 We tend to mask because we don't feel like anyone can really love or like us because we are autistic. Very horrible, difficult thing. It's almost like drastically altering your personality for the benefit of other people that like you and so that you can feel socially validated and not alone. The people who like you and socially validate you are validating a non-existent person. Someone who isn't autistic, the neurotypical version of yourself as it be. And that's not a very good thing because there are a lot of things that autistic people do that are really, really, really beneficial for their well-being in general, for their sense of self, for their confidence, things like stimming.