Unmasking Autism: The Power of Embracing Our Hidden Neurodiversity

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Still working through my thoughts on this book. I've followed Dr. Price's work for a few years now and have repeatedly been moved to shift my thinking substantially on many issues as a result of his work and writing. Having read his Medium essays, I see many of his best pieces folded into the chapters of this book. Unfortunately, this coping mechanism often comes at the expense of one's mental health and with "Unmasking Autism" Dr. Price offers a surprisingly straightforward and accessible path toward unmasking with exercises that encourage self-expression including celebrating special interests, cultivating Autistic relationships, reframing Autistic stereotypes, and rediscovering one's own values.

Unmasking autism – unlearn shame and nurture a more - NPR

May be highly self educated, but will have struggled with social aspects of college or their career. Can socialize, but primarily in shallow, superficial ways that may seem like a performance. Struggles to form deeper friendships. Right now in the wake of reading this book I'm trying to reframe how I interact with the world -- I have always been able to work in highly productive boon-bust cycles where I do a lot of things socially/work-related/in physical space and then need a few days to recover and be more hermit-like, and have generally thought of this as a personal failing. Maybe this is just my brain rhythm. I had been thinking of my relationship to some noise-heavy music as strange, and now I can understand it as a (very rewarding) auditory stim. I am often overburdened with thinking of and anticipating the 500 things other people might be thinking or needing or not communicating with me at any given moment and have been for the near-3 decades of my life, and previously thought this was some millennial quirk to memorialize in comedy format. Maybe just my neurotype! I think this general understanding of myself, regardless if I conclude after more time that I identify as autistic or not, is going to be helpful to me moving forward in life.And that's really what most masked autistics end up having to do, because a lot of us receive social input, our whole lives, that there's something off about us," he says. I am so grateful for this book and Mr. Price and the people who allowed themselves to be interviewed for this book and for all that I learned. It's not that my co-workers who also catalog are lazy and want to do a crappy job. Their brains aren't obsessed with details like mine is. This obsession with details makes Autistic people really good at certain types of work like cataloging and coding.

Unmasking Autism’, and the author - Reddit I am reading ‘Unmasking Autism’, and the author - Reddit

A deep dive into the spectrum of Autistic experience and the phenomenon of masked Autism, giving individuals the tools to safely uncover their true selves while broadening society’s narrow understanding of neurodiversityThis is such an important piece of work regardless if you know someone who's autistic. It helped me to not only understand the areas in which our ablest society denies disabled people the opportunities to be able to fully participate in society, but shames them for not conforming to our socially constructed "neurotypical" world. I got diagnosed with autism at 17 a couple years ago and have been experiencing burnout lately, so I thought learning about unmasking might be beneficial to me. This was my mindset going into the book, and what I hoped to learn about.

Taking Off the Mask: Practical Exercises to Help Understand

The little anecdotes get old! There’s so many of them peppered in throughout the book, and it starts to feel less like stories to support Price’s point, and more like Price was shouting out each of their friends. Note: the author emphasizes that lists are sometimes unclear and vague, and that women with autism can feel ‘male’ autism traits and vice versa, or any combination thereof. This is not a definitive list, but some of you might relate to these. Go through one day without trying to read the minds of other people and without apologizing for every action. Autistic people are often afraid of saying the wrong thing because of past experiences, and become hypervigilant about how they express themselves. Rekindle an old passion or find a new interest and experience complete joy around it. Find a community to experience that joy with you. The thing that really upset me was when he said being autistic is “an eerily similar experience” to being a closeted gay person. In what way is being closeted equivalent to being disabled?? He goes on to talk about how in both cases people are so oppressed and can’t ever truly be themselves. I honestly find this really offensive. Being closeted doesn’t make it so you have to drop out of college because you’re in so much pain all the time you can’t keep up. Being closeted doesn’t make it so you can’t leave your bedroom for months at a time because the entire world is too stimulating. Being closeted doesn’t make it so you go fully nonverbal for days and physically can’t ask for help. Being closeted doesn’t make it so you can never live alone because you can’t manage basic tasks like bathing or cooking without help. Being closeted doesn’t make it so you can’t drive due to spacial awareness issues, or make it so you’re fully dependent on AAC to communicate. Saying that being closeted is equivalent to having a disability is extremely disrespectful, not only to disabled people but also to closeted people. They aren’t remotely similar.

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Communicate as clearly as possible and avoid turns of phrase. Metaphors or indirect expressions can be hard to understand for people with autism. I also would’ve liked more high-support-needs voices to have been interviewed/included. I understand that the book focuses on autistic people who mask which is often those with lower support needs, but especially as Dr. Price emphasizes that unmasking can be a political goal that furthers acceptance of all autistic people, not just those who mask, I think it would’ve benefited the book overall to invite more people with high support needs into the discussion. Dr. Devon Price is a social psychologist, writer, activist, and professor at Chicago's Loyola University who, with "Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity," has crafted an informative, insightful, and engaging deep dive into the Autism experience and, more specifically, the phenomenon known as "masking," a coping skill in which Autistic people with identifiable traits hide those traits in an effort to better blend in to a society that often rejects these traits as "odd" or "needy."

Unmasking Autism - Google Books Unmasking Autism - Google Books

There is more nuance and issues with self diagnosis that Price does not touch on. The possibility that self diagnosis could be wrong, that self diagnosis does not grant needed accommodations, having time and access to diagnostic tools in a non-medical setting, self diagnostic tools are very much centred on low-support needs white boys, etc. I'd like the interspersal of some additional autistic POVs beyond the author and like to the variety in the chapters. I especially got a lot out of the chapter discussing comparisons and differences between ADHD and autism. One of my biggest takeaways and most memorable moments while listening to this book was just kind of the acceptance that even if I could never figure out if I truly am autistic or if I am just a spicy ADHD with anxiety, it doesn't matter that much. Like for me I'm a label person and it does matter but it also doesn't negate my experiences and the ADHD community and autistic community have so much in common and there's so many similarities that it's better for people to just kind of combine forces and support everyone and each other instead of trying to pinpoint exactly which trait is from ADHD and which trait is autistic. Ask yourself, "What do these moments have to say about what I actually value?" This could be as simple as valuing time you spend with people you love, getting outside and communing with nature or advocating for less privileged people. A remarkable work that will stand at the forefront of the neurodiversity movement.”—Barry M. Prizant, PhD, CCC-SLP, author of Uniquely A Different Way of Seeing Autism If you're like most people (me included prior to this book), you think all Autistic people are the stereotypical Rain Man type or Sheldon in Big Bang Theory: Socially awkward and even annoying people who are geniuses in certain areas but can be total assholes because they're clueless when it comes to socializing.Uses control to manage stress: follows intense self-imposed rules, despite having an otherwise unconventional personality.