High Masking Females: Unveiling The Power of Disguise in Women

Common Traits and Characteristics of High Masking Females with Autism

1. Social Mimicry and Scripting: High-masking females often observe and imitate their neurotypical peers’ behaviours, language, and social cues. They may memorize and use scripts for various social situations to appear more fluent in social interactions than they feel.
2. Suppressing Autistic Traits: They may suppress stimming (self-stimulatory behaviours), special interests, or emotional responses that are deemed socially unacceptable. This suppression can lead to significant internal stress and anxiety.
3. High Sensitivity to External Expectations: They are often highly aware of others’ expectations and may go to great lengths to meet them, even at the cost of their well-being. This can include maintaining a job or social relationships that are significantly draining.
4. Excellence in Performance Roles: High-masking females may excel in social or professional roles with clear rules and expectations, such as performances or presentations, because these scenarios allow for preparation and rehearsal.
5. Internalizing Problems: Rather than externalizing their struggles through behaviour, high-masking females are more likely to internalize their difficulties, leading to issues like anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem.
6. Chameleon Effect: The tendency to blend into social environments by changing behaviours, interests, or opinions to match the current social group, often leading to a loss of personal identity or uncertainty about their true self.
7. Overachievement and Perfectionism: A drive to overcompensate for perceived deficits by achieving high academic or professional success, often accompanied by perfectionism and fear of failure.
8. Social and Emotional Exhaustion: The constant effort to appear neurotypical can lead to burnout, characterized by social withdrawal, emotional exhaustion, and an increase in autistic traits or mental health issues when alone or in safe spaces.
9. Late Diagnosis: Due to their ability to mask symptoms, females are often diagnosed later in life compared to their male counterparts. This delay can affect access to support and understanding, impacting mental health and self-identity.
10. Reliance on Routines and Predictability: While many autistic individuals can share this trait, high-masking females might rely heavily on routines and predictability to manage the uncertainties of social interactions and daily life.

Understanding the concept of high masking is crucial for improving the recognition and support of autistic individuals, particularly females who have historically been underdiagnosed. It highlights the need for more nuanced and gender-inclusive approaches in diagnostic criteria, as well as the importance of creating environments where autistic individuals feel safe and supported to be themselves without the need for masking.

Resources

The Female Autism Phenotype and Camouflaging: a Narrative Review – Review Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders

Autism is more commonly diagnosed in males than females. One explanation is the ‘female protective effect’: there is something inherent in being female which reduces the likelihood of developing autism. However, evidence suggests that the condition is underdiagnosed in females, perhaps because females express their autism in ways which do not meet current diagnostic criteria.