Been trying to unmask for half a year+ now and it's difficult, numbingly depressing, and extremely damaging to my reputation (in places that do matter, not just pointless social status standing)
The end of the tunnel leads to a beautiful forest full of life and light though right?
Yea it sucks when you don't even know what your unmasked self is because masking is all you've ever known
Exactly. And when.you have multiple struggles going on (ND, mental health dx, environmental) it can make it so much harder to suss out which is the culprit for what difficulty so that you can tend to it. Or, as you tend to one, effects of another may become amplified which I think I've experienced. Do you think it's even worth it to unmask at this point? Or is it simply different sets of struggles for you masked vs unmasked
unmasking my autism and unmasking my cishet man veneer are heavily intertwined and I definitely need to accomplish the latter as well for my mental wellbeing