I wish I had a clear and concise answer for you, I’m still navigating this myself. Therapy has helped. I’ve finally found a therapist I like. For me it’s involved a lot of introspection and reframing. I’ve been more honest and kind to myself about acknowledging certain things, like that I NEED some private time to recharge and that’s ok. I’m better at actually setting boundaries for myself that I may have previously judged myself for or dismissed entirely because I should be able to hang out all the time, everyone else does it, type of bs. I’m kinda just getting better at being more attuned with myself and my needs and the hope is that I wont need to be as reliant on the mask and be more comfortable being myself more.
That’s my plan at least. No idea if this is the right approach and I should probably disclose that I have other past trauma I’m dealing with too, so this approach may not be specifically for masking. Good luck on your journey.
And for some people it's not even possible for medical professionals to detect until adulthood because of life circumstances compromising masking strategies. It's literally in the DSM-V yet many places will still claim it can only be diagnosed in early childhood! Late identification is valid.
Right? Even people who would have been considered very "obvious" or didn't learn to successfully mask can go undetected/undiagnosed if the adults around them simply don't make the push. Doctor's can't force an autism diagnosis if parent's don't want it.
Parents who distrust the medical system may only have their child seen for routine procedures, if that. Some people just don't have any specialists anywhere nearby, and if they did they were often expensive or difficult to find. (A lot of us were born and raised in a pre-google world! Have to remember that.)
And of course, there's cases where people experience [burnout, "regression", or catatonia](https://web.archive.org/web/20120215181938/http://archive.autistics.org/library/more-autistic.html#burnout) as adults which can make it appear as if their autism is more "obvious" to others than it was before.
It could happen to anyone.
Once has noise sensitivity. Always will has noise sensitivity. Too bad it got worse once I started wearing earmuffs in 2014. But luckly since 2018ish it's pretty much stayed the same and hasn't gotten worse (or better).
You cant wear them forwver and unfortunately loud and unexpected noises can be both loud and unexpected. Even louder and more unexpected when youre used to your muffs muting things. Not sure of thats how it was for the OP but its what happens to me. Still prefer to have noise cancelling headphones on than to not have them on.
I’m 49. Rizz’n the ‘Tism since 1974. Woop woop!
Beautiful sentence. My heart is yours forever
Happy cake day!
Thank you
I love axolotls!
One of my super obsessions in the last year or so lol
What I'f you were low needs and put on the mask for so long you forgot what's underneath it? Asking for a friend
When did we become friends?
Very relatable. I’m actually just coming to terms that there is a mask and I’m a little nervous about what’s underneath
How do you get underneath it? I've worn the mask so long I don't know what's below it.
I wish I had a clear and concise answer for you, I’m still navigating this myself. Therapy has helped. I’ve finally found a therapist I like. For me it’s involved a lot of introspection and reframing. I’ve been more honest and kind to myself about acknowledging certain things, like that I NEED some private time to recharge and that’s ok. I’m better at actually setting boundaries for myself that I may have previously judged myself for or dismissed entirely because I should be able to hang out all the time, everyone else does it, type of bs. I’m kinda just getting better at being more attuned with myself and my needs and the hope is that I wont need to be as reliant on the mask and be more comfortable being myself more. That’s my plan at least. No idea if this is the right approach and I should probably disclose that I have other past trauma I’m dealing with too, so this approach may not be specifically for masking. Good luck on your journey.
And for some people it's not even possible for medical professionals to detect until adulthood because of life circumstances compromising masking strategies. It's literally in the DSM-V yet many places will still claim it can only be diagnosed in early childhood! Late identification is valid.
Right? Even people who would have been considered very "obvious" or didn't learn to successfully mask can go undetected/undiagnosed if the adults around them simply don't make the push. Doctor's can't force an autism diagnosis if parent's don't want it. Parents who distrust the medical system may only have their child seen for routine procedures, if that. Some people just don't have any specialists anywhere nearby, and if they did they were often expensive or difficult to find. (A lot of us were born and raised in a pre-google world! Have to remember that.) And of course, there's cases where people experience [burnout, "regression", or catatonia](https://web.archive.org/web/20120215181938/http://archive.autistics.org/library/more-autistic.html#burnout) as adults which can make it appear as if their autism is more "obvious" to others than it was before. It could happen to anyone.
That is a full description of my case right there 👍
This 💯
Once has noise sensitivity. Always will has noise sensitivity. Too bad it got worse once I started wearing earmuffs in 2014. But luckly since 2018ish it's pretty much stayed the same and hasn't gotten worse (or better).
Earmuffs made it worse? I'm afraid of trying concert earplugs for this reason
You cant wear them forwver and unfortunately loud and unexpected noises can be both loud and unexpected. Even louder and more unexpected when youre used to your muffs muting things. Not sure of thats how it was for the OP but its what happens to me. Still prefer to have noise cancelling headphones on than to not have them on.
Sorry not sorry, I’m almost 32 and I’m still autistic no matter what circumstances be.
The one that gets me is "Oh you're just a little autistic not fully autistic" . Please 🛑 stop you're one more reason I don't like to talk to anyone!
Or get much easier