General
Masking when you have autism can help you blend in, but you might not be doing yourself any favours
The practice of someone being undiagnosed on the autism spectrum and masking their autism is not as uncommon as you might think.
Key points:
- Masking can be a way of “camouflaging” your autism
- People with autism can be motivated to do it fit in
- But it can be damaging in the long term and exhausting to keep it up
For 40 years, I hid my autism from the world as a way of ensuring those around me would accept me.
I mimicked their social interactions and behaviours and sailed through life.
It was not until I reached my forties and got a diagnosis of being on the autism spectrum that I finally knew what I’d been doing was what they class as “masking” or “camouflaging”.
Masking or camouflaging is an artificially “performed” social behaviour.
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