For me, it's definitely trying to keep from moving too much/fidgeting. In my job, I have to sit still in front of another person for hours at a time, and I have to do my best to be grounded and present.
If I don't take my meds, I am exhausted by the end f the day from this particular masking strategy. Some of the others I use, like slowing down my speech, take little effort after years of doing it.
I feel like all of my energy has to go somewhere, so I try to dance and move around during my breaks and before/after work.
What masking strategies take the most out of you?
Dunno if I can speak here since I have a Y chromosome and I'm not even diagnosed, but for me the biggest chunks are keeping silent, reducing the intensity of emotions and scripting responses. The others not so much, though sometimes I do get a little insecure about how much eye contact is too little or too much
You're more than welcome to join in the discussion! Isn't it weird about the eye contact? I used to avoid it when I was younger and then I learned it was generally a good idea to make some eye contact, so then I started boring holes through people. I think I found a balance now, but it was hard for a while. I still question myself sometimes.
Generally it sounds like reducing the appearance of symptoms, like containing movements or speech or emotions, is the hardest for people.