Our Collective Stories

“A lot of people are looking for medication that will help or fix things,” he said. “And medication absolutely has its place. But regular exercise can have benefits on mental health similar to what medication can do.”

Liz was diagnosed with autism and ADHD when she was 28 years old. Looking back, she now understands why running always felt so necessary to her. As someone who describes herself as having a little “neuro-spiciness,” she realized movement was helping regulate her nervous system long before she had the language for it.

Running became one of the few things that still felt familiar. Some days the runs involved deep conversations about grief, life, and what came next. Other days they just ran. But the act of continuing to show up for those runs mattered.