More Real, Less Fake

It is happening but very slowly, as slowly as legislation relating to the Autism Act is taking. This is because it’s not in most people interest to push these topics further, industry does just fine without giving neurodiverse people jobs, society has fixed ideals of what beauty and success are. Until people stop and realise that that friend they had at school was ND, or until a child or loved one is diagnosed with ASD it doesn’t speak to people about just how profound an issue it is.

I’m a trustee on a health charity, I now support a few local autistic groups, and am on a council autism board what you realise is how little support and infrastructure there is (in terms of broad public awareness and understanding) to help and how it is a massive societal problem involving the police, social services, jobs and welfare. If the general population consisting mostly of those who consider themselves to be normal saw this as a problem then the urgency would be recognised.

I realise being autistic makes me vulnerable that I need additional protection when I go out, because the general lack of understanding in the population means that I am not entirely free to be my full self in the context of how others want things to be. If I’m masking it’s only as a deterrent to avoid those situations not really because I want to camouflage myself. 

I agree!!

I am slowly letting the real me out both emotionally and physically. It's quite a suprise to me, so I know my work colleagues and family must be struggling to understand what happening.

So yes if the general population knew more about autism they may be more understanding and accepting of my differences.

(⁠◍⁠•⁠ᴗ⁠•⁠◍⁠)⁠

It's EVERYWHERE!

And we still feel picked on.

There's a fine line between Mental Health and Snake-Oil Marketing, these days. Some Smart-Alec, with a Psychology Degree, became an 'Opinion Former' and took charge of Cognitive Therapy. Adding a few Buzzwords, along the way.

Society, in general, is too one-size-fits-all. Whether it's Politics, Planning or Finance, everything's now centralised. The Individual is being squeezed out.

AutisticBeaut2025 said:

Agree or not?

Disagree.

Just because more people might be aware of autism, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they will behave differently. Even if society becomes more or less accepting of autistic people’s behaviour, autistic people are a minority and therefore are more likely to be influenced by a majority of made up of non-autistic people. Even accounting for “double-empathy” and potential autistic family members, it is unlikely to change things drastically.

Young people, autistic and non-autistic, often look to the “cool group” and model themselves on those members.

More awareness would be good, as long as it was based on good information and not stereotypes as I think there is a tendency to think we're all the same.

I'm not sure about masking if I'm honest as I think everyone masks to a certain extent. We all have our work persona, our family persona etc, there are always going to be situations where you need to withhold some parts of your personality and bring forward others. Like the jokes you might laugh at and tell with friends not being ones you'd share with older relatives, or needing to be professional and diplomatic at work when in a another situation you'd tell someone to go and do one. 

I often wonder if the problem with masking isn't that we do it as much as we don't know when or how to stop doing it?