Masking, Unmasking, and Why Bottom-Up Freedom Changed Everything When I first spoke about masking and unmasking, I was describing the experience. Now I understand the mechanism — and that difference matters. For 57 years, I lived with anxiety, panic, and depression. SSRIs kept me close to baseline — functional, capable — but regulation was fragile. Dopamine and norepinephrine were online, yet balanced like a seesaw that could be tipped instantly by societal noise. What I didn’t understand then is this: Safety is established bottom-up, not top-down. Sensory input creates regulatory loops before cognition ever enters the picture. Masking interrupts that process. When sensory safety is suppressed, thoughts are forced to regulate each other — pushing and pulling, never synchronizing. Add epigenetic stressors, and the result is right temporal suppression, frontal cortex suppression, and executive function that’s technically “on” but functionally offline. That was my reality. Unmasking didn’t feel like relief at first — it felt like chaos — because autonomy wasn’t online yet. The nervous system had been running on vigilance for decades without bottom-up permission. The turning point wasn’t insight. It was integration. When inherent traits were allowed back — including regular stimming — sensory loops restored safety. Bottom-up regulation came online. Executive dysfunction released. For the first time, I felt the collaborative effect between the frontal cortex and right temporal processing. That sensation was unmistakable. I didn’t just think differently — I could feel cognition synchronize. That’s why I know what changed. Masking wasn’t protection. It was long-term suppression of the systems that regulate the CNS. Unmasking alone isn’t enough. Understanding your cognitive architecture is what turns collapse into coherence. This isn’t about fixing ourselves. It’s about restoring what was always there — waiting for permission.

Hi friends! I know most of you but I’d like for you to introduce yourself to other memebers of this fun community Just a bit of who YOU are what you love and what you like about life !! @Anja Žibert @Deleted @David R @Daniel Gombos @Frank Szymanski @Gina F @Lorena Gonzalez @Rich Guy @Rayed Hussain @Kevaughn Spence @Yvonne Sierra @Owen Hunt @Patrick Horta @Ken Parrott @Lydia Lowery Busler @everyone By the way we have a poetry night saloon very soon! Who would love to share some brutally honest poetry and be vulnerable together ?

Everyday you can be something and someone different we are so many things we are eternal consciousness I am a photographer so today I’ll post a photo representing that Who are you? Everyday we can be anything A cook A writer A singer A coach An entrepreneur A business person Write what you are and share a picture of a moment of your I AM s Photos by me : photo taken from a plane