Amy Pearson

But there was already a very set and fixed narrative around kind of masking is this behaviour where you put on a mask, you navigate for a situation, then you take it off again and everything's hunky dory kind of thing.

And so even now, it's been Amy Pearson, who I wrote the book with, and I and a few other kind of prominent autism researchers are very trying very hard to kind of steer this huge great big ship that's been created in a little bit of a different direction that does incorporate things like stigma or identity development has much more of a social narrative not just a psychology narrative and you know to contextualize this all and i think So what I would ask of professionals really is firstly to accept and understand that this is a real thing because there are still many many professionals out there and as we have seen I don't know how much you've seen in the UK news recently but like literally that narrative is still very very predominant that This is all a made up thing and if you can engage in this kind of behaviour then you're not autistic and it's ridiculous.

Absolutely ridiculous.

There is a

And I'm so proud and thankful that you took even a moment of your busy schedule to speak to myself.

But I want to acknowledge the work that you've done and the impact that it's had.

And also, obviously, Dr. Amy Pearson as well with that incredible co-produced book.

I suppose to finish off then, Ciarán, for anyone listening then, if it's a parent or professional, what can we do to support people that are feeling unsafe and that they have to mask or maybe are unaware of their masking, as you said at the very start? Is there anything that we can do as parents Because parents are always very worried, saying, well, what can I actually do? Is there anything you want to maybe, I suppose, conclude on then for