You laughed it off — but inside, it wasn't okay?
About 5 min · 20 questions
Laughing it off didn't make it okay
The 'mask' here doesn't mean lying or two-facedness. It means the scenes where you smiled through discomfort because conflict or fallout felt too costly.
Reading the room is a natural kindness. But if "I'm fine" has become a reflex, it's worth checking the feelings you never voiced — and the emotional exhaustion they left behind.
This isn't an exam that rates or rules on anyone's character. It's a tool for revisiting the past month's scenes of acting against your real feelings, and the toll on your time, money, rest, and body.
See the criteria we drew on
This draws on Arlie Hochschild's concept of emotional labor, opens in a new window — especially 'surface acting', opens in a new window, research on expressive suppression, opens in a new window. Emotional labor was originally coined to describe workplaces, particularly service work; here it serves only as a lens for understanding hidden feelings in relationships. The 20 questions and five-area grouping were built in-house to support survivors' recovery. The cited research has not validated these items or results, and nothing here is a medical diagnosis or personality assessment.