Daily Musings

💭 Daily Musings 💭 

From  

The Autistic Practitioner 

“Remember, when you are trying to fit in, you will be leaving out all the parts of you that make you unique” 

Living an authentic life is a phrase that we hear a lot of these days, but what does it mean in real life? To me, as an autistic woman it is being able to live my life, without having to hide who I am. Hiding your true self to an autistic person, or in fact any neurodiverse person, is called masking and though that is needed at times it is exhausting and can in fact to be very detrimental to the quality of life. 

Masking is a social tool that is used by most neurodiverse people to fit in and get by. However, it means that you hide your true self and the parts of you that make you unique, so I would say consider a moment before you mask. 

When you mask, those incredible skills that make you exceptional at your job or in school/college/university are dampened and, in some cases, eliminated. I understand that truly unmasking is not always possible, as it can make you vulnerable but there are times and places when this could be possible, and it should be something that you should consider.  

This is something that will explore further and in more detail in a full post (this is just a musing) but I would like to start getting the world used to neurodiverse individuals and how they do things differently, it is nothing to be scared or worried about. I have a finger tapping stim that I have had all my life and now that I use a walking stick it is more distinctive, I have been told that it can look menacing when doing it, this made me chuckle a little.