I'm slowly reading Unmasking for Life by Devon Price. Regarding the core skills an autistic person should have in order to succesfully start unmasking, it was nice to notice that I've practiced these skills already. Under "Tolerance of distress, disagreement, or being disliked", however, I felt particularly seen.

Price discusses how some autistic people are "empaths" and particularly tuned to reading other people's moods and even small shifts in this. They might even feel personally responsible for other people's emotions. Oh yes. So much this.

This is something we discussed with my therapist (by then I didn't understand I'm autistic) and I've become better at letting it be. However, the gut feeling is still there. It means that, for instance, if my spouse is feeling a bit down -- it might even be that she's simply tired -- my brain starts to process the possible cause for this. Is it something I did or didn't do? Is there something I can do to make her feel better?

#ActuallyAutistic #UnmaskingForLife @actuallyautistic