Dude… masking is important… A lot of neurodivergent, or even NT self soothing behaviour are really aggravating to be around, especially repetitive noisemaking… Most ND kids can not tolerate being around repetitive noisemaking, but also use it to self sooth. That combination is a recipe for disaster.

If it weren’t for SOME masking, many kids would just have to be isolated 99% of the time.

Masking is part of what we all do to get along, it’s just that for NDs it can be excessively demanding, or particularly risky…

That being said, I hope you find more people you can at least RELAX the masking a bit around…