STOP MASKING IT.

Picture this, you're a high school student and you're just about to enter the senior level. Many of your friends are talking about what they did with their high school sweethearts over the weekend, from going to parties, movies, exchanging popcorn or salt and vinegar flavoured kisses on the way home in the bus after a movie, and some, once they reach sixteen, are taking that momentous decision to give their all to someone who, by the time they reach forty, is nothing more than a distant memory. You want all this too, but the only thing is, the person you have eyes for will never fancy you like you do them, and if they knew you fancied them, you are unsure if you'd walk away with a black eye. You see, you have to keep it under wraps. This person is the same sex as you.

Now picture this. You're a high school student, and while your classmates are all talking about skateboarding, football and everything else, you would rather be sat in a corner reading a book on your favourite topic. Your classmates, rather than respecting you, taunt and torment you. You have little to no sporting talent. In order to stay safe, you feel you have to PRETEND to be like the others.

Neither example should have to exist. People should be accepted for who they are. With this week being Autism Masking Week, let's instead turn it to Autism Unmasking Week. Why should someone have to hide who they are. That can make them susceptible to mental health concerns and potentially suicide.

Only yesterday, one of my mother's care workers rang up and my mother had gone to hospital (my mother has a peritoneal catheter as she has trouble with urine retention and is wheelchair bound) and her care worker admitted to me that she felt awkward when my mother asked me not to talk about being autistic in front of her. I said to my mother's care worker that no doubt she had dealt with other autistic people (she had) and she accepted us as we are. I had thanked her for accepting me as I am.

I am grateful that such people are around and that my mother's care workers are more accepting than she is.