I took the Camouflaging Autistic Traits Questionnaire not long ago, and was surprised to find that against the average of 109 for adult males, my average was 149. So I mask considerably more than the average among us. It's given me a lot to think about in terms of how I behave around other people, how I behave around people I trust and am close to, and how I behave when I'm by myself. I'm curious to find out if there are others among us here who have scored similarly high, or higher.
Ha ha 
No, it means you camouflage in the same way as most other autistic women, when you are in social situations.
My masking score was wildly different - I think my brain spends so much time doing the compensating thing of learned facial expressions, body language & responding appropriately to social cues that I have no processing space left to think about looking confident or attentive or whether I'm doing eye contact. Sometimes if I'm not engrossed in a conversation or lose the ability to concentrate on the speaker my mind starts wandering and thinking of something else or I start thinking about my eye contact - for example, have I been staring at them too long? - and then I miss a lot of what was said.
I have noticed that my partner and I can have long conversations without any eye contact at all.
Ha ha
No, it means you camouflage in the same way as most other autistic women, when you are in social situations.
My masking score was wildly different - I think my brain spends so much time doing the compensating thing of learned facial expressions, body language & responding appropriately to social cues that I have no processing space left to think about looking confident or attentive or whether I'm doing eye contact. Sometimes if I'm not engrossed in a conversation or lose the ability to concentrate on the speaker my mind starts wandering and thinking of something else or I start thinking about my eye contact - for example, have I been staring at them too long? - and then I miss a lot of what was said.
I have noticed that my partner and I can have long conversations without any eye contact at all.
