Camouflage : autistic masking
Insights with Bart Vulliamy
www . BartVulliamy . com @ PhotographieBlack
In the words of James Baldwin … It took many years of vomiting up all the filth I ’ d been taught about myself , and half-believed , before I was able to walk on the earth as if I had a right to be here .
Masking is when an autistic or other neurodivergent person mimics the body language , facial expressions , gestures , interests , or uses scripts in
order to hide their autistic traits in social situations . Masking , or camouflaging , is exhausting and debilitating and may lead to chronic health issues over a period of time . Autistic and neurodivergent people feel the need to mask due to societal standards and stigma and may feel unsafe when they show their autistic traits .
There ’ s a myth that neurodivergent people can ’ t make friends , but wherein the reality is that there is a smaller pool where there are people like us who can relate to us . Neurodivergent people often need friends who are deemed safe so we can genuinely be ourselves ( stimming , special interests , etc .) Society , either consciously or unconsciously , have biases towards autistic people and a long history of trying to silence and erase us . And autistic people are aware of the history .
Applied Behaviour Analysis ( ABA ) is the most common therapy for autistic and ADHD children . ABA conditions children through encouragement or punishment , to conform to behavioural standards of society . One of the main principles of ABA is to decrease problematics like stimming and other disruptive behaviours , while increasing communication skills .
One of the main faults of ABA is that it heavily focuses on eliminating behaviours instead of building real life skills . A common critique is that ABA also tries to force autistic children to conform to neurotypical standards instead of making accommodations or changing systemic issues . Children who go through ABA grow up to be Autistic adults who have gone through ABA , but who now must carry the heavy burden of always having to check ourselves to make sure we ’ re being socially acceptable or adhering to neurotypical standards .
Masking is a double-edged sword – it can lead to opportunities like
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