Camouflaging isn’t a fundamental part of autism. Instead, it’s a survival strategy—a result of entrenched discrimination and feeling unsafe being your autistic self. Over time, many autistic people learn how to “fit in,” or at least, try to.

But camouflaging takes an enormous amount of energy. And it’s one of the main reasons autistic people today are so vulnerable to autistic burnout.

How Do We Measure Camouflaging?

One of the most helpful tools available is the Camouflaging Autistic Traits Questionnaire (CAT-Q). This measure highlights three different subtypes of camouflaging: compensation, masking, and assimilation.

1. Compensation

   Compensation is often unconscious—you may not even realise you’re doing it.

   It’s when you copy other people’s facial expressions, tone of voice, body language, or even their words and phrases. These can come from people around you, or even from TV shows, films, podcasts, or videos.

   It’s like building a “toolbox” of social behaviours to help you navigate interactions, even if those behaviours don’t feel natural.

2. Masking

   Masking is when you hide how you’re really feeling and instead monitor and adjust yourself to appear how you think you should.

   This might look like:

   • Forcing or controlling eye contact
   • Monitoring how others perceive you in conversation
   • Editing and re-editing emails to sound “acceptable”
   • Smiling when you don’t feel like it
   • Suppressing stimming or natural body movements

   Masking is often confused with social anxiety, but it’s not the same. For autistic people, it’s a learned response to environments where being their authentic self feels unsafe.

3. Assimilation

   Assimilation is about blending in to avoid rejection.

   This can mean “acting” like others in a group, even if it feels unnatural. Or, it can mean staying on the edges of social spaces—present, but not interacting—so that you’re not singled out or excluded.

   It’s another way autistic people protect themselves from discrimination, judgment, or misunderstanding.

Why Camouflaging matters?

Camouflaging might help someone feel accepted in the short term, but it comes with huge costs.

• It drains mental and emotional energy.
• It increases the risk of autistic burnout.
• It can delay autism recognition, because others only see the “camouflaged” version of the person.
• It can impact identity development, leaving people unsure of who they really are beneath the mask.

This is why camouflaging is such an important area to explore during autism assessments, especially for women.

How We Use the CAT-Q in Our Assessments

At Autistic Girls, we often use the CAT-Q as part of our autism assessments for women.

It’s not about “testing” in the traditional sense. Instead, it helps us understand how women experience social interactions—and how much of their energy is going into camouflaging autistic traits.

For many, simply seeing their camouflaging patterns reflected back to them is validating. It explains why socialising feels so exhausting, and why burnout happens so easily.

What is camouflaging un autism? - Summary

Camouflaging is not an autistic trait—it’s a response to living in a society that doesn’t always make space for difference. Understanding camouflaging, and recognising when and how it shows up, is an important step towards self-awareness and self-compassion.

If you think camouflaging might be part of your experience, know this: you are not alone, and nothing about you is “wrong.”

With the right support, it is possible to unlearn some of these exhausting strategies, reclaim your energy, and feel safer being your authentic autistic self.

If you'd like to explore an autism or AuDHD (autism and ADHD assessment) with us, book a screening call here.