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PDA and Conditions for Success

Today we're going to talk ADHD and PDA.

Yep.  PDA.

You're probably thinking PDA?!?!? 💋💋💋
Noooo not that kind of PDA 😂🤣🤣

PDA for ND (Neurodiverse) people is short for "Pathological Demand Avoidance"

Essentially, our brains fight against us to do tasks we 'should' or 'need' to do, and sometimes even activities we want to do,  like, or love.

Examples: Fold and put away the laundry, go to bed, have sex with our partner, eat, go to the bathroom when we realize we need to, get out of bed, get to the gym.

It's EXHAUSTING. 

Once I learned about PDA from an Autistic person, Harry Thompson, my mind was blown.
He gave an example of how if he needs to go to bed, he just can't...He'll be up all night, just avoiding the demand to go to bed he's placed on himself.  

I DO THIS TOO!!!!!  MIND BLOWN

What this Autistic person suggests is creating CONDITIONS for success.  Instead of avoiding bed, he just .... goes to bed, but the intent is NOT to go to sleep. The intent is just...to get in bed.  Then when he's in bed he reads or watches a movie, and pretty much just falls asleep.

One of my biggest struggles is food. Often, especially when medicated or hyperfocused, I forget to eat. Then, at the end of the day, I'm just RAVENOUS.  Then I just eat everything in sight. Now I'm binging. Now I'm getting dopamine. Now my body wants this.  But I don't want to eat junk and binge eat, it goes against my goals.  

So, what I've done instead is create my own food condition of success (at least partially!) 

Part of my routine when I come to the office is to spend my first focusmate session of the day getting settled. This involves journaling, making coffee, etc.  Well, since I don't want to sit down until my coffee is ready and I have to wait for it to brew, I use that time to create conditions of success for myself the rest of the day.

  • I fill my 96 oz pitcher of water (you read that right . 96 oz).
  • I make coffee
  • I usually make a big oversized cup of tea as well.
  • Then, my biggest new condition of success?  My VEGGIE SMORGASBOARD!
I'm so proud of this. I have a basket with smaller containers, and from my small work fridge, I fill it up with grape tomatoes, mini peppers, carrots, blueberries, my YoFresh Sweet Potatoes, a small container of trail mix, a small container of crunchy chickpeas and usually a small portioned bag of a Keto-ish snack mix (I'm not on Keto, I just like that they don't have a lot of sugar and the savory snack mixes never have gluten, so that's a win for me right there!)

Here's a picture of my normal snack bin.
Creating a condition of success of eating vegetables...a lot of vegetables...without even thinking about it. 



Now, I pretty much eat ALL of this bin every day. Mindlessly. Without creating a demand that i need to eat those veggies. I just eat them. Because they're there.  

Huge win.
(Now just to figure out how to automate making sure my fridge stays fully stocked with veggies each week and I'll have a system that doesn't fail me!)


Here's a graphic about the acronym PANDA which helps us avoid PDA overload:

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