Autistic Masking With Tony Attwood

Tony Attwood Talks About Autism Masking

*Video and audio from an interview with Tony Attwood

[MrWinMrWin-qrbn]

“Fake it till you make it “ . For the aspies there’s never the “make it.” So yeah it’s exhausting when you have to keep faking it to be part of society

[pipsqueek]

i supposedly don't have aspergers but this exhaustion when interacting with people i feel a lot, been depressed and feel lonely, even more so in company than when i'm actually alone.
i have tried to act normal so much i'm not sure who i am; feels like i never developed a personality

[richardward]

I only found out that I was autistic this year I’m 53, I worked in the film industry for 22 years, I reckon I have been the best actor in the world for 53 years.
The meat puppets need to catch up😳🙂❤️

[davewest]

I've often wondered why people found it hard to "act", to manufacture emotion. Then I realized it's only easy for me cause I've been doing it my whole life.

[timothyclark]

Bro I just separate myself from people at this point and mostly stopped masking. If people think Im weird for being myself then fck em.

[KevintheBarbarian]

This is a huge part of the reason I resigned from my upcoming music career

[smicketysmoo]

Attwood gets it right - as always. Ty for sharing this.

[alexisbalmer]

I tried to be more my authentic self by telling people who were my friends of 40 and 30 years, I was worried and not understanding something about our travel arrangements. It led to an argument of sorts, with people telling me I was " a chore to be around, hard work, not fun anymore ". Needless to say, I didn't go on holiday and I am now left, that I don't know if we are even friends anymore. For me, trying to be more my authentic self was not a positive thing. It has left me feeling more alone, more stupid and more less than, more than ever.

[jacquizbak]

I like this man explanation tho Wayne dyer shared it as choosing/practicing/living from the end goal ~ a lot of exceptional athletes do this as well mayb even Musk relax n learn to have fun more stuff the rest eh😮🎉😅❤😂

[ranmakuro]

Easier said than done, that's the issue. I'm perfect with dreaming, imagination, envisioning how it could be (and at this point in my head it is actually done in real life). When it comes to do things without prior imagination experience, I'm not doing it. I'm not getting anywhere. But when it's over and done in my head, I can't repeat it in physical life, it always feels like living the life twice or three times with recap. And when you did it physically, you overthing (unvolunteerily!) the situation for years. Because - you can live by script how hard you want. But others will never follow the script and do things differently at their own pace. It's as if an autist and a NT would try to play a theater scene, but both play different scripts and different stories at all at the same time trying to find the missing link. Always seeing each other, reacting to each other but still being bound to their own script, hence not understanding what the other actor is about to do.

To survive, you have to at least find compromises, camouflage (which means autists are the ones to cope while the NT ones stick to their routine regardlessly).

Life is not a cycle of similar actions. Life is an actual repetition of the actual same things endlessly.

[mmp]

It’s overwhelming and depressing even for typical let alone the neurodivergent. 😢 Thank the higher powers for Dr. Atwood’s research and studies on Asperger’s syndrome. ❤

[mimistar]

Although it's more associated with autistic people the more I reflect on masking, I've come to realise it is something that all people do at some point. I think both neurotypical and neurodivergent people do it obviously to varying degrees and toll.