I rarely wore a mask throughout my childhood. I was the quiet A student who only spent time with “friends” mostly in school. I learned to mask in my teens to be accepted by others but I still struggled and felt like an outsider all my life and the mask slipped whenever I was overwhelmed and/or triggered and was called “weird” whenever I wasn’t performing. I became burned out and I completely unmasked in my 20s and resorted to isolation to protect myself from further rejection, confusion and hurt. Subsequently, I fell into deep depression and was diagnosed with other comborbid conditions. However, I knew there was something else. I searched a lot for answers and I finally have a name for my life long struggles. I’m at the phase of accepting my condition at 30. It is freeing and healing yet it is extremely difficult to accept!