Key Characteristics of PDA

How to Recognise PDA

Common signs and symptoms of PDA:

• Avoidance of Demands: Various everyday demands may be avoided because they are perceived as demands, which can lead to a feeling of loss of control, escalating anxiety, and even panic.
• Irrational Avoidance: Sometimes, PDA avoidance behaviours may seem irrational, with dramatic reactions to seemingly normal requests.
• Variability in Avoidance: The extent of avoidance can vary depending on factors like an individual’s current capacity to handle demands, their anxiety levels, overall well-being, and the environmental context.

‘It’s crucial to understand that PDA is not a choice and persists throughout an individual’s life.‘

Dr Alison Doyle

PDA is a spectrum, and its presentation can differ among individuals. Many people with PDA may display a variable presentation influenced by factors such as their current circumstances, age, and environment. Some may exhibit more outward, active avoidance behaviours, which can be physical, aggressive, or controlling (externalised presentation). Others may have a more passive presentation, resisting demands quietly, internalizing anxiety, and masking their difficulties (Internalised presentation).

Key Characteristics and Features of PDA

• Extreme Demand Avoidance: Individuals with PDA exhibit an avoidance of ordinary tasks, requests, and expectations, which can lead to significant difficulties in daily life. This demand avoidance can be pervasive and all-encompassing.
• Social Strategies: Unlike some other forms of autism, people with PDA often use elaborate and socially manipulative strategies to avoid demands. They might employ tactics such as diversion, negotiation, or even opposition to resist tasks.
• Superficial Sociability: Individuals with PDA may appear socially adept, even though they have underlying difficulties with social interaction and communication. They can mask their social challenges to a certain extent, which can make it hard to identify the condition.
• Intense Emotions: Emotional regulation is a common challenge for individuals with PDA. They can experience intense and fluctuating emotions, which may lead to mood swings and outbursts.
• Role Play and Fantasy: People with PDA often engage in elaborate role play, fantasy, and imaginative scenarios, sometimes to an extreme degree. These activities can serve as a way to escape or cope with the demands of reality.
• Need for Control: There is a strong need for control in individuals with PDA. This control is often driven by anxiety and the perception that demands represent a threat or danger to their equilibrium.
• Resistance to Conventional Approaches: Traditional parenting and teaching methods may be ineffective with individuals who have PDA. Confrontation and the use of rewards and consequences can exacerbate their anxiety and avoidance.

The best source of information on understanding how daily life is experienced and managed by people with PDA, is to read first-hand accounts such as the themed conversations collated from children and adults by the PDA Society, how PDA can feel .

A PDA profile of autism is normally identified during an autism, or holistic neuro-developmental, assessment. To support diagnosis, the PDA Society has produced practice guidance on identifying and assessing a PDA profile.