People-Pleasing Isn't Kindness, It's Masking
Neurodivergent Strategies for Late-Diagnosed Adults: The Div... by Regina McMenomy, PhD.
Episode notes
Ever laughed off the moment you gave yourself away? Maybe it was a joke that landed wrong, or eye contact that came a beat too late. Dr. Regina McMenomy, Ph.D. unpacks a kind of exhaustion that has nothing to do with how much sleep you got: instead, it's from the constant tension of monitoring your own performance while reading everyone else's reactions in real time.
In this episode, you'll learn:
- What people-pleasing actually feels like from the inside for a lot of late-diagnosed adults
- How people-pleasing and masking are linked, with people-pleasing acting as the mechanism through which a masked version of yourself earns approval
- What changes in your relationships when you stop crafting every sentence for maximum smoothness and start just saying the thing
If you've spent years dismissing this te ...
Keywords
maskingunmaskinglate diagnosed ADHDlate diagnosed autismhealthy unmaskingpeople pleasinglate diagnosed neurodivergentneurodivergent people pleasinghow to stop maskingsaying yes when you mean no