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03.03.2026 14:14 — 👍 0 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0View on ThreadSky: https://tbsky.app/profile/johnnyprofane1.bsky.social/post/3mg5xaeaby226
03.03.2026 14:14 — 👍 0 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
This new piece, LETTING GO, isn’t an answer. It’s an accusation… and a terrified question:
“If I let go of the dream of being somebody... what would I be then?”
Swipe through the images. If one hits you in the gut, that's the one for you.
open.substack.com/pub/johnnypr...
But I'm still driven to 'matter"... surrounded by folks who think one Netflix series and a couple of think-pieces mean they “get” us.
They don’t see the psych wards.
The childhood terror.
The way fame
and “being known”
can become a kind of one-person cult
you’re too scared to leave.
2/3
🧵
Some nights? I feel like a busted spring... a broken dancer in a jewel box... trying to wind myself up for one more performance.
Hell... most mornings, too.
#Autistic. #ADHD. Born way back in 1953...
Full piece, images, video, podcast here:
open.substack.com/pub/johnnypr...
#Neurodivergent
@tbsky.app please unroll?
03.03.2026 14:14 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
This new piece, LETTING GO, isn’t an answer. It’s an accusation… and a terrified question:
“If I let go of the dream of being somebody... what would I be then?”
Swipe through the images. If one hits you in the gut, that's the one for you.
open.substack.com/pub/johnnypr...
But I'm still driven to 'matter"... surrounded by folks who think one Netflix series and a couple of think-pieces mean they “get” us.
They don’t see the psych wards.
The childhood terror.
The way fame
and “being known”
can become a kind of one-person cult
you’re too scared to leave.
2/3
🧵
Some nights? I feel like a busted spring... a broken dancer in a jewel box... trying to wind myself up for one more performance.
Hell... most mornings, too.
#Autistic. #ADHD. Born way back in 1953...
Full piece, images, video, podcast here:
open.substack.com/pub/johnnypr...
#Neurodivergent
#Medium readers... If your family history feels like a knot of secrets & pain, you’re not alone.
Autistic elder. Born 1953. That's 7 decades of American history twisting MY family.
Check out ‘Slouching toward Montauk’.
medium.com/artfullyauti...
#ActuallyAutistic #ADHD #Poetry #MentalHealth
For #Medium readers... quick clip from one autistic elder's experience in the career track.
Burnout ain't a bad week. It's a presence... that curls up beside you. Then, won't let go.
If this resonates, click for the full article here: medium.com/autisticrn/s...
#ActuallyAutistic #ADHD #auDHD
If your family history feels like a knot of secrets & pain, you’re not alone.
Autistic elder. Born 1953. That's 7 decades of American history twisting MY family.
Check out ‘Slouching toward Montauk’.
#ActuallyAutistic #ADHD #Poetry #MentalHealth #Psychology #Neurodivergent
A few mutuals asked me to put this up native here.
This is “Letting Go.” A 3-minute video from a longer piece About Walmart checkout lines, family harm, psych wards, dreams that refuse to die.
Content note: language, trauma, performance pressure
#ActuallyAutistic #Neurodivergent #Poetry
Btw... You good?
19.02.2026 00:25 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0Thank God.
19.02.2026 00:23 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Sorry for acting weird. I am weird, and it will absolutely happen again.
17.02.2026 14:22 — 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 2 📌 0
Oh my friend... I'm a black pool of need...
Lol
Serious and comic and surreal and real as that is.
The black moods? Part of the process.
You cheered me up.
#ActuallyAutistic folks on #Spotify…
I’m 73, still chasing dreams I may never catch. Especially that gut-deep need to matter as an autistic elder.
This 41-sec clip is a taste. Click for the full Walmart-to-rage-to-hope story:
open.spotify.com/episode/2pXn...
#AuDHD #AutisticElder #Poetry
Autistic badass.
My kinda peeps.
At 73, I'm still chasing dreams I'll never fully reach. The biggest? That gut-wrenching need to matter…
For the full story… the Walmart moment that sparked it & the rage-to-hope ending…
Head to #ApplePodcasts.
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/7...
#ActuallyAutistic #AuDHD #AutisticElder #Poetry
Full 10-minute piece on autistic stereotypes in media, autistic + ADHD experience in real life, and what we could do for our children...
johnnyprofaneknapp.substack.com/p/7-autistic...
with transcript, accompanying article, illustrations.
A few mutuals asked me to put this up native here.
This is “Letting Go.” A 3-minute video from a longer piece About Walmart checkout lines, family harm, psych wards, dreams that refuse to die.
Content note: language, trauma, performance pressure
#ActuallyAutistic #Neurodivergent #Poetry
A dark-themed social media post from the account “theconcealedweapon” describes a communication gap between autistic and neurotypical people. The post begins with the heading: “What an autistic person says: ‘How long is it going to take?’” Below that, in smaller text, it explains what the autistic person means: “I want to know whether to activate my short term waiting mode where I just wait and do nothing else, or activate my long term waiting mode where I occupy my mind with something else. I fully understand that both are possibilities, and I have no problem whatsoever with either one, but I want more information so I can best adapt to the situation.” A final section, labeled “What neurotypical people hear,” reads: “I am impatient and demand that everything I want happen right now. Please scold me and publicly humiliate me for it.”
I'm autistic. I speak plainly and simply.
Which of course makes most people suspicious...
Average humans spend their time interpreting hidden motives.
I speak out loud... to discover mine.
Who designed these beings? Who gave them language? And why?
Lol
#ActuallyAutistic #auDHD #Neurodivergent
"Wanna know what could really change things happening in America right now...?
A law making it a felony for a politician or a law officer...
to lie."
I know. Idealistic to the point of fantasy... but I'm posting this.
just wanted your experience of it.
#ActuallyAutistic
We may not have heard the worst horrors of the Epstein Class... yet...
Bodies of girls who died in abusive sex at Eostein's Zorro Ranch in New Mexico?
Local news reports not hitting corporate news ..
youtu.be/kQ8YKlX13qM?...
A dark-themed social media post from the account “theconcealedweapon” describes a communication gap between autistic and neurotypical people. The post begins with the heading: “What an autistic person says: ‘How long is it going to take?’” Below that, in smaller text, it explains what the autistic person means: “I want to know whether to activate my short term waiting mode where I just wait and do nothing else, or activate my long term waiting mode where I occupy my mind with something else. I fully understand that both are possibilities, and I have no problem whatsoever with either one, but I want more information so I can best adapt to the situation.” A final section, labeled “What neurotypical people hear,” reads: “I am impatient and demand that everything I want happen right now. Please scold me and publicly humiliate me for it.”
I'm autistic. I speak plainly and simply.
Which of course makes most people suspicious...
Average humans spend their time interpreting hidden motives.
I speak out loud... to discover mine.
Who designed these beings? Who gave them language? And why?
Lol
#ActuallyAutistic #auDHD #Neurodivergent
7 Autistic Decades. I’m Still Driven. What If I NEVER Get “There…”?
Still driven to matter. Desperately. Almost 73. And I can’t unwind… busted springs, broken dancer in a jewel box. This piece isn’t an answer. It’s an accusation. And underneath? A terrified question I can’t stop asking.
I can’t see faces. When I try to remember someone… even my wife… I see a shifting swirl of features.
This is about being friends… when your brain doesn’t work the way the world expects. No inspiration porn. What it’s like.
#ActuallyAutistic #Poetry
johnnyprofaneknapp.substack.com/p/autistic-i...
Also on #Substack
johnnyprofaneknapp.substack.com/p/this-autis...
2/2
#Medium folks aren’t afraid of a little vulnerability… and following it all the way inside.
Full text + performance video:
medium.com/artfullyauti...
Do you struggle with “I know you… but I can’t place you” panic? Let's talk in comments...
#ActuallyAutistic #ADHD #Neurodivergent #MentalHealth
