No. 1 Autism Professor: How To Spot Autism In High-Masking Adults!

Dr. Luke Beardon is a leading autism researcher, author and senior lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University who has spent more than 30 years working alongside autistic people and their families.

In this episode, Luke reveals what autism can actually feel like from the inside, from masking and rehearsing conversations to sensory overwhelm, burnout and the exhaustion of constantly trying to fit in.

He explores why so many people go decades without realising they’re autistic, what happens when you mask for so long that you lose sight of who you really are, and why the parts of yourself you spent a lifetime hiding may never have needed fixing in the first place.

Chapters:

00:00 Trailer

01:23 Why Luke dedicated his life to understanding autism

02:46 How can someone be autistic for decades without knowing?

05:38 What high-masking autism actually looks like

08:06 How early does autistic masking begin?

10:21 The biggest misconception about autism in adults

16:10 The biggest signs you’re masking autism

17:37 Why autistic people rehearse conversations