More than nine out of ten adults with ADHD consciously suppress their natural behaviors in social settings to appear neurotypical. This ongoing effort, known as masking, requires intense cognitive monitoring that drains executive function and triggers chronic emotional exhaustion.
While masking often serves as a survival mechanism against misunderstanding or stigma, the toll it takes on mental health suggests the cost usually outweighs the social benefit. We still understand relatively little about how to dismantle the environments that make this constant self-monitoring feel necessary in the first place.
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