How to stop masking - plz help

I think what could help is spending some time alone so and trying different things to figure out what clicks and makes you happy. I have suppressed stimming since I was a child after my dad would tell me to “don’t do that. stop doing that. It looks weird.” I remember feeling super self conscious and comparing myself to ppl who had down syndrome and that made me start hiding and masking subconsciously since I was a child. I would make sure to allow myself to stim (which btw I didn’t know that was a thing until a few months ago) ONLY when I was alone and as I grew up even started suppressing that in my alone time (when I was able to) by beating myself up and telling myself how stupid I looked. Once I found out what this actually was, I feel better about it but since I’ve been suppressing it for so long it’s also difficult for me to allow myself free range to do it even now even though the urge is so strong.

/r/aspergers Thread