Recently I’m reading a lot of off-the-cuff claims that “studies” show a higher correlation of PDA “traits” tied to ADHD than to autism.
This is my own off-the-cuff response to these claims:
- Stereotypes regarding autism presentation are still rampant, especially within the professional communities that are trained to diagnose it….
- because of this and the atypical social skills that PDA people have, I know for a fact that others (like myself) wouldn’t be recognized as autistic without more current training, meaning we’re bound to be under-represented in these studies.
- ADHD has its own kind of demand avoidance that can look similar to PDA from the outside but functions differently.
- So far when I read articles making these claims about PDA and autism I catch them diffusing PDA into a set of “traits” that seem to appear as a symptom of these other diagnoses.
I have zero issue with eventually affirming PDA as it’s own diagnosis that has a high co-occurrence with ADHD and/or autism, but if professionals don’t start out with a PDA-affirming perspective then their research is more likely to blur lines and create confusion because letting PDA diffuse into other kinds of demand avoidance ignores that those who lives with these traits respond to a unique set of supports that may or may not fit with other recommended supports for autism or ADHD.
Especially because so far what I read when talking to PDA families is that the PDA needs often supersede or somehow alter the needs in the other diagnoses.
(Rough) Examples, as none of these are universally true:
PDA/autistic craves routine but one that can easily be abandoned
Vs.
autistic needs routine and caregivers can expect this need to often supersede other needs
Vs.
ADHD person avoids making plans so they can react more spontaneously based on boredom and interest OR expect last minute plan changes almost always due to conflicting plans, forgetfulness, disinterest
Vs.
PDA individual agrees to routines and sometimes follows through due to masking, but burnout occurs and looks like periods of productivity and periods of nothing getting done
… so on.