I am unsure on your specific experience but masking tends to drain me and kill my vibe a lot eventually leads to me being extra of a people pleaser. I hear a lot of experiences on social media in people saying unmasking has helped them feel more like them. So never let someone dim your light I don't know your situation but maybe surround yourself with people more like you. I mainly just mask at work or around rude people to avoid conflict due to my bad wording and some other stuff but I try to avoid those people anyways. People should like you for u. I hope u find ur people but it definitely takes time so listen to what you're more comfortable with and how you feel during and after masking

Ask yourself why you’re doing it! If you’re going to start masking again just because other people expect you to then that’s silly. But I feel like my masking makes my life more comfortable usually as long as I get a break from masking.

I feel like the important thing to remember about masking is that it takes balance. When I was younger I was masked always, which is draining and depressing and even made my CFS so much worse. As an adult I struggle to mask at all because I don't really know how to do so in a masculine way, since when I was young I was both masking autism and being trans, that makes it incredibly hard to function in social situations that I need to seem "normal" in. More recently it's become easier to mask in certain situations that I need it, that doesn't wear me out or make me depressed because I mask for a short time and I come home/hang up and I'm surrounded by people I'm allowed to be autistic with and i can be unmasked and relaxed most of the time while still being able to mask in the situations I need it.