Autistic PDA: A Persistent Drive for Autonomy
Is the PDA Autism profile helpful, or does it further pathologize Autistics?
PDA vs RDA
PDA stands for Pathological Demand Avoidance, RDA stands for Rational Demand Avoidance, and an alternative for the PDA acronym is Pervasive Drive for Autonomy.
I’ll explain what each means and why one approach may be more beneficial and accurate than the other.
Disclaimer
Before I proceed, I want to make something clear. I am not in any way intending to question how a person chooses to identify themselves. The critiques that follow are aimed at the deficits-focused approach inherent in the PDA profile.
The primary concern is when people are labelled avoidant, defiant, oppositional, and manipulative (manipulative being a word the person who coined the term PDA includes in their “diagnostic” criteria) without genuine and meaningful attempts to understand why they are resistant.
If we label someone as O.D.D. or PDA, for example, that may become an easy explanation for any time they are standing up for themselves — oh, they’re just being “avoidant” or “defiant” — the cause is always the person and their disorder or pathology, not the environment or the unreasonable demands being made of them.
According to Elizabeth Newson, two key features of PDA are:
Intolerance of uncertainty, and
Extreme avoidance of basic demands.
This extreme avoidance extends to the basic demands of everyday living, not just the avoidance of unpleasant, difficult, specific anxiety-provoking or unappealing tasks.
Someone with a PDA profile may also have tremendous difficulty complying with their own self-imposed expectations and with doing things that they really want to do.
The distinctive features of a demand avoidant profile include:
Resists and avoids the ordinary demands of life.
Uses social strategies as part of avoidance, for example, distracting, giving excuses.
Appears sociable, but lacks some understanding.
Experiences excessive mood swings and impulsivity.
Appears comfortable in role play and pretence.
Displays obsessive behaviour that is often focused on other people.
People with this profile can appear excessively controlling and dominating, especially when they feel anxious. However, they can also be confident and engaging when they feel secure and “in control*”.
Anxiety quite often presents as controlling behaviour, irritability, and yes — avoidance.
It’s important to acknowledge that people with PDA have a hidden disability. Every neurodivergent person lives with an invisible disability. Just because we cannot directly see its impact does not mean it doesn’t exist.
But wait!
When clinicians or other adults use the term “in control”, what they are often insinuating is the person is being manipulative and controlling.
If we replace the word control with autonomy, agency, independence, self-determination, and respect — well, that paints a very different picture.
While autism comes with many assets and strengths, the lack of acceptance and accommodation in our society leads me to identify myself as Disabled — not by my Autistic brain, but by society’s lack of understanding.
PDAers, especially children, are often given unhelpful, stigmatizing labels such as noncompliant, stubborn, difficult, oppositional, defiant, manipulative, unmotivated, uncooperative, etc.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Neurodiversity MB to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.