Those who can hide there autism?

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Can those who can 'mask' there autism, do they have not have additional learning difficulties compared too those were there autism is more obvious?

You’ll have better replies soon. I did a lot of research on passing a few years ago. When a person passes as something they aren’t, a tremendous amount of energy is used. The person is typically exhausted at the end of time period where they are passing. They have to have soothing activities in their down time. NTs have to have relationships with people who know who they “really” are. I was not certain if this was also true for autistics. It could be that having authentic non-human relationships would serve the same function.

I ran across one person in my research who was hiding autism and another social identification while being open about a physical identification. This person I would say was very successful. This scenario crossed into a little known category called “masquerade” where a person plays up an identification in order to improve their life functionality. Such as how a blackface character plays up racist stereotypes in order to gain better treatment from a dominant racist society.

Learning difficulties might explain the difference in some cases (I wouldn't like to guess what proportion), but there are plenty of other autistic traits which could make masking difficult without any intellectual impairment; for example, being non-verbal due to aphasias, motor control problems, severe sensory sensitivities or sensory integration impairments, and I'm sure many others which I've missed.

For some people, like me, the exhaustion that SocOfAutism spoke about can also make the ability to pass very variable. When I'm well rested and in a quiet environment, I am able to pass quite well, but if I'm very tired or stressed out, or there is a lot of noise and movement around me, it is much more difficult and sometimes impossible (if I have a melt-down or shut-down, for example.) Presumably, my intellectual ability does not change, but my ability to pass certainly does.

No learning difficulties.
Just exhaustion.

So one day I'm bright and brilliant and the other day I'm so tired I can't read one sentence.
So some teachers believed I was on drugs at school.

I was diagnosed as adult with AS and I don't have learning difficulties. No one from my environment know about my AS except some therapists and other aspies, what I meet on support groups.

What mean "mask"? Because I can mask nothing, but people probably thinks I am stupid, shy, weird, anxious or arrogant and they probably don't recognize that I have AS, because they don't know much about it.

I don't try to hide it, but I can appear not autistic if you don't know what to look for. I don't have an intellectual disability, though I do have dyspraxia, visual-spatial learning disability and sensory dysfunction (including sensitive hearing) which can be noticeable.

MOST people in my real life don’t realize I’m on the spectrum and I don’t tell them. That doesn’t mean that I don’t have ASD moments where I have difficulty learning something. Everyone is different.

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No for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.

I don't hide my autism. However, most people don't think I'm on the spectrum because they don't know what traits to look for.

I didn't find out about ASD really until last year. My girlfriend pointed it out after we moved to a new place and had a baby. Then I just got more stressed and had meltdowns more often. She noticed these things and started to wonder if I had ASD since she taught kids in an art program that have some traits. Most of my life I was just quiet or shy or kept to myself. I avoided people and didn't get much out of social interactions usually. I was interested in girls so that pushed me to learn to dance and do "typical" things, but no one pointed me in that direction. I never felt comfortable in my own skin and thought I was unattractive for a long time until my 20's. I think my friends thought I was weird, but I hung out with artists all the time and they are sometimes odd people. I made friends through my art, but now it's been challenging away from my home town and finding out about Asperger's. I think that I could fake being normal well or as good as I can, but I do get tired and maybe it is exhaustion, but I always just assumed I was more bored of trying to do it all over again. I have this thing about doing the same thing twice if it's not something I thoroughly enjoy. If I enjoy the activity I can do it all the time.

I could. I just don't do it too often nor overdone, not something I'd do on daily basis. Not something I'd focus or emphasized.


I keep my means and effort of passing as minimal as possible.


Also, I don't have learning disabilities or difficulties... While I learned my learning style too early.

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I have learning difficulties, but I think I can pretend to be normal for short periods of time. Only short ones though 'cause it's exhausting.

I'm lucky in that I'm too far gone to be able to hide it so I don't have to try. It would suck having a foot in both worlds.

I spent most of my life pretending, but eventually I burnt out and my life went to sh*t because of it. That said, anyone who sends more than 5 minutes in my presence knows "something's" up, they just don't know what, so I don't know whether that counts.

When born caused a handful of problems growing up but soon learned to mask to keep on my dad's good side.I sure someone with some training could see my faults the biggest is alone time to chill out and keep away from meltdowns.My wife is the big support that I require.