Published on 12, July, 2020
I’m relatively newly diagnosed (in my early 40s) and recently been reflecting on the extent to which I mask. Some posts in other threads have questioned people’s masking at diagnostic assessment as if the person can choose when to mask and when not to. For me it’s not that simple - there’s masking I’m conscious of and ‘could’ stop if I tried/had to, but there’s other masking I definitely do that has been ingrained since childhood. I can’t just choose not to do this latter type and I’m working hard to identify all aspects of it at the moment as I haven’t been conscious of it but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t caused me problems - main thing being residual stress. Just wanted to share these thoughts. Has anyone else thought about this?
Can you be an ASD level 1 person if you don't mask? It seems to be a prerequisite of being a late diagnosed autistic person that you've spent all your life in masking mode. Yet I struggle to see masking as something I consciously do. What I am, without a shadow of a doubt, is a people pleaser. I'll agree to b to please c and d, but my personal preference is a.
firemonkey said:Yet I struggle to see masking as something I consciously do. What I am, without a shadow of a doubt, is a people pleaser. I'll agree to b to please c and d, but my personal preference is a.
People pleasing is a form of masking :)
Thank you. I didn't know that. I've always based my non- masking on the fact that I'm not good at reading body language, and adjusting how I am based on that during a F2F conversation with someone.