When something feels threatening, overwhelming, or unsafe, your body can respond before you've had time to consciously think about what is happening. You might feel an immediate urge to get away, become angry or defensive, feel numb or unable to move. Or you might find yourself automatically trying to make everyone else happy and prevent conflict. These responses are often described as fight, flight, freeze, and fawn. You may have heard these terms used to describe trauma responses, but they...

Have you ever felt like you're constantly monitoring yourself around other people? Maybe you carefully think about what to say before speaking, or you watch how other people behave and try to follow their lead. You consciously remind yourself to make eye contact, smile, or show the "right" amount of enthusiasm. Perhaps you've become very good at appearing calm and capable, even when you're overwhelmed inside. For some autistic adults, this experience is known as masking. Masking can help...

When we think about grief, many of us picture the five stages: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. These stages are so well known that it's easy to assume grief is meant to unfold in a predictable order. You might wonder why you don't seem to fit the model, or even worry that you're "doing grief wrong." The truth is, grief is far more personal than that. While the five stages have helped many people understand that grief can involve a wide range of emotions, they were never...