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Taking Off the Mask: A Field Guide for Neurospicy Brains
Paperback
Publisher Price: $16.99
Publisher: Shaun E. Poland
Published: Feb 2 2026
Pages: 212
Weight: 0.55
Height: 0.48 Width: 5.50 Depth: 8.50
Language: English
You look capable. Maybe even successful.
But if you're an autistic or ADHD adult who has been masking for years, you might also be exhausted.
Taking Off the Mask: A Field Guide for Neurospicy Brains explores autism, burnout, late diagnosis, and the hidden cost of passing as normal. If you've ever felt like life is on hard mode while everyone else seems to glide through it, this book was written for you.
After my own late autism diagnosis and the start of therapy, I began asking questions that wouldn't go away:
- Why does everything take so much effort?
- Why does my brain never fully quiet down?
- Why do normal expectations feel heavier for me than they seem to for everyone else?
Most books I found felt either too clinical or too personal without explanation. I needed something honest and direct -- something that explained the why without becoming a textbook.
So I wrote the book I needed.
This is not a diagnostic manual. It is not a promise to fix you. It's a field guide built from lived experience, research, therapy, and a lot of trial and error.
Inside, we explore:
- Autism and ADHD masking
- Quiet, high-functioning burnout
- Sensory overload and nervous system fatigue
- Dopamine chasing and coping patterns
- Work culture and unrealistic expectations
- Therapy, self-awareness, and late diagnosis
- Relationships, tone, and misinterpretation
- The emotional cost of constantly passing as normal
This book is for:
- Late-diagnosed autistic or ADHD adults
- People questioning whether they might be neurodivergent
- Burned-out professionals who feel like they're running hot all the time
- Neurotypical partners, friends, or coworkers who want to understand better
You don't have to read it in order. You don't have to agree with everything in it. You're not meant to copy my experience -- you're meant to notice what resonates and adapt it to your own life.
If this book does its job, you won't finish it feeling fixed.
You'll finish it feeling understood. Less broken. A little more aware. And maybe a little kinder to yourself.
That's the point.
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