ASD and face masks

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They also bother my face too. I wear them inside out and it feels a lot better but I still don't like how it feels on my face and my glasses get all steamed up from my breathing so I can't have my nose and mouth covered at once anyway.

How many people find that wearing face-masks limits conversations to "small talk" - that is "small-talk" is one area of social-skills many with AS/HFA have long recognized as key AS/HFA social skills?

My mother has been making handmade masks. They are much more comfortable to wear and I don't have to constantly readjust them, but they get hot and sweaty and breathing becomes difficult. My mother has started making masks out of cotton instead of flannelette for the warmer weather. We're having a weird early heat wave this week. I didn't wear rubber gloves when I bought groceries like I normally do because the sweat would have turned them them into water balloons. But I used plenty of sanitizer.

Summer is going to suck. It might be safe for me to go visit my parents and maybe use their swimming pool, but we won't get to go anywhere fun. No trips to the wildlife park or Canada Day events or the Farmer's Exhibition.

The face masks do give a new easy line of conversation for the small talk issue.

"That fabric is interesting." Since interesting can be everything from pretty to fugly to unique.
"Do you prefer the folded style?" Or "How's the fitted style working?" Depending on whether theirs is a different shape/fit than one's own. Could use similar questions about ear elastics vs ties behind the head.
"Where did you get your disposable mask?" Altho that won't be as applicable once they're back in stock better.

Caring about the answers doesn't really matter. I thought it might help someone to throw this out there.

I don't mind them too much aside from the glasses thing. I've been using soap and water though to wash my glasses before I go out (a friend suggested doing that) and it helps with the glasses not fogging up a little bit.

I hate them. They trigger the start of a sensory meltdown nearly everytime I wear one. My sensory issues are variable with little predictability. I was able to tolerate a mask while stationary, but not while ambulating. I do try to comply, but usually end up pulling it off or leaving in a panic to avoid a full meltdown. I will usually need to calm down for a while before driving. I have shown a 5 to 7% drop in my SPO2 readings when wearing one. Perhaps this is triggering a physiological response. Whatever the case, I am miserable in one.

Coronavirus face masks creating potential hurdle for kids with sensory issues

One expert advises building up tolerance to wearing the mask

Amanda Kelly, a board-certified behavioral analyst and the home-based programs director at Firefly Autism Services in Denver, Colo., said her team has been working to teach parents and caregivers to honor tolerance in regard to safety.

In using a method that focuses on tolerance, a child might work up the ability to wear the mask for an uninterrupted period of time. For instance, if the child won’t wear the mask for an hour, start with a small goal of simply putting it on. “How do we build up the tolerance – make sure the client has a choice in what materials we use for their masks, and understanding what type of sensory sensitivity it is, if it’s a smell thing, a feeling thing,” she said. “We really want to make sure that we start really small in terms of having people tolerate wearing a mask, and you can do that by using lots of reinforcement.”

I am not too bad with a plastic face shield. Cant wear a mask at all. I do start to panic in a face shield when they start to mist up as I feel detatched.

I find them incredibly painful around my ears and I find it very difficult to breathe in one. I only wear one for very short periods of time if I am absolutely required to.

For me, when I try it is like I am underwater where I don't breathe, and if I do try and breathe I hyperventilate and go dizzy in panic and have to rip it off. Also have an infection behind my ears. Had it for years and nothing shifts it. Doctors gave me antibiotic cream which does not do anything to it. Only supposed to use the cream for two weeks. I used it for several months and it does not work.

Back to facemasks. I was in a panic to know what to do. I also am a bit scared to see others in facemasks and I don't know why. As a child I watched something on TV about people who had no faces which terrified me, which is odd because I have faceblindness and I tend to avoid direct eye contact. Strange!

My mask straps go around my head, not my ears. I have used this model for years in my workshop. Others have added crude straps to extend the "ear" models into head holders. A mask conserves both heat and moisture - I usually remove a sweater or other layer when putting a mask on for a while. Even with the nose wire pinched, I still get trouble with my glasses fogging. Now that masks look normal, I will make one that does not cause fogging and enjoy not freezing my face this winter.

Fine with it. I often wear a P100 respirator all day at work. I just replaced two older rubber ones with a silicone one - so far I’ve just tried it on and haven’t worn it yet, but it seems to fit SO MUCH MORE COMFORTABLY than the rubber version that I wish I knew that they existed a few years ago as I’d have made the switch then! Feels like I can have the straps a fair bit looser and still achieve a proper seal, whereas with the rubber ones I’d have the straps cinched tighter to get a good deal and then a hard plastic bit would dig into my chin. This one feels like I could wear it all day and not be bothered hardly at all. Time will tell. Definitely worth the extra $10. It’s a North/Honeywell 7700 series, fyi.

When Covid first appeared here we wore N95s or N100s in public. That was terrible & I could make it about 10 minutes max in a store before having to rush out to my car & rip it off, bc I felt like I was drowning on my own hot breath & also the unpleasantness of feeling my own face skin (don't know how else to explain it- but you know, like how your neck skin never matters until your collar is too tight & then suddenly neck skin is a sausage suit & the shirt must come off or life ceases to have meaning--that was my face skin in an N95 after 10 minutes). Now its 10 months later & masks have been mandated by law here for 6 months. It was so much easier to breathe in a cloth mask than in an N95 or N100 that I think the discomfort level bypassed me. I really like my cloth masks very much. They have ear adjusters so are never too tight & are very soft cotton. I see masks as a true boon to my facial blindness & social discomfort/anxiety; I never have to even pretend I recognize anyone. If someone does (startlingly)recognize me we have to say hi from six feet apart, very briefly, so it's not as socially confusing for me. I also don't have to socially mask as much bc facial expressions don't exist anymore--(in my county we passed the first law in the US to make mask noncompliance punishable by a 3 tier system of $fine, bigger $fine & then jail time-so everyone masks up)--since there are no faces, it really is just a sea of masks. For me the discomfort of cloth masks in public is really overcome by the social wins. Of course, we are on stay at home orders so these comments apply to the ☆rare☆ public excursions such as grocery runs. Longer & I would still overload.

Any type of face mask I wear keeps slipping up almost covering my eyes, so I've got to keep adjusting it. Both the ones that have straps that go all the way around my head and the ones with straps that just go behind the ears.

i have got lovely cloth ones with ties instead of ear loops , i like those becaue i can set thm nearly perfectly but i cant stand those surgical masks they are too lose and feel icky

I'm aware this is an old topic, so I hope it's ok to post here. Where I live, mandatory mask wearing in public has just been introduced. We have had 10 months with no cases at all, life was pretty much back to normal and now, one person got sick and tested positive, and now we are in total lock down with mandatory masks if we leave the house.

Early last year, while we were in lock down, masks were optional, but now, we are being fined if we are caught in public not wearing one. We have been told to wear a mask if we go outside or leave the house.

I didn't leave the house all week, because I can't deal with having a mask on my face, but my dog needed a walk, so I tried. It was awful, I started feeling overwhelmed after a few seconds.

I've never been able to wear a face mask for any reason, even before this virus. I remember trying to wear one to spray paint a fence. I could keep it on for 2 minutes max, then would have to take it off for a while to breathe and calm down. So I painted the fence in 2 minute stages.

Today I went somewhere with no people around to walk my dog. I tried wearing the mask, even with no one around, but had to turn down the nose section and just leave my mouth covered. But even that was driving me nuts. I hate anything touching my face. I'm having groceries delivered tomorrow, so I don't have to go into a store right now. But this is absolutely miserable.... and so ridiculous to lock down 2 million people and force masks because 1 person got sick with something no worse than the flu. Even his room mates didn't get sick, and he lives with them. What's even worse, I've done a lot of research about this virus and mask wearing and know that a lot of the rules and restrictions being imposed on us are not based on scientific evidence or proper studies. So much of what's going on doesn't make any sense.

I'm usually a hermit anyway, and only go out to walk my dog and pick up groceries a couple of times a week, so this doesn't effect me as much as a lot of people. But this mask mandate is brutal.

Its validating to find I'm not alone with this problem, I don't feel so bad now.