Autistic masking, also referred to as camouflaging, is the conscious or subconscious suppression of autistic behaviors and compensation of difficulties in social interaction by autistic people with the goal of being perceived as neurotypical.
Examples of masking can include, but are not limited to: Mimicking the social behaviour of others, including gestures or facial expressions. Deliberately forcing or faking eye contact during conversations. Hiding or underplaying their own intense interests.
Effects of masking
Autistic people who mask more show more signs of anxiety and depression, and the strategy may even been linked to an increase in suicidal behaviours (Cassidy et al. 2018).
Signs you or someone you support may be masking include: Mirroring others' facial expressions or social behaviors. Rehearsing or preparing scripted responses to comments. Imitating gestures such as handshakes or initiating eye contact.
Signs of Masking
If you notice that you tend to look to others before deciding what to do in various situations, you might be masking by mimicking their behavior. If you do not feel like these choices come naturally to you, and you instead try to copy what you see, you might be masking your social behavior.
All children are different, but if they change character when they go from school to home, or go into meltdown, or appear exhausted, it might be a sign that they are masking in public.
Masking describes the act of hiding or suppressing symptoms of a mental health condition. People usually mask in situations and environments where they are expected to act in a socially normative way — like at school or work, or when meeting new people.
It's critical to understand what's going on because camouflaging is associated with many adverse outcomes in autistic individuals, like higher anxiety and depression. We are seeing studies that show masking in girls as young as 7 or 8 years old on the school playground.
The current study examined experiences of masking across different neurotypes, including both autistic and nonautistic adults. We found that masking is not limited to autistic people, which is consistent with theory on identity and stigma management.
About stimming and autism
Stimming might include: hand and finger mannerisms – for example, finger-flicking and hand-flapping. unusual body movements – for example, rocking back and forth while sitting or standing. posturing – for example, holding hands or fingers out at an angle or arching the back while sitting.
While ADHD can make it difficult to focus, sit still, or control impulses, autism can limit a person's scope of interests or affect social skills and learning abilities. ADHD and autism often share symptoms, like difficulty communicating or concentrating. Additionally, it's possible that the conditions are connected.
Some studies have documented the reason why girls with autism mask; results suggest that it is motivated by the need to avoid being bullied, the feeling that it is an obligation to mask, and the fear of being ostracized for being autistic.
If you hide your adult ADHD symptoms from other people, that's called masking. Basically, you're trying to seem more “normal” or “regular.” ADHD causes some people to act hyperactive or impulsive. It makes other folks have trouble paying attention. And still other adults have a combination of those symptoms.
Though autistic people may respond to emotions and social cues differently than neurotypical people, this does not mean they lack empathy. Just like neurotypical people, levels of empathy vary between autistic individuals.
The 'autism accent'.
Professionals would describe this as abnormal speech patterns. I'm not sure what specifically is different about our voices, but some autistic people find that they are often asked about their voice or accent. I have been. In primary school other kids used to mock my voice.
When ASD goes untreated, is misdiagnosed, or diagnosis is delayed, negative symptoms associated with the condition may worsen over time. Without adequate support, children may not develop competent skills with regards to learning, speech, or social interactions.
Some developmental health professionals refer to PDD-NOS as “subthreshold autism." In other words, it's the diagnosis they use for someone who has some but not all characteristics of autism or who has relatively mild symptoms.
Masking is the process by which the threshold of hearing for one sound is raised by the presence of another sound. If someone listens to a soft and a loud sound at the same time, he or she may not hear the soft sound. The soft sound is masked by the loud sound.
Hiding your authentic self: Masking behavior obscures your natural personality. For example, in certain social situations, you might pretend to like different things than you actually do to fit in. Perhaps you find yourself laughing at jokes you don't find funny.
Masking is a common ADHD coping mechanism. (Masking, to be clear, isn't exclusive to ADHD; it is closely related to neurodivergence, and most often thought of in connection to autism.1)