What exactly is masking autism?

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Here's another thread which links to a study with a full list of masking techniques:
Potentially Useful Research About Masking

Masking is when the real you doesn't dare to engage as your self. Its when you send a constructed pretend self to attend as your proxy at work/social events/encounters/appointments/anything that involves others whom you do not absolutely know and trust 100% to accept and understand the authentic you in its authentic self.

The stress and strain of maintaining this proxy drains huge amounts of energy from your body, mind, life and eventually exhausts your psychological and emotional inner resources. Masking and prolonged intense stress are IMO the two major precursors of "autistic burnout", a kind of utter exhaustion of soul and body.

To me masking is a tool to get things no more and no less. It in of itself is not inherently evil.

The problems including burnout and mental illness come when
The person masking forgets or never understood it is a tool. They think of themselves as broken or cursed and use masking either to fool the rest of the world into thinking they are normal or use it in an attempt to fix themselves.

They overdo it

Since autistics are a small minority we feel the need and all too often actually need to mask to a much greater degree and much more often than most neurotypical people. This makes it very easy to fall into the mentality I discussed above.