Thinking about this so it's probably worth saying: unmasking doesn't mean you will become an autistic stereotype

This is obviously a product of all the previous misconceptions I held but I used to think that unmasking meant that you became recognisably autistic but I'm starting to realise this isn't necessarily true because the autistic stereotypes are pretty narrow

During burnout, I think I was recognisably autistic in that I was having meltdowns and unable to make eye contact or even communicate at some points. But now that I'm semi-recovered a lot of the "autistic person in distress" signs are gone

So maybe, really, what we tend to think of as stereotypically autistic is an autistic person in distress (as others have pointed out) although having issues with language/communication probably has some kind of compounding effect