Caroline Foran

You can't just numb yourself.

No, because I can't be a person and I can't be a parent and not feel that like I have to care and be mobilized to do things and to feel like things are, you know, high enough stakes to take action with.

Of course I worry about things all the time.

And it is ironic that I overcame it to the point I felt like I really meaningfully felt like this was no longer in the driving seat of my life.

I would no longer factor anxiety into my decisions.

I no longer was riddled with physical symptoms.

I did not wake up feeling this sense of dread.

In every way, it was no longer what it was in my life.

And then I had a kid who, God bless him, is just like a little ball of anxiety in his own way.

And that's the neurodiversity.

But

So that's put me into a new chapter where there's still like there's a lot of mental health challenges for me to contain everything for him, to support him.

Like I say, when it's a situation that I cannot change and my brain wants to fix things and I don't have certainty of the future, I don't know what it's going to look like.

So I absolutely have mental health challenges, but it is in no way

Because of my inability to cope.

It's because of the situation.

Which I think is so important.

Well, that was hugely validating.

Like, I didn't change the child in front of me.

It didn't change the situation, but it really stopped me, like I say, blaming myself.