By Baitan 柏坦

Hidden Gems: Snowberry, aspen, and cottonwood leaves

© riverwindphotography, October 2021

Not mine!

Well yes, but actually no

He should get full marks :D

- That feeling when neurotypicals say to me "just be yourself"

- Me:

Superhuman Barom 1 (1972) — バロム

In the last few years I've jumped into any corner of autistic community I could find, and hoarded every little bit of information on autism that I could get my grubby little hands on

And one of the most important things I've learned is that:

The price of masking all the time is your mental health

Autistic people who mask all or most of the time invariably have depression and/or anxiety, and no matter how much we go to therapy and work on our mental wellness, we cannot be rid of those things until we learn how to unmask more often.

For those of us who got so lost along the way that we forgot what we were like unmasked, it can be a long and arduous process, but I'm here on the other side of that process to tell you that it is possible and it is So So So worth it.

Life can be so much more joyful and vibrant than you know.

But if you want mental wellness, you've got to learn how to unmask, and ensure yourself opportunities to do so every. single. day.

“Don’t study me, you won’t graduate.”

— Unknown (via marijuanamodels)