Personality and masking

i see what i do when there’s no one around. monitor when i feel happy or smile.

It’s interesting how masking works

Good perspective, thank you!

Thank you. That’s interesting 

Cheers. Still a total work in progress, but it’s a start. :)

Masking in public is okay, for me.

However, increased anxiety gives me the creeps. Just driving to the local shop - in this weather - freaks me out. However I recite a prayer from Childhood to get through.

three years maybe since my diagnosis, and it's life before... and then after. it's almost that clear cut. for me, certain things have altered and/or changed, and i guess it's like alice falling down the rabbit hole. up is down, and down is up, everything else goes sideways.

i think be open to trying new things; be prepared if they don't work out. but some certainly might! things you liked before... may fall by the trash heap. feel free to discard them.  

many of the things i/you thought we were --- were often things ignorant NT's said to us, often when we were young and impressionable. these things, meant to be helpful, may have stayed with us for years and years.... and years... it'll take time, but some aspies are good at being.........obstinate, oh, i mean.......... persistant...... after all, if we weren't persistant,......

we'd still be masking.

so interesting, how u are trying to get a happy balance

I’m still figuring this out myself, but I realised I was looking at it too b&w, like there was the real autistic me and then the fake mask, and I wanted to figure which was which. I decided instead to try to keep/add whatever I like/enjoy/need/etc., and perhaps start dropping what I don’t, never mind whether it is part of the mask or not. Like, I enjoy some of my masking that helps me to socialise, so I’ll carry on with that. But I realised I was stopping myself from stimming even on my own, so I’ve started actively doing that. Hope this helps.

thats understandable 

I can understand that

I mask at work. Only around my close family am I totally myself. I feel bad saying it but the social Distancing rules have meant that Some of my my otherwise 'anti social' traits Have gone unnoticed in my new job. Previously, sitting far from colleagues and avoiding handshakes would have been noticeable but now they are not.