Autistic Masking Explained 🎭

[sallychristian]

Thank you for sharing your experiences and explaining this in a way that my brain can understand.

[DebbieScott-gwxk]

Thank you for explaining our differences to everyone else

[DarknessOverlord.]

as a teen, I wanted to mask, I'm already dealing with the social reprocution

[myautisticprism]

Thanks for sharing. It seems like there is a change in tension and body language as you talk about moving into masking in young adulthood. How do you feel masking affects you? As a late diagnosed adult, I'm learning to recognise my own making behaviours and the effect it has on dysregulation.

[christiangenger]

First off, thank you for this video! I have experienced all three types of masking, it is the first time I’ve heard that masking has different forms, but it makes so much sense!

If you don’t mind my saying this here… I have a social theory, and I would be curious to see if other females with ASD can relate. (I don’t mean to make this about gender for the sake of controversy, but for comparison about how each gender displays. There is a difference observationally, in studies.) You say here that for yourself you didn’t start masking until you got to a certain age. For me, I masked YOUNG! It started in the 2nd grade, I started noticing how much negative attention I was getting from teachers compared to other students. My wiggling, stimming, distracted nature garnered more attention than the other students. Because of this, I started processing and masking under the guise of “behaving” in class, and in public. Does masking start younger for females in a broader sense too? Or is that so individualistic that it can’t be quantified? Hmmm… 🤔 I’d be so curious to know if any other females can relate to masking YOUNG.

[ICU-Witness]

Brother, thank you for sharing this. I learned to mask defensively to fit in but I was never myself. Always pretending to be someone else. As my parents weren't around I found role models in comic books and novels like the Count of Montecristo (I felt like I had been exiled so these characters seem fitting). I recall always feeling fake, like a character in a movie, but never hearing the "Cut" to stop acting. I rarely made eye contact (like a protagonist in a movie/story doesn't stop to engage the viewer) The Army took me in and I had a rough time in Basic but now I had a whole new batch of characters to learn and mimic them. Did it well enough that most thought I was just 'off' to a minor degree but tolerable. Had a crisis of identity when I got out because I didn't know who to be so I reverted back to my comic book heroes. Relationships sucked as I could keep up appearances to get a relationship started but after a few weeks they'd see something was up with me (or my mask would start slipping from mental exhaustion). Most relationships were like that for me, "Hey you're unique... and weeks later "Dude, you're too much for me". Years later I met a woman who saw me for who I was and I've been happier since because I didn't have to pretend anymore. Now I have a son and he's been diagnosed with all my childhood crap and iM trying to guide him but thankfully there are programs to help parents now so I don't feel completely lost, but I worry for him obsessively.

[mediumchunkymads]

Woah these subtitles that highlight the words as you are saying them are great I can look at you and the words and comprehend what you are saying way better.

[dariusrhodes]

Fax I get made fun of just for avoiding eye contact ecspecially from women I be walking past a couple the girl looks at me and calls me jealous just for not wanting her to look at me it seriously aggravates me cuz im just tryna mind my business just to get called creepy.

[smicketysmoo]

Relatable. My Cat-Q turned out to be 164!