“YOU DON’T LOOK AUTISTIC!” – AUTISM AND PHYSICAL APPEARANCE
Many autistic people get told that they “Don’t look autistic.” at some point in their life. Here is my take on why that sentence is never helpful and also always factually wrong. A new perspective on how everything about the way I look IS distinctively autistic – once you understand what you’re seeing!
MASKING AND PASSING – WHAT IT IS, WHY IT’S BAD
WHAT MASKING IS AND WHY IT EXISTS Masking means suppressing everything about yourself that is visibly autistic to appear non-autistic. Appearing to be non-autistic is what we call “passing” – it’s short for “passing as non-autistic”. ON A PERSONAL NOTE: I prefer to use the term “Camouflaging” instead of masking. “Masking” implies putting a mask
NON-SPEAKING AND NON-VERBAL
What the terms “non-speaking” and “non-verbal” mean, and one experience of being intermittently non-speaking and non-verbal.