What You Are Hiding Could Be Hurting You: Autistic Masking in Relation to Mental Health, Interpersonal Trauma, Authenticity, and Self-Esteem
Although I don’t like the word ‘hiding’ in this context, this is a really good research article. It’s fairly long but there’s many interesting things so if you’re interested, I recommend giving it a skim. It highlights the problems caused by ABA type therapy and also mentions “However, it is important to note that aspects of behaviorism, and perhaps encouragement of masking, are present in many non-ABA therapies and education programs, including CBT, and some applications of special education teaching, speech and occupational therapy, and social skills classes.” I don't think the goal of any therapy should be to encourage autistic people to act like neurotypicals.
From the article:
“Results: This study found that higher self-reported autistic masking behaviors were associated with higher reports of past interpersonal trauma, greater anxiety and depression symptoms, lower self-esteem, lower authenticity, and lower participation within the autistic community.”
"Our study results show support for the previous theory that autistic masking may be a trauma response in autistic people linked to interpersonal trauma and autistic stigma. Our results also indicate that autistic masking is associated with mental health, self-esteem, and authenticity risks for autistic adults. Based on these findings and other research associating autistic masking with poorer mental health and psychological distress for autistic people, we call into question the teaching of autistic masking strategies in parenting, therapy, and education programs for autistic people."
"Our findings should be utilized as a strong call to action to combat practices that encourage autistic trait shaming and autistic masking. To prevent or alleviate potential future trauma to autistic populations, we advocate that parenting, therapy, and education for autistic people be neurodiversity affirming with clear respect for autistic traits and autistic identity, and that practices that shame autistic people for their autistic traits and identity be halted.”
I would go further and say even autistic people must do more to accept each other and create spaces where autistic people can be their authentic selves. Lack of acceptance by other autistic people was a devastating experience for me. If we can’t accept ourselves and our autistic peers, how can we expect others to accept us?
Wow Jill, I really think you're on to something here.
I've speculated that ND people have difficulty accepting characteristics in other ND people that they don't have themselves (because we're all so different) because they maybe don't have the capacity for it.
But in thinking about what you wrote, I think that's a very real issue. I once read something about autistic parents (who don't know they're autistic) being very hard on their autistic children when they display the same characteristics. Because, like you say, the parents never accepted their own autistic qualities so they can't accept those characteristics in their children.
Sometimes they might have good intentions...they want their children to do better than they did and have an easier time fitting in with others. And other times, they think overcoming a hard upbringing made them a better person so they don't want to give anyone else an easy time.
IT IS 'All so hard'. It seems as humans we can easily come up with reasons to reject others but find it much harder to be open and accepting.