Summary
Pathological Demand Avoidance or PDA is a term that was given to a distinct profile on the Autism Spectrum by Professor Elizabeth Newson in 1980. While it’s still being explored whether PDA is exclusively autistic, for the purposes of this page I restrict myself to referring to it as an autism profile.
People born with this autism profile need individual freedom and personal control. Those around them need to consider that demands, commands, expectations, rules, and traditional discipline are all triggers for anxiety driven avoidant behavior.
The main factor of this specific neurotype is a need for personal autonomy, often to being allowed the freedom to make choices and decisions (even opting to not have to always make choices). When all authoritarian approaches are removed the demand avoidant behaviour that is visible to others is dramatically reduced.
Of course the person still has the same brain and the same differences in the way they think and their perception of things; they still have internal demand avoidance which can limit their ability to do even things that they want to do. Coming in all shapes and sizes with different personalities, beliefs, and histories, some show their hostility to demands openly, others internally, still others are found somewhere in the middle.
Links
What is PDA? – The PDA Society
What is Pathological Demand Avoidance? – Sharon Kaye O’Connor