Sally Cat PDA

This blog article was originally written for PDA North America . Masking means hiding your true feelings by having a contrary expression on your face. Physical signs, such as posture, can be masked as well. For example, people can mask feeling upset by holding back their tears and pulling their lips into a smile. Another example is a neurotypical male hiding pain so he appears tough. Anyone who has interacted with the autism community, even for a short time, will be aware that masking is considered a wholly evil, unhealthy and painful practice that can, and should be, dropped. This confused me when I first began to explore my own autism after my adult diagnosis  in 2013. I’d sought this diagnosis after seeing masking and social mimicry described in a female autism traits list. These were things I’d always done without thinking about them. I was perplexed when, after joining an online autism forum, that masking was talked of as something non-autistic people wanted us to do but that ...

When I first came across a descripton of PDA (pathological demand avoidance) in 2015, all its traits resonated with me strongly, bar having obvious meltdowns and confidently bossing others around, which the only available accounts of PDA listed as key traits. If you're not familiar with what PDA is, there's a good description on PDA Society's website which was put together with input from adult PDAers: link The only reference to adult PDA I could find was a Facebook support network created by Julia Daunt . I shared so many unexpected lightbulb moments of, "Wow, me too!" with fellow members that I could tell PDA was a real thing, despite being aware that many people questioned the validity of PDA as a label. Several factors inspired me to carry out peer research: Lack of descriptions of adult PDA Lack of data backing up the multiple, quirky shared traits reported in the adult PDA Facebook group General lack of research into PDA in its entirety Controversy about ...