Table Of ContentAUTISM AND
MASKING
of related interest
Camouflage
The Hidden Lives of Autistic Women
Dr Sarah Bargiela
Illustrated by Sophie Standing
ISBN 978 1 78592 566 5
eISBN 978 1 78592 667 9
Working with Girls and Young Women with an Autism Spectrum Condition
A Practical Guide for Clinicians
Fiona Fisher Bullivant
ISBN 978 1 78592 420 0
eISBN 978 1 78450 784 8
Girls with Autism Becoming Women
Heather Stone Wodis
Foreword by Erika Hammerschmidt
ISBN 978 1 78592 818 5
eISBN 978 1 78450 907 1
Spectrum Women
Walking to the Beat of Autism
Edited by Barb Cook and Dr Michelle Garnett
Foreword by Lisa Morgan
ISBN 978 1 78592 434 7
eISBN 978 1 78450 806 7
Women and Girls with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Understanding Life Experiences from Early Childhood to Old Age
Sarah Hendrickx
ISBN 978 1 84905 547 5
eISBN 978 0 85700 982 1
Autism and
Masking
How and Why People Do It,
and the Impact It Can Have
Dr Felicity Sedgewick,
Dr Laura Hull and Helen Ellis
First published in Great Britain in 2022 by Jessica Kingsley Publishers
An Hachette Company
1
Copyright © Felicity Sedgewick, Laura Hull and Helen Ellis 2022
The rights of Felicity Sedgewick, Laura Hull and Helen Ellis to be identified
as the Authors of the Work has been asserted by them in accordance with the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Front cover image source: Shutterstock®.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the
prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any
form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without
a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library and
the Library of Congress
ISBN 978 1 78775 579 6
eISBN 978 1 78775 580 2
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Clays Limited
Jessica Kingsley Publishers’ policy is to use papers that are natural,
renewable and recyclable products and made from wood grown in
sustainable forests. The logging and manufacturing processes are expected
to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin.
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Contents
Acknowledgements 7
Preface 9
Introduction 12
Ch 1: What Is Masking and Who Does It? 15
A note on language 16
A brief history of masking in autism 18
The camouflage hypothesis 20
What is masking? 22
How to identify when and how much someone is masking 34
Measurement: Internal versus external 35
Measurement: Self-report 38
Who masks? (What we know and what we don’t) 40
Are there differences in masking across genders? 42
When do people start masking? 47
Is it only autistic people who mask? 51
What about people who do not mask? 53
Ch 2: How Do People Mask? 61
Mimicry 61
Active versus instinctive masking strategies 63
Learning to lie 70
In conclusion to this chapter… 79
Ch 3: Why Do People Mask? And Where? 82
Is it just caring what people think of you?
Reputation management 83
Reasons for masking 93
So, where do people mask? 114
Masking at school 114
Masking at university 120
Masking at work 128
Masking at social events 137
Informal social events 147
Large events 151
Not masking with autistic people 158
Ch 4: What Are the Consequences of Masking? 171
Research into masking and mental health 171
Risks arising from masking 179
In conclusion to this chapter… 187
Ch 5: How Can One Help around Masking for Different Groups? 196
Guidance for parents, siblings and wider family members 197
Guidance for partners/spouses and children
(autistic and non-autistic) 206
Guidance for education professionals 210
Guidance for healthcare professionals 217
Guidance for employers 222
Guidance for autistic people 226
So, to sum up this chapter… 226
Conclusion 230
Glossary 233
Contributors 242
Bibliography 244
Index 263
Acknowledgements
There have been an immeasurable number of people to whom we
owe thanks for their part in this book coming together: our contrib-
utors and the multitude of autistic people who have taken part in the
research we cite have given their time and personal experiences to
move autism knowledge forwards; our employers, who have been
understanding of us taking time to work on this totally separate
project outside our paid roles; and, of course, the team at Jessica
Kingsley Publishers who have shared their expertise and insights
with us, making this book better than it would ever have been with-
out them.
We also have some people we would like to acknowledge
individually:
Felicity: Writing and editing this book has been an experience – mostly
a good one. For support during the times that it was not so good, I
want to thank my parents, who have listened to me sketch out ideas
and complain about tricky sections on far too many phone calls. To
my co-authors – who have made this a much more interesting and
enjoyable process than it could ever have been doing it on my own –
we have earned a celebration together, having done the entire thing
through virtual communication! For the insights shared, I want to
thank the autistic people in my life both personally and professionally.
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AutISm ANd mASkIN g
You have made this book possible, and it is an honour to share your
stories and experiences with the world. Finally, I owe heartfelt thanks
to my partner, who has kept me going throughout, known when to
drag me away from the computer screen, was an excellent sounding
board for ideas and generally improves my life hugely.
Laura: I am so grateful to have been able to contribute to this book –
which involves reflecting on my entire academic career so far – and
trying to improve upon the parts I wish I had done differently!
Thanks to Felicity and Helen for making the whole experience truly
enjoyable and collaborative, despite taking place during a global
pandemic. I want to thank my colleagues at UCL, my friends and
my family; in particular my partner Max, for listening to my enthu-
siastic summaries and motivating me with hot chocolate during
those late-night writing sessions. And finally, thanks to everyone
who has shared their insights on masking with me, whether directly
or indirectly, through research, collaboration, or just on Twitter. All
interesting and useful opinions in this book are thanks to you; any
misinterpretations are my own.
Helen: This book has been a true labour of love; it’s been emotionally
draining to be so open and exposed about something that impacts
so much of my life. My sincere thanks to my co-authors for taking
my rambling personal explanations and pseudo-therapy sessions
and shaping them into something that we hope will be useful to
autistic people, family members and professionals across all fields!
I’m also grateful to my employers, the National Autistic Society, who
have supported me in writing this book independently of my job. It’s
not easy knowing where ‘work me’ finishes and ‘autistic individual
me’ starts sometimes, but we seem to manage it okay mostly! To the
Wolfpack and my Tribe – thank you for being the joy in my life. And
finally, my everlasting gratitude to my family – you have each played
such key parts in helping me to find the ways to feel like I can lower
my various masks and be myself, and indeed give me the confidence
to share the hard-won wisdom I have earned, whatever it takes.
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Preface
It is always good to know a little about the people who wrote a book
as you read it, so each of the authors has written a short introduction
to themselves and how they came to be involved in this project.
Felicity Sedgewick
I am an academic whose work focuses on the overlap between social
and developmental psychology, rather than sitting in one special-
ism. I am non-autistic, though I have friends, family members and
colleagues who represent a range of neurodiverse conditions, and
have done my entire life. I have carried out research into gender
differences in autism, autism and relationships, and autism and
mental health, as well as how these areas all interact. Although
rarely the focus of these projects, camouflaging has been a common
theme in nearly every study I have done, as it has such an impact on
relationships and mental health and because it is used differently by
people of different genders. Understanding the impact of theorized
constructs (such as camouflaging/masking) on the everyday lives
of autistic people is central to all my interests. I care deeply about
sharing that knowledge with those who are best placed to use it to
improve autistic people’s lives, and do a lot of outreach work to try
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