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Autism
Autism: There Is No Mask To Take Off
Why Autistics Do Not Need To Unmask
“I have to take the mask off.”
“It’s so difficult to unmask in public.”
“We mask until we collapse. The act of masking requires so much energy from day to day that we will burnout.”
These are the types of comments you will hear on autistic support groups everyday. Many late- or early-diagnosed autistics, even well meaning friends, partners or parents, wonder how they might help to take the “mask” off.
Or that it’s either wear a mask or nothing in order to get the life you want.
But there isn’t a mask. Not a real one. And I believe that a great many autistics are beating themselves up unnecessarily. Trying to unmask makes the assumption that there is a fake autistic person in front of us and that everything they do is a deception. I think this is potentially damaging.
Imagine, just for a moment, that everything about you is a lie.
How destructive could that belief be?
We can fix this. First, we need to understand something.
