I - 14 yr old have lived a life where I have masked my autistic, ADHD, and anxiety traits my whole life having them pushed out of me by the significant adults in my life. now finding my friends who I can trust in my second year of high school I have finally started to look at who I am as a person. This might have caused the downfall in my mental health struggling with depression. More of my sensory issues especially with noise (my loop earplugs just arrived! definitely a recommend for noise sensitivity!!)and feel None of my mental health concerns have been diagnosed but everything mentioned fits my general personality. Since I have spent my whole life masking it, it is second nature. I have had lots of struggles with opening up and talking to people about my problems. Because I became so used to masking everything about me changes instantly, including my tone of voice, to avoid keeping a monotone. Now people don't believe me that anything is wrong. Do you have any hints or tips and tricks to get people to accept me the way I am? I was wondering if people have had similar experiences and might have an idea of what to do?
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I have also the same struggle, and my parents say that I “can’t be an Audhder because they did the same and it’s just teenage” so they won’t let me have a proper diagnosis so I’m still wondering if I’m just crazy and too dumb to do things or if I imagine things to be “different” although I’ve been diagnosed as gifted and with anxiety at 7.
thank you so much
Some things I have done to unmask are doing a lot of research on adhd and autistic traits, and writing down where I see them in my life (and how they appear due to my masking). Also, for talking to other people about it, especially doctors and counsellors, it helps me to have written down examples of the behaviour I'm trying to talk about, and how I mask it. I use examples of how the pop up in real life, too (for example, I don't make eye contact, instead, I used to look at people's mouths when I was talking to someone, or watching television. This is a trait and an example.) Also, you don't have to get diagnosed to be valid. Best of luck!