An Autistic personality was aware about masks even before Covid -19
Autism and Masking is like “to blend or not to blend”
Hiding who you are in reality is pretty uncomfortable , well this is a daily hustle for people with Autism
Autistic adults would clearly relate with this. Autistic people would often feel the need to present or perform social behaviours that are considered neurotypical
Masking the autistic personality will let the neurodivergent individual to feel protected and lesser chances of being excluded or harassed.
This specifically happens at school or at college
Thus this is the very reason a child will have a meltdown as soon as they are home after a day at school as they get tired of this “ masking”
Now you might think is this masking behaviour intentional,no it is not always
Thus if you have a teenager or an adult who is showing masking behaviour , you must not ignore as this can lead to adverse health consequences.
To make you understand what is this masking behaviour . Now everytime you see the word masking , read it as “compensating”.
You can call it a social survival strategy applied by a neurodivergent person
Just think how many times you too effort hard to fit in among people who are totally opposite to you.
Masking behaviours can look different from one person to other. These behaviours vary as below:
1.forcing or faking the eye contact during social communication
2.imitating smiles and facial expressions
3.hiding personal interest
4. mimicking social scripts conversations
5.pushing through intense sensory experiences like “ loud noises”,” flashy lights”
6. making bodily stimming not so obvious
There has been debate and research going on why women do masking more than men with ASD
So I talked about very important social survival strategy that individual with ASD apply. Next I am going to shed light on how it feels like having autism.
This is compiled after I heard some very cool adults with Autism
Let’s go
Being autistic feels like eating soup with fork
Being autistic feels like playing a game without knowing the rules
Being autistic feels like having 1 % battery mode
Being autistic feels like being on a roller coaster
Being autistic feels like existing in a world which is inherently not built for you
Thankyou so much
I hope you totally adore this blog
Creative Efforts and Autism Activist- Heena Sahi
