Do I compare myself to others often? My first answer was going to be "no", but to be honest, it's still yes. While I no longer compare myself to artificially unattainable standards like mainstream celebrities, I still compare myself to the normal people around me: autistic and ADHD people I meet, my mom, my dad, various members of my spouse's extended family, and probably more. I'm not sure whether this is a bad thing, because some of these people are great role models for living healthy neurodivergent lives. On the other hand, self-comparison can still get me down if I'm already feeling poor self-esteem on a given day. I guess this topic is still pretty confusing for me.

Share questions:

• What does it mean to compare yourself with others? 
• Do you feel that you compare yourself to others often? In what ways? 
• Does comparing yourself with others help or hurt your self-esteem? Sense of self? 
• Are there certain kinds of people you tend to compare yourself to more? Please describe.
  
• If comparing yourself to others has ever been a function of masking (for example, learning how to improve your own masking), is that still a factor today? In what ways?
• Do you think about the concept of "comparing yourself to others" differently now that you know about autism?
• Any tools, resources, or strategies that helped you? 
• Anything else to add?