Published on 12, July, 2020
Are there any adults on here with PDA? I'd really like to hear more about how this manifests. I've read the stuff on it on the site. What kinds of avoidance might be included in the condition and how severe does it get? Does it include everything or only certain activities for you? Would you include a "rigid reluctance to engage in life for your own benefit" beyond the avoidance of suggestions from others? Or is it very specific? Thanks.
Aiiii, had not heard of it before but that sounds like ME... I've got classic autism (well, the DSM-5 thing where you check all the boxes) but you would never ever be able to tell. BUT I have meltdowns when I get forces in social interactions. And I have a nasty manipulative side. And I avoid lots of situations. And have a major lack of hierarchy understanding.
When I was little I was always manipulating others into doing what I wanted.
Wasn't aware this even existed. Only got diagnosed some weeks ago.
Thanks for the post!
After sending that last post, I wondered if perhaps it wasn't very helpful. Maybe a bit too positive? You have just had the diagnosis and it is obviously worrying you. I haven't been diagnosed, but a few days ago, when I started thinking I probably had some version of PDA, I felt terrible!
Since then I have been trying to focus on the more positive sides -- that it is a better explanation of what has happened in my life than what I thought before.
But I am still getting the same intense anxiety when I try to do stuff -- thinking that either I don't want to do it, or that if I do, it is all going to be wrong. Then I start worrying about everything that I haven't done that I should have done. All the people I should be getting in touch with that I haven't got in touch with. All that stuff...
Well I am going to shut up now and stop going on about myself, hope you can start feeling a bit better about things, at least I think it is a way of beginning to understand what is going on with us.
I don't think I do much manipulating -- it wouldn't have been possible to manipulate my dad anyway! I think I do have what you call lack of hierarchy understanding. But then, I grew up in the Sixties, when we were all challenging hierarchy -- is it such a bad thing not to recognise it? If it means not being scared of speaking up in meetings when there are people there who are much "higher up" than you are, I think it's a good thing.