 3 years of weekly counselling, the SD has flat out said she isn't interested and won't do the work assigned to her to help her and doesn't want to remain in our house as she has not intention or interest in following our house rules. Which I will add are: no stealing, no lying, be on-time (for pill, home, up in the morning), no food downstairs and talk to people with respect.

We were told that the one psychologist had a client who took 2 years to attach and his was in his 20's and wanted to get help. How do we reach a 16 yrs who isn't interested. We can't. We were also told, it is like an addict, only they will get better, when THEY want to. No one else can force them.

Because of the behaviours in our house, she will not be living with us forever. At a maximum, it will be until she is 18 and graduates high school. But to be honest, we are exploring options to have her removed now.

As a result of her behaviours in the home, everyone else is suffering from secondary PTSD.