 Removing the mask has a lot of benefits. The issue here is here, and this is something that catches a lot of people off guard. The benefits generally come with time. You can't just immediately switch off all of these mechanisms that have been ingrained into you, either by other people or yourself. It's gonna take time. Initially, unmasking as well can be difficult because you get a lot of judgments from other people and a lot of disapproval to a lot of other people, perhaps being more yourself, being more autistic in their rise, can be seen as regressing in some people's eyes, especially with parents who are very like forcing you to mask, forcing you to be normal, forcing you to not be autistic, trying to push you more into this idea of what a non-autistic person should be like. They can be very disapproving of that. You may not get that positive reinforcement from the people in your circles.