Birthdays have been a therapy topic for as long as I've been working with fellow autistic folks. Usually someone mentions having seen a social media post about how hard it is to be the center of attention or to react in the "right" way to a gift, and don't get me wrong-I have no idea what I'm supposed to do while everyone is singing happy birthday to me. Do I look at the cake? Do I sing along? What do I do with my hands? But in my experience, most "why birthdays can be hard f

Pathological demand avoidance, also called pervasive drive for autonomy (though if you ask me-a PDAer-both names are lacking), is a hot topic in the neurodiversity-affirming mental health realm. I often see colleagues chastise each other in therapist spaces: "It's not oppositional defiant disorder, it's PDA. ODD isn't affirming." I get the same "ick" I used to get in treatment team meetings when my boss would interrupt staff who used the term "attention-seeking" by saying "Th