Gabriel Mizrahi

There's a lot of history there.

There's a lot that is not under your control.

Yes, you can support your son, you can encourage him, you can cheer him on, you can include him in plans, you can get him out of the house and all of that, and you should.

But at 19 years old, he's going to have to learn how to develop the parts of his personality necessary to build relationships for himself, even to decide if this isolation is something he recognizes as a problem and wants to work on.

But that is a bigger project than just, you know, make sure you get this person's phone number and text them later and set up a plan or whatever.

This is something...

he'll probably need to work on over a period of time in some kind of therapy or some kind of program.

I'm just thinking about what you said, Jordan, how the conventional system isn't set up for people like her son.

And I wonder if maybe the best thing she could do is start helping him understand his struggles through that lens.

So like, if he ever tries to apply to something again and he gets rejected, maybe she could say, oh man, they didn't take you.

That sucks.

I'm sorry.

I'm angry.

I'm bummed.

But you know what?

That just means they're not your people.

When you're ready, you know, let's go find the people who are your people.

Or if he gets turned down from a group or a job, she could say, I know this hurts, but

I'm so sorry, but listen, this does not mean it's game over.

It doesn't mean that you're not smart or talented or interesting.