In a world where being your true self is frowned upon, what else can you do but put on a mask and hide your true personality behind it? This activity is known in psychology as “masking,” It is used to conceal your true personality and behaviours to conform to societal norms and cues.
Wearing a personality mask is a coping mechanism or a trauma response that you develop to protect yourself from rejection and hurt. Attempting to put on a personality mask may protect your consciousness and self-respect in an ideal situation; however, disguising your individuality can inevitably lead to chronic stress, depression, burnout, mental torment, and even depression.
After all, aren’t you concealing your true self in order to comply with what we call “social pressure”? Let’s look at why we wear personality masks, and what types of personality masks are popular.
Why Do We Hide Ourselves?
Many factors can contribute to us hiding our true selves behind masks. Common causes include social discrimination, bullying, violence, rejection, and fear.
Personality masking protects you from emotional and mental harm, and it also protects your self-esteem. Masking can help us disguise negative emotions such as anger, rage, and jealousy in a situational context. This action can also help us adapt behaviour that will protect us from rejection. To avoid rejection, wearing a personality mask during an interview or a date is common.
Masking your true self, on the other hand, can eventually lead to existential exhaustion, in which you may forget who you truly are, resulting in feelings of depression, loneliness, and anxiety.
10 Ways We Hide Ourselves and Become Something Else
The ten most common personality masks we wear to conceal our true selves are as follows. However, with the right meditation course and regular mindfulness practice, the overall game for us is changed.
1. We Become the Victim
You put on the victim mask to keep your self-esteem safe. You do not readily admit your mistakes and instead blame external factors for them. While wearing this mask, you don’t own up to your problems and failures.
2. We Bully Ourselves
If you’ve ever been a victim of abuse or bullying, you’ll recognize the bully mask. This mask shields you from self-doubt and allows you to maintain control while keeping others at bay. You may lash out physically or verbally to cause harm to others, even if it is to protect yourself from future harm.
3. We Bring Out the Humour
Think of Chandler from F.R.I.E.N.D.S. You use humour as a mask to avoid being laughed at by others and to avoid feeling lonely and sad. When you put on this mask, you laugh at yourself so that others don’t and your ego doesn’t get hurt. At times, it also serves as a coping mechanism.
4. Collect Ourselves
You’re wearing the stoic mask if you pretend to be calm and collected but never feel that way. You keep your emotions bottled up and put on a brave face to avoid being vulnerable. This mask, however, may prevent you from properly understanding and processing your emotions.
5. We Become the Perfect
You’re wearing the stoic mask if you pretend to be calm and collected but never feel that way. You keep your emotions bottled up and put on a brave face to avoid being vulnerable. This mask, however, may prevent you from properly understanding and processing your emotions.
6. Self-Acceptance Mask
If you constantly talk down to yourself and make fun of your flaws, you’re using this personality mask as a defence mechanism to avoid being hurt by others. No one can hurt or put you down if you already despise yourself, and it also serves as a protective mechanism against low self-esteem.
7. We Avoid
When you put on the avoidant mask, you withdraw into yourself because you fear rejection, abandonment, or judgment. You avoid contact with others and keep your distance from your loved ones, hoping not to be rejected, hurt or judged.
8. We Control Ourselves
This is a variation of the perfect mask. You wear the control mask to exert control over everything around you, making you feel more in command and less insecure. You can also wear this personality mask to assert control over a situation that appears to be spiraling out of control and leaving you feeling vulnerable.
9. The Flattering Us
The people-pleasing mask is another common personality mask we wear. You wear this mask because your self-esteem is dependent on the validation and acceptance of others. Even if you don’t want to, you go out of your way to please the people around you because it makes you feel good about yourself.
10. Social Acceptance
Finally, there’s the social or socializer mask, which you wear to hide your insecurities and vulnerability. You wear this personality mask to converse with others in a social setting. While you may be able to communicate with others easily, this mask takes away your ability to maintain meaningful conversations and relationships with others.
The Final Words
Personality masks are small actions, words, behaviours, and body language that we use to protect ourselves from being hurt, rejected, abandoned, or judged. We put on these masks to protect our self-esteem and self-worth. Understanding why you wear personality masks could help you discover your true self.
Shedding your personality mask and accepting your true self in front of others will not be easy, and there will always be people who will not appreciate your true self but keep going despite the obstacles.
