Latest / Aspergers & Autism Podcast [The Aspie World] AuDHD / Pathological Demand Avoidance (Why You Missed This Feeling!)
Transcript
- 0:00So if you're artistic and you struggle with feeling
- 0:02overwhelmed or trapped by other people's expectations of you,
- 0:05you might actually be suffering from pathological demand
- 0:08avoidance. But it's OK, because in this
- 0:10video, I'm actually going to give you some tips how we can
- 0:12manage PDA and feel a lot better.
- 0:15And I promise you will. So let's get on with it.
- 0:17I've, I've looked at all five things and yeah, let's get on
- 0:20with it. Pathological demand avoidance or
- 0:25PDA comes comorbid Co occurring like alongside autism.
- 0:29Most of the time. I know like maybe a handful of
- 0:32people who have autism but not PDA and that's OK.
- 0:35It's just something that happens, right?
- 0:37But at the same time, it can be really debilitating and also
- 0:41make you have added stress to your life for no reason.
- 0:44So I've listed out five things and five ways that we can
- 0:46actually overcome these things and we're going to go through
- 0:48them all right now. And I am autistic.
- 0:50My name is Dan. And if you're new around here,
- 0:52make sure to the subscribe button to see daily videos from
- 0:54me and also follow along if you're on Facebook or Instagram
- 0:57or Tiktok. OK, so the first one is lowering
- 1:00the pressure before starting tasks, right?
- 1:02And I did a video all about like, you know, how you overcome
- 1:05inertia, which is actually starting tasks.
- 1:07And I'll leave a link for that here in an end card.
- 1:09And then and an icon up here and in description down below.
- 1:12But in terms of lowering the pressure beforehand is kind of
- 1:15like instead of saying like, oh, I have to do something, change
- 1:18the narrative to be like, well, I want to do this.
- 1:20I'm choosing to do this right now.
- 1:22And this reduces the anxiety. And so you can like break all
- 1:25tasks down into small, low demand or low pressure steps.
- 1:29And when you do that, it lowers the anxiety of the things you
- 1:33need to do. Because if you have a list
- 1:34that's like, you know, 16 things to do and each one of them is
- 1:37like, oh, you know, a big job or a big task, we'll just break the
- 1:40big task down to small little tasks to complete the big task.
- 1:42I mean, that lowers the anxiety and it'll lower the pressure on
- 1:45yourself as well, which is really interesting because by
- 1:47doing that, you're going to definitely have more wins than
- 1:51than you are losses, right? And so not feeling so hung up in
- 1:55the in the demands of other people.
- 1:58These are just small wins that you build up.
- 2:00Guys, if you are interested in knowing how I became confident,
- 2:03got that BDE energy, then make sure you download my free Autism
- 2:09Building a Bulletproof Brain Starter Kit.
- 2:11You can go to bulletproofbrain.org right now.
- 2:14Click the card here, link in the description or in the bio.
- 2:17Or you can just go to bulletproofbrain.org.
- 2:19Make sure you put www.beforeit and download the free checklist
- 2:24starter kit right now. I promise you, you're going to
- 2:26be amazed. OK, so tip #2 is using hidden
- 2:29choices to regain control and the control's a good thing?
- 2:32Guys like I, I would rather be in control of things than out of
- 2:35control or somebody in control of me, right?
- 2:38You don't want to lose control and you don't want to lose
- 2:40control to somebody else. You want to be in control all
- 2:41the time because when you're in control, you have complete
- 2:44control and access to your life and your destiny.
- 2:46So let's go. So give yourself options instead
- 2:49of high rules, right? So you'd be like, I have to do
- 2:52this because blah, blah, blah. Be like, hey, I can do this or
- 2:55that. Which one's going to feel good
- 2:58right now? OK, I'll take B because it's
- 2:59going to be the ones that's going to make me feel better
- 3:01right now. That's what I need right now.
- 3:02This again, lowers the demand. Having choices like this tricks
- 3:06the brain into reducing the stress that is associated with
- 3:10tasks that will avoid a shutdown and actually avoid a meltdown.
- 3:13Because when you have a pathological demand avoidance
- 3:16increase, this is an accumulation that's going to let
- 3:18just end up kicking your butt. So yeah, you got to lower those
- 3:21by creating choices to regain control.
- 3:23And control is a good thing, right?
- 3:24OK, so #3 is following your interests, not the clock.
- 3:27Because when we follow clocks, we look at deadlines.
- 3:29And as autistic individuals, we're told to use timers all the
- 3:32time. And don't get me wrong, timers
- 3:33are great. I actually to use a timer.
- 3:35There's a timer right behind me now this clock, the loop timer,
- 3:38this is amazing. This thing is absolutely
- 3:40fantastic. It's actually a state-of-the-art
- 3:43timer and it just looks absolutely fantastic and I use
- 3:46it all the time and it's great because it has like all these
- 3:48lights. It fits on my desk and it's
- 3:51magnetic. Do this thing cliffs like you've
- 3:52just seen it. Then it was clipped to the back
- 3:53here. Now I'm going to leave a link
- 3:55for you to check out Loop timer if you're interested, because I
- 3:58like to time when I'm doing videos or if I'm making content
- 4:02like emails and stuff, I'll have to time it because I know I've
- 4:04got a certain amount of time for my jobs, not just the tasks in
- 4:07life. But I would never time a task in
- 4:09life, if that makes sense. But I use this timer, which
- 4:12pretty, pretty good. But when you follow your own
- 4:15interests rather than the clock, you know, an hour to do this.
- 4:18Oh my goodness, yeah. You don't stress out as much.
- 4:20You have more self-control, so, you know, you start doing
- 4:23something that's that you enjoy, but then it gets harder and
- 4:26harder because you're trying to do it within a certain amount of
- 4:28time because of those game shows where you've got to like build a
- 4:29cake within a time. I mean, these people love
- 4:31building cakes, but then they start hating as you're doing a
- 4:33time frame. So use your special interest.
- 4:35It's like a, you know, a thing you, you won't have to get into
- 4:37the flow and then just go with it, right?
- 4:40And as long as you're not overestimating the amount of
- 4:44time you need to do and then going over that again, then you
- 4:47should be OK to be right on track by just going OK, look,
- 4:49it'll be it'll take as long as it takes, right?
- 4:51There's no demand here. And that's with tasks like that.
- 4:54Unless you're working with things that you want to time, I
- 4:57highly recommend the loop time. OK, typical 4 is building a safe
- 5:01escape plan. And now this is really
- 5:03interesting because like setting up a a safe space as a place
- 5:06where you can go and retreat to or having like a safe place that
- 5:09you can regulate without having to feel kind of pressure from
- 5:12everywhere else. All guilty because a lot of the
- 5:14time we want to do some thing and then the pressure seems so
- 5:17much that we need to just take a step back and really analyze the
- 5:19situation. But when we do that, we feel
- 5:21guilty for not actually getting on with the thing.
- 5:24And then we think, oh, then I'm going to hit inertia, which
- 5:26isn't the problem At this point, it's just PDA, right?
- 5:29It's a pathological amount of avoidance.
- 5:31And so if you set up somewhere where you can, you know, be
- 5:34safe, like a corner of your room, your bedroom, reading
- 5:37nook, your car, anywhere really, that would be somewhere that you
- 5:40can go. You know, this could be a quiet
- 5:42room for you to just escape stuff, get a sensory break, and
- 5:45then you know that you can retreat there.
- 5:48Take a breather. Okay, now I'm feeling more
- 5:50relaxed, I'm feeling less overwhelmed, the less pressure.
- 5:52Let's go and do the task at hand.
- 5:54This is amazing. This actually really does help a
- 5:56lot, especially with the demands that you have with other people,
- 5:59especially some system, OK, And you just do all these things.
- 6:01You're like, Oh my goodness, so many tasks.
- 6:03First of all, go take a breather, go safe space, calm
- 6:05down, check it out, check yourself, then go back and get
- 6:08it. OK?
- 6:09So tip #5 is use the pretend agreement trick, which is like a
- 6:13secret weapon, OK? This isn't like my secret weapon
- 6:15if you guys see it. So if pathological demand
- 6:17avoidance resistance strikes in a conversation and this can
- 6:20happen calmly agree outwardly. So yeah, yeah, of course, like
- 6:24I'll do this thing. And then initially you're
- 6:25planning your next step. And so it's kind of like you
- 6:29agree now and then figure out later, or you confirm now and
- 6:32you figure out later these examples, like someone says to
- 6:35you like, oh, can can you do this for me right now?
- 6:36You say, sure, I'll handle it. But when you actually tackle it
- 6:40could be something you know that you will agree.
- 6:42So somebody says, like, I need you to handle this right now.
- 6:44Phone this guy and book the limo or something.
- 6:46You'd be like, OK, cool. And then you'd be like, I'll do
- 6:49it right now. And they go, OK, cool.
- 6:50So then you go back to your room and you can have a breather,
- 6:52take a breath, have some water and then decide to do it rather
- 6:56than be like, Oh, I've got to do it right now.
- 6:57And then you're like, oh, you know, if you do, don't know what
- 6:59to do right now because PDA can skyrocket to like crazy levels,
- 7:02right? And I know I, I see you.
- 7:04If this is you, give the video a thumbs up.
- 7:06So this also lowers the confrontation between you and
- 7:10the other person because you're trying to like think to them,
- 7:11Well, actually, you know, I don't want to do it right now.
- 7:16I mean that just cause all kinds of like craziness wouldn't and
- 7:18the other person feel like, hey, this guys an A hole and one of
- 7:21us. So yeah, this would actually
- 7:22help. And these 5 tips are going to
- 7:24absolutely destroying PDA issues that you have in your life.
- 7:27Hey, if you are interested in having one-on-one personal
- 7:30coaching by me on your autism and ADHD, then all you need to
- 7:34do is go to the link in the description down below.
- 7:36If you're watching on Instagram, you can just comment the word
- 7:38coaching and I'll DM it to you automatically.
- 7:41Or you can just go to theaspyworld.com/coaching and
- 7:46you can fill out the form and we can start working together.
- 7:48I've got lots of requests like this.
- 7:49I just wanted to put it in this video.
- 7:50Okay guys.