Sally Cat PDA

I’m an adult PDAer author, advocate and artist who masks, and who has a ten-year-old PDA daughter who masks too.  This blog article explores PDA masking: what it is why it is carried out whether it is more common for PDAers than “general” autistic people whether masking is a universal PDA trait what are its benefits and costs What is masking? Masking means hiding true feelings behind a display of emotions we don’t really feel. Often the masked front presented will be one of happy calmness hiding internal stress and anguish. Sometimes also gentle emotions may be masked with aggressive ones. I had a very interesting conversation recently with a trans PDAer who said that, when trying to be the boy she thought she should be, she acted tough and aggressive, and that this had felt empowering until she realised she didn’t want to be like that; that this was not her authentic self. A form of masking is social mimicry. This means copying other people’s words, mannerisms, and bo...