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Getting very frustrated trying to find general community to ask a question

Lubiloo.66

Just want to know if any older folks on the spectrum who have successfully masked - well you know with autistic overwhelmed dismissed as hormones - and have survived cancer - niche- have found chemo has had a lasting effect on their ability to mask. Like the real you can no longer be contained or there isn't enough brain left to mask and function?

I know this is not the right space. Was getting very frustrated and my adhd means I have to write this now or ot won't happen so here it is.

I am 59

Parents

  • Are you describing your own situation? 

    I am in my 60s and had chemotherapy to treat cancer some years ago, over a period of two years. I didn’t know I was autistic then but I masked most of the time, not always successfully. Being so ill and lacking in energy certainly meant that I couldn’t mask for some of the time, but others may have put any change in my behaviour down to fatigue as a result of the chemo and sepsis. 

    I don't think it is always useful to link cause and effect to one thing like chemo. Most people receive a cocktail of tailored chemotherapy drugs in each treatment for some of the common cancers, and one person’s response to the drugs will be different to another’s. I think any illness can make a person too tired to mask, but I think it can sometimes be more a psychological state than a physical state. Being older and hopefully wiser, especially since my autism diagnosis, has allowed me to be more confident around not doing something that would be too overwhelming and to just not waste energy on masking all the time.

    There is no doubt that I am alive today, thanks to chemotherapy, but the harsh side effects have had a lasting effect, though I couldn’t say it was responsible for masking ability.

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  • Are you describing your own situation? 

    I am in my 60s and had chemotherapy to treat cancer some years ago, over a period of two years. I didn’t know I was autistic then but I masked most of the time, not always successfully. Being so ill and lacking in energy certainly meant that I couldn’t mask for some of the time, but others may have put any change in my behaviour down to fatigue as a result of the chemo and sepsis. 

    I don't think it is always useful to link cause and effect to one thing like chemo. Most people receive a cocktail of tailored chemotherapy drugs in each treatment for some of the common cancers, and one person’s response to the drugs will be different to another’s. I think any illness can make a person too tired to mask, but I think it can sometimes be more a psychological state than a physical state. Being older and hopefully wiser, especially since my autism diagnosis, has allowed me to be more confident around not doing something that would be too overwhelming and to just not waste energy on masking all the time.

    There is no doubt that I am alive today, thanks to chemotherapy, but the harsh side effects have had a lasting effect, though I couldn’t say it was responsible for masking ability.

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