About this episode

Casey shares her personal journey of understanding her autistic brain and experiences with pathological demand avoidance, aiming to provide insights for parents and individuals exploring similar challenges.

In this episode I talk about how I understand my autistic brain, my internalized pathological demand avoidance, and why it took me six years of working in this space before I felt certain enough to say this publicly. I also walk through my life, from childhood to the present, with renewed understanding, in the hope of sharing insights that can help you. This episode is for parents of high-achieving young adults who burn out, for women exploring whether they might be autistic or pathologically demand avoidant, and for anyone who just wants to know more about the person behind this work (me!). Key Takeaways Why Casey Resisted Identifying Publicly for Seven Years | 00:06:29 Casey names three reasons she held back. First, she genuinely was not sure, because her experience did not feel like the veil-lifting moment many autistic adults describe, and she had other diagnoses that made the picture muddy. Second, her early experiences engaging with the autistic and PDA online community involved sustained harassment and cancellation attempts, which made that space feel unsafe rather than affirming. Third, her resistance to being labeled by others mirrored exactly what she teaches about…

People in this episode

Host: Casey

Topics covered

• giftedness
• pathological demand avoidance
• autism
• burnout
• parenting
• high-achieving young adults

More episodes of At Peace Parents Podcast

• How A Dad Changed His Parenting To Stop Fighting His Child With Pathological Demand Avoidance: An Interview With My Husband | Ep. 164 · May 26, 2026 · 57 min
• A Speech Language Pathologist on Selective Mutism, Pathological Demand Avoidance and So Much More | Ep. 162 · May 12, 2026 · 56 min

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