Autistic masking

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. Masking is a learned coping strategy that can be successful from the perspective of autistic people, but can also lead to adverse mental health outcomes.

There is no universally agreed-upon terminology for the concept. While some use the terms masking and camouflaging synonymously, others distinguish between masking (the suppression of behaviors) and compensation (of social difficulties) as the two main forms of camouflaging. Among autistic people, masking is the most commonly used umbrella term.

Typical examples of autistic masking include the suppression of stimming and meltdowns, a common reaction to sensory overload. To compensate difficulties in social interaction with neurotypical peers, autistic people might maintain eye contact despite discomfort or mirror the body language and tone of others. Autistic people with conversational difficulties may also use more complex strategies such as scripting a conversation outline and developing conscious 'rules' for conversations, and carefully monitoring if these are being followed. Many autistic people learn conversational rules and social behaviors by watching television shows and other media, observing and mimicking a character's behavior. Masking can also include refraining from talking about passionate interests.

Masking requires an exceptional effort and is a main cause of autistic burnout. It is linked with adverse mental health outcomes such as stress,anxiety, depression, and other psychological disorders,loss of identity, and suicidality. Some studies find that compensation strategies are seen as contributing to leading a successful and satisfactory life. Since many studies on masking focus on autistic adults without cognitive impairments only, it is questionable whether their findings generalize across the autism spectrum.

Autistic people have cited social acceptance, the need to get a job, avoiding ostracism, or avoiding verbal or physical abuse as reasons for masking.

Masking may conceal the person's need for support and can complicate a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder, as relevant symptoms are suppressed or compensated. It has been hypothesized that masking may play an important role in explaining why autistic women and non-binary persons are significantly less often recognized and diagnosed as autistic compared to men. This hypothesis was put forward by Lorna Wing as early as 1981 and is recognized in the DSM-5-TR published in 2022.

The process of consciously giving up masking, which some autistic people see as a desirable goal, is referred to as unmasking. Motivations for unmasking include no longer hiding ones true identity and avoiding adverse mental health outcomes.

While masking was written about and discussed among autistic people, it has only become a focus of academic research since the 2010s. The Camouflaging Autistic Traits Questionnaire (CAT-Q), a first self-report measure for camouflaging, was published in 2018.

In light of rising awareness of the adverse mental health outcomes of masking and insight into the double empathy problem, therapies and interventions with implicit or explicit targets of instilling neurotypical behavior in autistic people and suppression of autistic traits are controversial. Some autistic adults subjected to applied behavior analysis therapies as children describe being forced to behave like neurotypical peers, contrary to their true identity, with detrimental effects on their mental and overall well-being.

Further reading

• Sedgewick, Felicity; Hull, Laura; Ellis, Helen (2021). Autism and Masking: How and Why People Do It, and the Impact It Can Have. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. ISBN 1-78775-580-0. OCLC 1287133295.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
• Price, Devon (2022). Unmasking Autism: The Power of Embracing Our Hidden Neurodiversity. London: Monoray. ISBN 978-1-80096-054-1. OCLC 1321047301.
• Hull, Laura; Mandy, William (2020). "Social Camouflaging in Adults with ASD". In Volkmar, Fred R. (ed.). Encyclopedia of Autism Spectrum Disorders. New York, NY: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-6435-8_102389-1. ISBN 978-1-4614-6435-8.
• Petrolini, Valentina; Rodríguez-Armendariz, Ekaine; Vicente, Agustín (2023). "Autistic camouflaging across the spectrum". New Ideas in Psychology. 68: 100992. doi:10.1016/j.newideapsych.2022.100992.

External links

• Eva Silvertant: Autism & camouflaging Embrace Autism, 2020.
• Francine Russo: The costs of camouflaging autism Spectrum. Simons Foundation, 2018