Masking in autism can be a conscious or unconscious strategy people with autism use to help navigate social interactions and appear non-autistic. While masking may benefit autistic people in certain situations, it can also negatively impact their mental health and sense of self.
Keep reading to learn about this behavior, and how it affects individuals with autism.
What is Masking in Autism?
The National Autistic Society describes masking as adopting certain behaviors, such as facial expressions or body language, to appear non-autistic, blend in, and be more accepted in society. Autistic people learn to mask by observing, analyzing, and mirroring others’ behavior, whether in real life, on TV, films, books, etc.
Though adjusting behavior to social situations seems like something that everyone experiences, autistic people describe masking as completely different than that. Masking, as the name suggests, involves great effort by people with autism to manually act in ways that come naturally to neurotypical individuals. This can include attempting to meet social expectations and blend into society, which can result in mental health issues.
Why Do People with Autism Mask?
Masking in autism serves many purposes, one of which is to “blend in” or “camouflage” with society. Javad Alaghband-rad and colleagues for Front Psychiatry found in a study about masking behavior in adult autism that individuals with autism mask to, “access the social world and social opportunities and make friends, be accepted by others, maintain safety, and build resiliency.”
In other words, masking can be a form of survival for those with autism. It can give them social or work opportunities that may otherwise be difficult to obtain without masking, along with allowing them to feel like they fit in with neurotypical people.
Impact of Masking
Though masking may benefit people with autism at school, work, or within relationships, it can be detrimental to their mental health. Various studies across psychiatric researchers have shown that regular masking can cause higher levels of stress and anxiety, depression, exhaustion, and burnout within autistic people. Similarly, regular masking may also make it difficult to receive an autism diagnosis, preventing them from receiving the support they need for their symptoms.
Conclusion
Masking can be a way for people with autism to blend in with neurotypical people. It involves acting in ways that do not come naturally autistic people, such as by maintaining eye contact or disguising stimming behaviors. While masking may offer autistic people social opportunities and a feeling of “fitting in,” it can have negative effects on their mental health.
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