Love on the Autism Spectrum - Honest Guidance for Neurodivergent Relationships in Midlife

Episode 79: How to Build Rituals That Calm, Not Exhaust You

Itchy tree needles, loud white elephant swaps, a crowded dinner table when you’d rather have a quiet morning. This episode is for the neurodivergent adult who finds holiday traditions draining and misaligned, and for couples who picture holiday joy in completely different ways.

Blaze explains that rituals are meant to ground us, but when they feel forced or confusing they set off stress instead of peace. Rituals that support a neurodivergent nervous system tend to have clear structure, sensory predictability, and timing you choose yourself. The better question isn’t “why can’t I just go along?” but “what ritual would help me regulate instead of draining me?”

Jordan loved matching pajamas, scheduled gift openings, and selfies; Sam wanted silence and sweatpants. Every year Sam shut down and Jordan felt rejected. They split the day: Jordan’s short, camera-on gift moment in the morning, Sam’s free afternoon, then grilled cheese and soup together that night, where both felt present. The tools: audit inherited traditions as energizing, draining, or neutral, design one tiny sensory-safe ritual, and build in a reset ritual so your nervous system knows recovery is coming.

One Emotional Takeaway: You don’t have to keep performing rituals that exhaust you. You’re allowed to create new ones that feel like rest.

Weekly Companion Blog Post: Neurodivergent Holiday Traditions That Fit Your Life → loveontheautismspectrum.com/holiday-traditions/

#NeurodivergentHolidays #SensoryFriendlyRituals #NeurodiverseCouples #HolidayOverwhelm #NervousSystemRegulation #LoveOnTheAutismSpectrum

Start here — the free guide that gently names the pattern: ✨ You're Not Too Much. You're Just Alone in the Repair. → link.blazelazarony.com/youre-not-too-much

Ready to talk? Book a FREE 20-minute "Clarity & Connection" Zoom session: 📅 link.blazelazarony.com/Book-C-and-C-Zoom

Explore more tools, relationship guidance, and weekly blog posts at: 🌐 loveontheautismspectrum.com

Catch up on more episodes: 🎧 loveontheautismspectrum.com/podcast

Read deeper reflections and behind-the-scenes writing on Substack: ✉️ blazelazarony.substack.com

For behind-the-scenes reflections and bonus content, follow along on Instagram: 📸 @BlazeLazarony

The book — daily reflections for coming home to who you really are: 📚 Unmasked Self-Acceptance → amazon.com/dp/B0GLGX2HFK

This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional mental health care. Listening does not create a therapeutic relationship or provide individualized advice.

Barbara (Blaze) Lazarony, MA, LMFT #151788, is licensed in California. All examples are fictional and used for illustration only.

If you're experiencing a mental health crisis, please call 988 or contact local emergency services.

Episode 78: Surrounded, Yet Separate: A Quiet Holiday Story

You can love your family and still feel lonely in a room full of them. This short episode is for the neurodivergent adult who smiles, helps in the kitchen, sits through the gift exchange, and feels underwater the whole time, and for anyone who has wondered why everyone else seems fine.

Blaze offers a gentle reframe: maybe nothing is wrong with you, and something is missing in the space. That hollow ache is your nervous system signaling a lack of resonance, a body craving connection that feels real and emotionally safe. What many neurodivergent people long for is not more conversation but attunement, the kind of presence that looks past the surface and asks how your heart is doing.

Elena described her family’s holiday gathering as watching a movie of her own life. She wasn’t upset or even masking much; she simply felt separate, and no one noticed. When she realized no one had asked how she was, something clicked. Together they made a small plan for the next party: permission to step outside, text a friend, and name her need for quiet instead of powering through. Blaze leaves you with two questions: when do I feel most connected, and when do I feel most alone in a crowded room?

One Emotional Takeaway: You’re allowed to seek connection that feels real, even if it looks quieter than what others expect.

#NeurodivergentLoneliness #HolidayOverwhelm #Attunement #AutisticAdults #EmotionalSafety #LoveOnTheAutismSpectrum

Start here — the free guide that gently names the pattern: ✨ You're Not Too Much. You're Just Alone in the Repair. → link.blazelazarony.com/youre-not-too-much

Ready to talk? Book a FREE 20-minute "Clarity & Connection" Zoom session: 📅 link.blazelazarony.com/Book-C-and-C-Zoom

Explore more tools, relationship guidance, and weekly blog posts at: 🌐 loveontheautismspectrum.com

Catch up on more episodes: 🎧 loveontheautismspectrum.com/podcast

Read deeper reflections and behind-the-scenes writing on Substack: ✉️ blazelazarony.substack.com

For behind-the-scenes reflections and bonus content, follow along on Instagram: 📸 @BlazeLazarony

The book — daily reflections for coming home to who you really are: 📚 Unmasked Self-Acceptance → amazon.com/dp/B0GLGX2HFK

This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional mental health care. Listening does not create a therapeutic relationship or provide individualized advice.

Barbara (Blaze) Lazarony, MA, LMFT #151788, is licensed in California. All examples are fictional and used for illustration only.

If you're experiencing a mental health crisis, please call 988 or contact local emergency services.

Episode 77: How to Tend to ND Loneliness Without Forcing Connection

Loneliness isn’t always isolation. Sometimes it’s not feeling understood in the room you’re standing in. This episode is for neurodivergent adults who feel more lonely than joyful at holiday gatherings, physically present and emotionally far away, and who aren’t even sure they want connection, or are trying to want what others seem to need.

Blaze explains what neurodivergent loneliness actually is: feeling out of sync, longing for emotional resonance rather than small talk, feeling drained by masking, and wanting connection on your own terms. Citing a 2022 study finding that autistic adults report more loneliness even when socially active, she makes the point plainly: it’s the quality and emotional safety of contact that matter, not the quantity. You’re not cold or avoidant; your nervous system feels safest in slowness and soft connection.

Mary made the casserole, handed out gifts, smiled for photos, and felt invisible. Using a connection menu, she asked a cousin she felt safe with to simply sit in the kitchen together while the party carried on. That quiet moment meant more than the whole day. Home Play: write your own menu of three small, honest ways to reach out, ask what kind of connection you’re craving today, and notice which contact leaves you feeling closer.

One Emotional Takeaway: Loneliness doesn’t always need fixing. Sometimes it just needs witnessing, and you can move slowly and softly and still belong.

Weekly Companion Blog Post: Loneliness During the Holidays: Navigating Disconnection → loveontheautismspectrum.com/loneliness/

#NeurodivergentLoneliness #ConnectionMenu #HolidayLoneliness #AutisticAdults #EmotionalResonance #LoveOnTheAutismSpectrum

Start here — the free guide that gently names the pattern: ✨ You're Not Too Much. You're Just Alone in the Repair. → link.blazelazarony.com/youre-not-too-much

Ready to talk? Book a FREE 20-minute "Clarity & Connection" Zoom session: 📅 link.blazelazarony.com/Book-C-and-C-Zoom

Explore more tools, relationship guidance, and weekly blog posts at: 🌐 loveontheautismspectrum.com

Catch up on more episodes: 🎧 loveontheautismspectrum.com/podcast

Read deeper reflections and behind-the-scenes writing on Substack: ✉️ blazelazarony.substack.com

For behind-the-scenes reflections and bonus content, follow along on Instagram: 📸 @BlazeLazarony

The book — daily reflections for coming home to who you really are: 📚 Unmasked Self-Acceptance → amazon.com/dp/B0GLGX2HFK

This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional mental health care. Listening does not create a therapeutic relationship or provide individualized advice.

Barbara (Blaze) Lazarony, MA, LMFT #151788, is licensed in California. All examples are fictional and used for illustration only.

If you're experiencing a mental health crisis, please call 988 or contact local emergency services.

Episode 76: The Christmas Lights Were Too Bright, So I Hid in the Bathroom

If you’ve ever slipped away from a holiday party to sit somewhere quiet and dim, this episode is for you. It’s for the neurodivergent adult who smiles, nods, laughs at jokes they didn’t hear, and then quietly disappears, and who has carried shame for years about how easily the noise gets to be too much.

Blaze names what’s really happening: sensory overload, not drama, rudeness, or weakness. Bright lights, looping music, clattering forks and overlapping voices pile up until the body says done. Her reframe is simple. Shutting down in that moment isn’t a collapse; it’s self-preservation, your body protecting you when you didn’t yet know how to protect yourself. Sensory needs are not optional. They are foundational.

This time the story is Blaze’s own: a big office holiday party, an itchy red blouse, heels she couldn’t wait to kick off, and twenty minutes in a cool, quiet bathroom stall, not sad, just finished. Learning about sensory processing later made everything click. Now she wears clothes that feel good, steps outside before her vision tunnels, leaves early, and sometimes says no thank you. This week, notice when your body says enough, even while your mind insists on a little more.

One Emotional Takeaway: You’re not broken. You’re wired differently, and your body always makes sense.

#SensoryOverload #HolidayParties #AutisticShutdown #NeurodivergentAdults #SensoryNeeds #LoveOnTheAutismSpectrum

Start here — the free guide that gently names the pattern: ✨ You're Not Too Much. You're Just Alone in the Repair. → link.blazelazarony.com/youre-not-too-much

Ready to talk? Book a FREE 20-minute "Clarity & Connection" Zoom session: 📅 link.blazelazarony.com/Book-C-and-C-Zoom

Explore more tools, relationship guidance, and weekly blog posts at: 🌐 loveontheautismspectrum.com

Catch up on more episodes: 🎧 loveontheautismspectrum.com/podcast

Read deeper reflections and behind-the-scenes writing on Substack: ✉️ blazelazarony.substack.com

For behind-the-scenes reflections and bonus content, follow along on Instagram: 📸 @BlazeLazarony

The book — daily reflections for coming home to who you really are: 📚 Unmasked Self-Acceptance → amazon.com/dp/B0GLGX2HFK

This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional mental health care. Listening does not create a therapeutic relationship or provide individualized advice.

Barbara (Blaze) Lazarony, MA, LMFT #151788, is licensed in California. All examples are fictional and used for illustration only.

If you're experiencing a mental health crisis, please call 988 or contact local emergency services.

Episode 75: Therapist Tools for a Calmer Holiday Nervous System

For many neurodivergent adults, December brings tension rather than excitement: too much sound, too much sparkle, too many expectations. This episode is for anyone who feels more frazzled than festive and has been told it’s a mindset problem.

Blaze says it plainly: the holidays are not neutral, and the goal is regulation, not perfection. She draws on Stephen Porges’s polyvagal theory, which holds that the nervous system feels safer with predictability and a sense of control. When your brain knows there’s an exit, your body feels less trapped. Her three tools follow from that: micro-mapping your sensory day with recovery windows before and after events, carrying one sensory soother such as a soft scarf, a scent roller, or Loop earplugs, and deciding your exit plan in advance.

Jay cried in her car for 45 minutes before a holiday dinner, not because of the dinner but because the whole day of shopping, wrapping, and helping a friend had been too much. She walked in already in shutdown and smiled through it. After mapping her capacity, adding two ten-minute rests, and pocketing earplugs, she left the next event early and, for the first time, didn’t feel broken. Home Play: name your soother, pre-map one big day, and set one exit plan.

One Emotional Takeaway: You’re not fragile. You’re wise, and you’re allowed to want peace more than performance.

Weekly Companion Blog Post: Neurodivergent Nervous System: Understanding Holiday Safety → loveontheautismspectrum.com/neurodivergent-nervous-system/

#NervousSystemRegulation #HolidayStress #SensoryTools #PolyvagalTheory #NeurodivergentAdults #LoveOnTheAutismSpectrum

Start here — the free guide that gently names the pattern: ✨ You're Not Too Much. You're Just Alone in the Repair. → link.blazelazarony.com/youre-not-too-much

Ready to talk? Book a FREE 20-minute "Clarity & Connection" Zoom session: 📅 link.blazelazarony.com/Book-C-and-C-Zoom

Explore more tools, relationship guidance, and weekly blog posts at: 🌐 loveontheautismspectrum.com

Catch up on more episodes: 🎧 loveontheautismspectrum.com/podcast

Read deeper reflections and behind-the-scenes writing on Substack: ✉️ blazelazarony.substack.com

For behind-the-scenes reflections and bonus content, follow along on Instagram: 📸 @BlazeLazarony

The book — daily reflections for coming home to who you really are: 📚 Unmasked Self-Acceptance → amazon.com/dp/B0GLGX2HFK

This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional mental health care. Listening does not create a therapeutic relationship or provide individualized advice.

Barbara (Blaze) Lazarony, MA, LMFT #151788, is licensed in California. All examples are fictional and used for illustration only.

If you're experiencing a mental health crisis, please call 988 or contact local emergency services.

Episode 74: After the Holidays: The Emotional Hangover

You made it through the holidays, the decorations are packed away, the calendar is clear, and now you feel awful: tired, anxious, tearful, replaying every conversation. This episode is for the neurodivergent adult who expected relief in January and found a crash instead.

Blaze calls this an emotional hangover: a delayed wave of fatigue, self-doubt and sensory depletion that arrives once the nervous system finally feels safe enough to rest. Weeks of noise, lights, masking, shifting roles and emotional labor accumulate, and when they stop, the body lets go. It isn’t regression or failure; it’s physiology. Sadness often surfaces when we finally stop bracing, and underneath it there is often fear, and the shame of thinking we did something wrong.

Sam powered through every December and spent every January wondering what was wrong with them. Then they said something telling: “I think I confuse rest with failure.” Blaze invited them to watch the hangover like weather passing through the body and to ask what this kind of tired feels like. One morning Sam stayed in bed without guilt and wrote that it felt like medicine. Instead of asking what’s wrong with me, try asking what your body is finally free to feel.

One Emotional Takeaway: An emotional hangover isn’t a setback. It’s your nervous system completing the cycle, so let it.

#EmotionalHangover #PostHolidayCrash #NeurodivergentRest #NervousSystemRecovery #AutisticAdults #LoveOnTheAutismSpectrum

Start here — the free guide that gently names the pattern: ✨ You're Not Too Much. You're Just Alone in the Repair. → link.blazelazarony.com/youre-not-too-much

Ready to talk? Book a FREE 20-minute "Clarity & Connection" Zoom session: 📅 link.blazelazarony.com/Book-C-and-C-Zoom

Explore more tools, relationship guidance, and weekly blog posts at: 🌐 loveontheautismspectrum.com

Catch up on more episodes: 🎧 loveontheautismspectrum.com/podcast

Read deeper reflections and behind-the-scenes writing on Substack: ✉️ blazelazarony.substack.com

For behind-the-scenes reflections and bonus content, follow along on Instagram: 📸 @BlazeLazarony

The book — daily reflections for coming home to who you really are: 📚 Unmasked Self-Acceptance → amazon.com/dp/B0GLGX2HFK

This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional mental health care. Listening does not create a therapeutic relationship or provide individualized advice.

Barbara (Blaze) Lazarony, MA, LMFT #151788, is licensed in California. All examples are fictional and used for illustration only.

If you're experiencing a mental health crisis, please call 988 or contact local emergency services.

Episode 73: Therapist Tools for Managing ND Family Burnout

If you’re already tired and the holidays haven’t even started, you’re not behind. This episode is for neurodivergent adults who love their families and still come home from every visit needing a week to recover.

Blaze calls this family burnout, the layered exhaustion of managing too much emotional information for too long. Drawing on Stephen Porges’s polyvagal theory, she explains how prolonged social engagement without recovery wears down the ventral vagal system, the body’s social engagement network, until we stop thinking clearly or feeling safe. Crashing afterward doesn’t mean you’re antisocial. It means your nervous system has been overstimulated, and it’s designed for ebb and flow, not continuous engagement.

Sam, autistic, deeply attuned and a longtime people-pleaser, noticed the signal early: rehearsing conversations before they even left home. Together they built a recovery-centered holiday plan. Emotional budgeting treats energy like a piggy bank, with solo walks, music and cat time as deposits and sensory chaos as withdrawals; the goal is to stop overdrafting. An exit strategy with a ready phrase and a separate car let Sam stay calm longer, and a reset hour of stillness afterward became their nervous system nap. Start with one question: what kind of connection feels sustainable for me?

One Emotional Takeaway: Family burnout doesn’t mean you don’t love your people. It means you’ve been loving past your limits.

#FamilyBurnout #HolidayBurnout #EmotionalBudgeting #PolyvagalTheory #NeurodivergentFamilies #LoveOnTheAutismSpectrum

Start here — the free guide that gently names the pattern: ✨ You're Not Too Much. You're Just Alone in the Repair. → link.blazelazarony.com/youre-not-too-much

Ready to talk? Book a FREE 20-minute "Clarity & Connection" Zoom session: 📅 link.blazelazarony.com/Book-C-and-C-Zoom

Explore more tools, relationship guidance, and weekly blog posts at: 🌐 loveontheautismspectrum.com

Catch up on more episodes: 🎧 loveontheautismspectrum.com/podcast

Read deeper reflections and behind-the-scenes writing on Substack: ✉️ blazelazarony.substack.com

For behind-the-scenes reflections and bonus content, follow along on Instagram: 📸 @BlazeLazarony

The book — daily reflections for coming home to who you really are: 📚 Unmasked Self-Acceptance → amazon.com/dp/B0GLGX2HFK

This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional mental health care. Listening does not create a therapeutic relationship or provide individualized advice.

Barbara (Blaze) Lazarony, MA, LMFT #151788, is licensed in California. All examples are fictional and used for illustration only.

If you're experiencing a mental health crisis, please call 988 or contact local emergency services.

Episode 72: We Fought in the Parking Lot Before the Party

You said yes to the party, got dressed, felt your clothes start to itch, and somewhere between the third lap of the parking lot and a joke that didn’t land, you both fell apart. This episode is for the neurodivergent partner who pushed through until there was nothing left, and for the partner who wanted the night so much and ended up feeling rejected.

Blaze explains that conflict in neurodivergent couples often looks like disconnection when it is really dysregulation. Two nervous systems are each looking for safety, just by different roads: one through presence and people, the other through peace and quiet. Seen that way, a fight stops being a moral failure and becomes a physiological event, and the question shifts from “you don’t care” to “your body needs something different than mine right now.”

Picking up with Lena and Marcus, Blaze tells the story of the parking lot fight. No yelling, just two people collapsing under the weight of trying too hard. Then Lena said, honestly, “I want to go home,” and Marcus said, “Okay.” Pajamas, takeout and a movie followed. Blaze names that as repair in real time: not avoiding rupture, but moving through it without shame, and tracking how reconnection comes faster each time.

One Emotional Takeaway: Love isn’t about avoiding conflict. Sometimes it just looks like saying “let’s go home” and letting that be enough.

#NeurodiverseCouples #RuptureAndRepair #HolidayOverwhelm #CoRegulation #ADHDandAutism #LoveOnTheAutismSpectrum

Start here — the free guide that gently names the pattern: ✨ You're Not Too Much. You're Just Alone in the Repair. → link.blazelazarony.com/youre-not-too-much

Ready to talk? Book a FREE 20-minute "Clarity & Connection" Zoom session: 📅 link.blazelazarony.com/Book-C-and-C-Zoom

Explore more tools, relationship guidance, and weekly blog posts at: 🌐 loveontheautismspectrum.com

Catch up on more episodes: 🎧 loveontheautismspectrum.com/podcast

Read deeper reflections and behind-the-scenes writing on Substack: ✉️ blazelazarony.substack.com

For behind-the-scenes reflections and bonus content, follow along on Instagram: 📸 @BlazeLazarony

The book — daily reflections for coming home to who you really are: 📚 Unmasked Self-Acceptance → amazon.com/dp/B0GLGX2HFK

This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional mental health care. Listening does not create a therapeutic relationship or provide individualized advice.

Barbara (Blaze) Lazarony, MA, LMFT #151788, is licensed in California. All examples are fictional and used for illustration only.

If you're experiencing a mental health crisis, please call 988 or contact local emergency services.

Episode 71: Therapist Tools for ND Couples During the Holidays

Every December the same fight seems to arrive with the decorations: one of you dreading the noise and the smells, the other trying hard to make everything work and feeling pushed away. This episode is for neurodivergent and mixed-neurotype couples who love each other and still feel like they spend the holidays on different planets.

Blaze explains that the problem isn’t a lack of love but a mismatch of nervous systems under pressure. Drawing on Stephen Porges’ polyvagal theory, she shows how safety and connection are linked in the body: when one partner moves into fight or flight and the other into freeze or fawn, it’s biology, not character. The reframe she offers is simple: this isn’t about participation, it’s about capacity.

Through Lena and Marcus, an autistic woman and her extroverted ADHD husband, Blaze shares three tools. A shared holiday map sorts events into nourishing, neutral and draining. A code word (theirs was “pause”) lets either partner step away without anyone taking it personally. A sensory support plan adds headphones, quiet time after events and movement breaks. Lena went to one small gathering, Marcus drove his own car to stay longer, and they kept a quiet night just for two.

One Emotional Takeaway: Partnership isn’t measured in participation. It’s measured in presence.

#NeurodiverseCouples #HolidayStress #PolyvagalTheory #SensoryOverload #MixedNeurotypeRelationships #LoveOnTheAutismSpectrum

Start here — the free guide that gently names the pattern: ✨ You're Not Too Much. You're Just Alone in the Repair. → link.blazelazarony.com/youre-not-too-much

Ready to talk? Book a FREE 20-minute "Clarity & Connection" Zoom session: 📅 link.blazelazarony.com/Book-C-and-C-Zoom

Explore more tools, relationship guidance, and weekly blog posts at: 🌐 loveontheautismspectrum.com

Catch up on more episodes: 🎧 loveontheautismspectrum.com/podcast

Read deeper reflections and behind-the-scenes writing on Substack: ✉️ blazelazarony.substack.com

For behind-the-scenes reflections and bonus content, follow along on Instagram: 📸 @BlazeLazarony

The book — daily reflections for coming home to who you really are: 📚 Unmasked Self-Acceptance → amazon.com/dp/B0GLGX2HFK

This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional mental health care. Listening does not create a therapeutic relationship or provide individualized advice.

Barbara (Blaze) Lazarony, MA, LMFT #151788, is licensed in California. All examples are fictional and used for illustration only.

If you're experiencing a mental health crisis, please call 988 or contact local emergency services.

Episode 70: The Year I Said No to Turkey

You host because you always have. The house is spotless, the timing perfect, everyone says you make the holiday magical, and when they leave you sit on the kitchen floor and cry. This episode is for the neurodivergent adult who quietly disappears every November so the family tradition can keep going.

Blaze explains how the body tells the truth before the mind catches up. Echoing Donna Eden’s energy work and the idea that your body knows, she describes what happens when a client imagines the holiday with the guilt taken away: shoulders drop, the face softens, and relief arrives alongside the fear. That relief is how you know a boundary is right, and boundaries, she says, don’t just protect time and energy; they restore joy.

Ava practiced one sentence in session: “Mom, I love you and I want to be with everyone, but I can’t host this year.” Her mother went silent, then dramatic, and Ava didn’t take it back. The family went to Sarah’s, and Ava spent the day walking, watching a movie and making a simple dinner, then joined them for dessert and actually enjoyed them. As she put it, she used to think love meant saying yes, and now she knows it means being honest.

One Emotional Takeaway: Boundaries aren’t rejection. They’re clarity, and sometimes one small no is the doorway to peace.

#HolidayBoundaries #SayingNo #FamilyExpectations #NeurodivergentAdults #PeoplePleasing #LoveOnTheAutismSpectrum

Start here — the free guide that gently names the pattern: ✨ You're Not Too Much. You're Just Alone in the Repair. → link.blazelazarony.com/youre-not-too-much

Ready to talk? Book a FREE 20-minute "Clarity & Connection" Zoom session: 📅 link.blazelazarony.com/Book-C-and-C-Zoom

Explore more tools, relationship guidance, and weekly blog posts at: 🌐 loveontheautismspectrum.com

Catch up on more episodes: 🎧 loveontheautismspectrum.com/podcast

Read deeper reflections and behind-the-scenes writing on Substack: ✉️ blazelazarony.substack.com

For behind-the-scenes reflections and bonus content, follow along on Instagram: 📸 @BlazeLazarony

The book — daily reflections for coming home to who you really are: 📚 Unmasked Self-Acceptance → amazon.com/dp/B0GLGX2HFK

This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional mental health care. Listening does not create a therapeutic relationship or provide individualized advice.

Barbara (Blaze) Lazarony, MA, LMFT #151788, is licensed in California. All examples are fictional and used for illustration only.

If you're experiencing a mental health crisis, please call 988 or contact local emergency services.