Masking is defined by being a maladaptive strategy, so I don't think that it being in general mentally draining is disputed. The issue is that sometimes there is a tendency to call any coping strategy as masking. There are coping strategies that can be successful, and there are reasons to adopt them other than to hide not being neurotypical or to make neurotypicals happy.
> Not the OP, but after a couple of decades of people pointedly talking about eye contact, small talk, and body language, you learn “coping mechanisms” to deal with neurotypicals and make them more comfortable.
Masking is defined by being a maladaptive strategy, so I don't think that it being in general mentally draining is disputed. The issue is that sometimes there is a tendency to call any coping strategy as masking. There are coping strategies that can be successful, and there are reasons to adopt them other than to hide not being neurotypical or to make neurotypicals happy.
"Sounds as though" based on what?
The literal comment above the one I replied to.
> Not the OP, but after a couple of decades of people pointedly talking about eye contact, small talk, and body language, you learn “coping mechanisms” to deal with neurotypicals and make them more comfortable.
Why the snark? How are you concluding from that, that masking isn't draining? I don't see a connection