Reflections

It is remarkable how often adults express confusion or indignation when children, particularly children labelled pathologically demand avoidant or oppositionally defiant (note - those who resist and/or oppose), question ...

PDAers often struggle with being perceived.

By that I don’t simply mean being seen. I mean the experience of someone observing, interpreting, forming conclusions, or assuming meaning about what we’re doing, how we’re do...

We spend so much time demonising the creative, magical ways in which the human brain (and consciousness) preserves a person’s sanity. Not only do we overlook this, we  actually disrespect it.

I am a person who is multip...

I’m asked often about my qualifications. In fact, just yesterday someone asked if I had “any actual qualifications or is it all just personal experience?”

I don't typically answer this. But here goes:

Are these t...

I would sob in isolation, convinced I didn’t know how to raise my children correctly because I was looking for the ‘right’ (safest, socially acceptable) answer.

I would criticize myself, reject myself, blame myself for ...

I fear for the rights of my teen.

She is non speaking, with significant support needs and requires intensive care around the clock.

We already do not have support workers due to lack in skill level and human nature nec...

I was discussing with a friend and fellow PDAer yesterday how challenging it can be to realise I am not being 100% honest with myself and/or others when trying to seek support. To be more specific, I was discussing how, ...

Our children struggling does not immediately indicate that we are not doing enough, or that we are missing some crucial information. To struggle is to be human and our behaviour is not the problem - it’s an end result, o...

It is disheartening to constantly see the ongoing repetition of themes such as declarative language (which is more often than not, grossly misunderstood and misused) to disguise demands for PDAers. This is but one exampl...

Existing, being human, is political; and political persuasion begins at home.

We are all part of the collective, and we all live within the systems that harm the most vulnerable, the marginalised, and the hypermarginali...