“The expenditure of energy performed in a bid to regain a sense of homeostasis”
Our primitive survival would not waste energy on stimming if it didn’t need to do it.
(Winder, 2025).
All humans mask but just like all humans lose on average 100 hairs a day as part of natural process – Autistic masking is more like losing 1,000+ hairs a day. The loss is evident and profound.
Filtered & Filterless masks.
You’ll need to bear with me here…
I have no filter and I mask heavily (as all humans mask – think of your telephone voice or how differently you speak to your children at home and in public) but Neurodivergent (ND) masking starts as a survival tactic and because of the way I see the world (always built from a blank slate using every sensory detail because I have no filter and have ground up thinking)
A ND mask is made up of complex layers, each one a micro response to every element of past interactions that caused a ‘sting’ that triggered the creation of that layer (I hope this explains why I used the term ‘survival tactic’).
The non-autistic mask is likely not as complex or intense because their mask is applied generally. They are top down thinkers with a template of contexts shaped by their past experiences and non-autistic societal expectations. Their response to any given environment is limited to what their template/filter allows.
Their experience is likely not as intense because their filter allows through only what data the template/filter allows. Subsequently their responses appear automated and generalised. This allows for errors because not all available data has made it through the template/filter but ultimately it saves time and energy.
My analogy of this – Autistic folks absorb every detail whereas the Predominant Neurotype (PNT) or non-autistic people take on only what their filter allows. Autistic folks are left with a trolley full of data. PNT’s have a hand-held basket. Each puts their shopping through the till at the same speed, the PNT completes first, but they were not quicker”
Autistic filterless brains are not redundant. Our observations and reactions have been exposed to all available sensory data and so it might take us longer to process the mountain of information but our conclusions are more accurate and so should Autistic and non-autistic brains be accommodated accordingly then we would have the potential to increase our ability to thrive. Team work makes the dream work!
But Autism does not exist in a vacuum – as Dr Luke Beardon’s Golden Equation clearly demonstrates: “Autism + Environment = Outcome” (Beardon, 2017. page 11). Forcing Autistic people to conform to ways PNT brains experience the world only leads to unnecessary stress. Rachel advocates that Autism is not the problem, but the rigidness of society and its reluctance to change – The irony!
In fact, one study shows that 47% of Autistic people fall into the category of having severe anxiety. Autistic people are also 9 times more likely to end their life compared to non-autistics (Hirvikoski et al., 2016).
Anxiety isn’t intrinsic to autism, it is the result of continual stress from feeling like a square peg being forced through round holes. Any human subjected to hostile environments will experience heightened levels of anxiety.
