My mask is starting to crack.

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The mask i wear in public is starting to crack. Im starting to lose the nerotypical face i wear all day to fit in. Work is almost over. Im having too much emotional stress thats causing the mask i wear in public to start to break. I wish i could just be void of emotions. Life would be much easier

Casshern what you are not considering is the fact that although emotion is bad and stopped progress, it also furthers progress and makes people that would otherwise do nothing instead do great things. Sure emotion is missused and leads to horrible things but it also leads to wonderful things.

The idea is to let go of the mask altogether - you don't need it. You are perfect just the way you are and other people need to be allowed to see that. On the other hand, I left my job and pretty much isolated myself completely, and only now the mask is coming off. Only now do I feel free enough to be myself. I hope you get that chance as well - it's like starting all over again. Masks SUCK.

I understand. I lived with a mask on for many years, until I crashed and had to go to a hospital. The mask is fake. It helps deal with the NT-world, but prevents any kind of growth and finding out who you really are. Right now, I don't care what other people say, I just live like I want to.

being a hermit gave me a chance to let my mask heal.

Yep - periods of social withdrawl are actually quite beneficial in that sense, because then you are forced to stop pretending to yourself.

Everyone wears a mask, it is just harder for us to maintain and less natural.

Take a vacation from other people, be alone for a while. That usually helps me recover.

That's sort of happening to me right now...do you have any advice for the cracking up?

I would say get help if you can - professional help, I mean. Speak to a counsellor - taking off your mask but having to maintain the social relationships around you is really hard - people have very fixed ideas about who you are now and taking a time out from life is probably what you need the most. Good luck, although just read some of the posts above and you will see that all of us who have run the gauntlet and come out the other end have all ended up better, more confident and more ready to take on the world The hardest step is just getting there.

The thing about masks, is that they can be both useful and harmful, depending on why you wear them. If you wear the mask to suppress those facets of your inner self that you find undesirable, then yes it will only bring pain and suffering. But if you can accept yourself for who you are, completely, then the mask becomes a shield of sorts, a suit of armor that protects you from the harsh world around you.


(Note: This is what happens when Roxas tries to say something philosophical after staying up 'till 3 in the goddamn morning playing Persona. It's still valid, however, if you take a moment to re-examine yourself, you'll see what I mean. Or, at least I think you will. Probably. Maybe. Possibly.)

I, too, think there is no reason to wear a mask. If you want to be more normal the only useful thing is to train some aspects and change yourself.

I don't know if that works out, but I realized I learnt quite a few things in my last years without feeling it is a mask or something I wear.
(Or it is a mask that is not a burden, well at least not a mask that I can easily put off
a trained mask that is natural and routine part of my character)

Well using masks is not necessarily wrong anyone, I agree. Just wearing a mask is really difficult, because usually (I would say) Aspies try to be honest just because there is not reason to lie in many cases. Wearing a mask is not such honest understandable thing. It is more something that you use to get accepted, without understanding why people care so much about this outer superficial senses.

Thus it involves lots of processing and thinking, which is difficult.

The mask easily drops off when you are in bad shape.

That's more or less what I think about masks.
If one were allowed to be oneself, I guess it is easier to develop your own compensating I that is completely without masks
Developing yourself is much more difficult than putting on a mask but is I guess in the end much easier.

It is useless to do things that you can't feel comfort within yourself in the long run

I have never been able to wear a mask for more than 2 weeks at a time and even then I am pretty sure it was only a half face....

Sometimes I wish this phrase was true, but most of the time it terrifies me.
"We all wear masks and the time comes when we cannot remove them without removing our own skin." -André Berthiaume

Casshern, I wear an NT mask too, and when it does come off, it does so violently to the point that I realize that everyone around me is shocked that I have become a different person. It's usually a person that's less convenient for them, but is that really so bad? I wish I could be enlightened enough to give an answer one way or another, but I'm not there yet. All I can say is that I understand.

^^^
hiya CosmicCastaway welcome to our cool club
the older one gets, the more one's energy for maintaining masks ebbs inexorably.

I thought a mask is something you wear when being different then you.

If this mask you describe comes off with me, I am in trouble usually.
And some parts of it I like, but most of those properties that shine through I hate.

Is this really a mask? Everybody I suppose changes when he/she has problems, even NT.
And nobody likes that in particular.

As a mask I see things that you try to be but cannot be, something that is against your inner self.
And that I don't want to wear, I want to change myself instead.

This mask you are describing is so part of yourself that it is actually you, not a mask, although not entirely, maybe....

I think it is not a mask you are talking about,
but you simply turn different than you are normally (but you don't loose your mask).
partly pleasant, but mostly unpleasant