DDA: Understanding, Addressing, & Handling Masking
Event Information
Other Events In This Category
[04/01/2025 ] DDA: Understanding ASD and Associated Co-Morbid Conditions
[04/02/2025 ] DDA: Crisis Principles In Action
[04/09/2025 ] DDA: Debriefing Done Right
[04/17/2025 ] DDA: From Segregation & Isolation to Meaningful Lives: Are We There Yet?
[05/01/2025 ] DDA: I’m Willing to Learn, Are You Ready to Teach?
‘Masking’ is the conscious or unconscious effort of an individual to hide or suppress their natural traits and behaviors in order to blend with a larger population, often by mimicking their actions and social cues, and for the purpose acceptance or avoiding negative judgments.
While Masking is ubiquitous in society, being utilized everywhere from intimate interpersonal relationships to international relations, reliance on the strategy by individuals with ASD can be problematic, with the potential for tragic outcomes.
The suppression of one’s identity and ‘authentic self’ alone can cause extreme emotional distress while the long-term effects of the various strategies implemented daily to ‘Mask’ impact the physical, emotional, and mental health of the individual in a host of ways ranging from exhaustion, stress, and anxiety to depression and suicide ideation.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this training the student will be able to:
• Define ‘Masking’
• Explain why individuals Mask
• Describe the benefits of Masking
• Describe the ways individuals Mask
• Articulate the dangers of Masking
• State multiple strategies to diminish the need for Masking