I’m guessing the person isn’t actually autistic, but just stumbled upon a random autism meme and decided to identify as autistic.
Either that or they’ve been going to assimilation therapy a lot as a child, and it’s not ‘I choose to mask’, but rather ‘I’ve been conditioned to mask’.
Personally I feel a great deal of sunk cost as a late-in-life diagnosis. I kind of sympathize with both sides because I had to learn to mask without even knowing I was masking or that it was a thing I was doing. Now when I think about just ‘being me’ it feels impossible and like starting over trying to deal with people I’ve never understood to begin with.
It’s tough. I wouldn’t be too hard on either. For some people masking just keeps things from spiraling out of control, and for others it’s an effort that causes strain the other way around.
I’m guessing the person isn’t actually autistic, but just stumbled upon a random autism meme and decided to identify as autistic.
Either that or they’ve been going to assimilation therapy a lot as a child, and it’s not ‘I choose to mask’, but rather ‘I’ve been conditioned to mask’.
Personally I feel a great deal of sunk cost as a late-in-life diagnosis. I kind of sympathize with both sides because I had to learn to mask without even knowing I was masking or that it was a thing I was doing. Now when I think about just ‘being me’ it feels impossible and like starting over trying to deal with people I’ve never understood to begin with.
It’s tough. I wouldn’t be too hard on either. For some people masking just keeps things from spiraling out of control, and for others it’s an effort that causes strain the other way around.