Free PDA

Both Emily Wilding and Sally Cat of Free PDA have written on, and collated opinions on, the name for our neurotype, known as Pathological Demand Avoidance or PDA for short. Below you will find Sally Cat's article, containing ideas from a number of PDAers, including Emily. Then below, an article written by Emily to add some thoughts. Right at the bottom, we have added a few links to other articles we have produced that may be helpful. From Sally Cat: "Pathological demand avoidance" (PDA) is the name of a life-long neurological condition. The term was coined by Professor Elizabeth Newson, who first identified the condition in the 1980s. In addition to the trait of pathological demand avoidance, PDA entails: High anxiety, control-need, use of social strategies, sociability, mood swings, comfort in fantasy & role-play and obsessive, often people-focused behaviour ( link ).  And also: Disregard for social hierarchy, masking, love of novelty, dislike

I feel a sense of pride going on here for the Free PDA community. I continue with my thoughts about self identity and wonder whether this is a common theme in the childhood years for us? My "problems" of insecurity started from about the age of 12, got bad in my early 20s and really bad from my late 20s.  I think it wasn't until I hit my 40s that I suddenly became comfortable with myself. 3 flipping decades of worry, insecurity, shame and anxiety. Some say that this is a common thing in this decade as people tends to care less about what others think of them. Hmmmm I am not sure. It wasn't until I had my ADHD recognised that I truly feel at ease with myself and realised that all that overanalysing was sure to a hyperactive brain and an intolerance of uncertainty. Fuck! Decades! 3 decades to work that out!!!! 30 fucking years! haha!!! I won't share all my thoughts here because I am at serious risk of oversharing but self identity and overthinki