just watched a really helpful video on autistic "compensatory strategies" which are

masking: hiding aspects of yourself to blend in

shallow compensation: making eye contact, following social scripts, copying people & body language. studying other people & mimicking social norms

deep compensation: forced intellectual (rather than natural) attempt to learning about how people work and feeling and understanding their emotions

accommodation: changing parts of your life to better accomodate your own needs, weaknesses, or differences so it& #39;s less noticeable

this is me tipsy and processing aloud but i think the biggest thing this taught me is just because I or others don& #39;t *seem* as autistic that doesn& #39;t mean we are! it may just mean we& #39;re good at these skills, which also come with their own side physically/emotionally taxing effects

the other part I really thought hard about before and during this video was - who am I without these skills? they& #39;ve become so intrinsic that I& #39;m really not sure how to turn it off, it& #39;s semi subconscious at this point (even though it& #39;s simultaneously time consuming & exhausting)

i related to how she described she found out she was actually extroverted, it& #39;s just that social interactions left her so drained that she presented as more introverted because she needed time to recover from all that spent energy and relieve that pressure of acting neurotypical

video if you want to watch (thank you for recommending it @kylofucker, now I& #39;m watching all her other videos) https://youtu.be/t9COmZ2HwXY ">https://youtu.be/t9COmZ2Hw...