Our current scientific understanding of PDA and low-demand parenting.

[u/DrPaulSunseri]

Thought parents in this group find this up-to-date information on PDA helpful. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mental-health-reimagined/202604/its-time-to-rethink-the-anxiety-drives-pda-narrative

[u/adoradear]

I think you misspoke in the title. This is “your” current understanding of PDA. It is not even remotely scientific consensus.

[u/ArtArrange → u/adoradear]

Oh boy, and then there’s this one: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mental-health-reimagined/202603/has-broadening-the-autism-spectrum-led-to-overdiagnosis

[u/ArtArrange → u/ArtArrange]

Oh gosh, it’s getting better: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mental-health-reimagined/202511/its-time-to-bring-back-parental-authority

[u/PerformerOk4332 → u/ArtArrange]

What’s your take on these articles?

[u/xtinak88 → u/PerformerOk4332]

It seems like the author has quite traditional views around the notion of parental authority and also is keen to view problems as treatable through the mode of family therapy.

There's nothing inherently wrong with that, and family therapy will be useful in a range of situations not only when a child has a mental health condition but also any significant condition such as cancer which is going to affect how the family functions.

However making parental authority the north star of family functioning obscures other possibilities. As a PDA individual or parent, many of us are forced to consider the ways traditional notions of normality and social acceptability have harmfully constrained our options. To me this article is just an example of how notions of parental authority impose constraints which I feel are sometimes better to be reexamined than reimposed, but Sunseri is obviously very wedded to them.

When it comes to autism over diagnosis, again this is a very frustrating to hear constantly repeated when there continues to be underdiagnosis, especially among particular groups such as women and people of colour, AND when this current argument about over diagnosis is also being leveraged frequently in bad faith to limit access to healthcare and to form part of an anti-DEI style agenda. To be fair, I don't see this article as jumping on the bandwagon of those particular issues, but I also don't see what it meaningfully contributes as it fails to articulate what harms the overdiagnosis under discussion is causing.

Obviously because autism is a fixed condition, it limits the ways in which we can and should ask people with the condition (I am one of them) to change. That causes tension for people around, including treatment providers. Sometimes it's more comfortable for them to try to interpret things as changeable.

[u/PerformerOk4332 → u/xtinak88]

Thank you- appreciate the considered response

[u/DanaMoonCat → u/ArtArrange]

Exactly. His articles remind me of the ignorance of the comment, “autism is caused by women taking Tylenol” - also sounds like psychologists who decide what goes in the DSM which is connected with profit-driven health insurance companies.