Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi, my name is Bree.
I'm new here and I would love to ask you about your experiences with masking as an autistic person, especially women and girls.
I mask pretty much whenever I am with any people. This is something I've been noticing more and more ever since I got diagnosed
Bree (what a beautiful name by the way),
I tend to mask around people who I think won't accept my quirks and not so much around people I feel are quirky. I feel that Autistics, although very different from one another are naturally drawn to each other. If I look at my friends, we are all pretty straight talking and deep thinking people. I love that I feel unmasked as much as is possible with them. I do always have a caution in my head about how the other person may be feeling about what I'm saying so can't fully unmask apart from with my family though. Even when I phone samaritans in struggling times, I can't say how I really feel as I'm aware how it will be affecting them so I can't truly offload. That's probably why I like to talk out loud to myself, almost like a stim and therapy session rolled into one.
If I had my way, I'd be dancing in the supermarket, talking to myself and singing along to the tunes on my headphones - can you imagine? :-)
I always mask my anxiety when out but do let my friends/family know when I'm suffering. It can be tough when it's a lot though as I fear losing them incase they get sick of me.... :-/
I think my mask when I'm out must literally a blank mask, I'm usually in my own little world and my face is blank, it dosen't help that I have resting *** face and look angry or upset most of the time, I'm not I'm just disengaged from others around me.