Demand-Avoidance Phenomena (“Pathological”/ “Extreme” Demand Avoidance): It’s four schools of thought, and how you may conceptualise it?

Presently, in the United Kingdom, Demand-Avoidance Phenomena (DAP, sometimes called “Pathological Demand Avoidance”) is simultaneously gaining significant interest and controversy. Its leading proponents assert that DAP is one of the autism spectrum disorders, despite the lack of consensus and evidence to indicate what it is, and how to view DAP. Consequently, there is much debate over how to conceptualise DAP, with divergent outlooks for DAP pathologising features not typically included in an autism diagnosis, to DAP being a magpie disorder containing features from many accepted diagnostic entities. In this talk we discuss its four main schools of thought, and they each evolved. Finally, focusing on how DAP can be conceptualised as a standalone diagnosis, and can be modelled as a generic stress management process. These are the slides delivered to a talk to Children and Technology Lab: University of Sussex on the 18th of November 2021. The talk is intended to provide an overview on how PDA might be conceptualised by those studying PDA. Potential discussion topics further resources. What the academic literature says about Newson et al (2003): https://rationaldemandavoidance.com/2020/10/17/what-the-literature-and-richard-woods-say-about-newson-et-al-2003/ Why we should ignore Phil Christie's views DAP is an Autism Spectrum Disorder video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSIdMzDMC-w Comprehensive overview to DAP & its broader debates seminar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22ESXsCnisM How “DAP Profile of ASD” is used to control autism stakeholders video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ulc3eIG3og8