Unveiling The “Imposter”: How Autism Reasserts Itself Unmasked

<p>The late-diagnosed autistic unmasking process can leave one naked, exposed, and astounded. You ask yourself, how did my brain hide this from me? How did I not see all of this? It&rsquo;s so obvious.</p> <p>These days for good or bad, I am very exposed. It&rsquo;s freeing sometimes and scary other times, but most of the time, it is just surprising how much I held back for so long and how much I could not be a witness to my autism most of the time.</p> <p>It amazes me how many ways in which I am very autistic and didn&rsquo;t see it before.</p> <p>I know the whys and the wherefores of how I missed it given that everyone missed it, including professionals, but even after I knew the criteria forward and backward, learned about countless autistic traits that are not explicitly listed in the DSM V and finally sought out a formal diagnosis, I still feared that I had fooled the assessor and wasn&rsquo;t actually autistic.</p> <p>Yeah, imposter syndrome is a heady mistress. I see my traits more clearly two and a half years since I first realized I actually am autistic.</p> <p><a href="https://medium.com/@smcnett/autistic-unmasking-youre-on-your-own-but-it-s-worth-it-7c50c3224a80"><strong>Website</strong></a></p>