We placed songs from our “Chronic Neurodivergent Depressed Queer Punk” playlist throughout stimpunks.org, tying them into our advocacy and research-storytelling. They collectively serve as a Public Service Announcement, with guitar.

Stimpunks combines “stimming” + “punks” to evoke open and proud stimming, resistance to neurotypicalization, and the DIY culture of punk, disabled, and neurodivergent communities. Instead of hiding our stims, we bring them to the front.

This subculture has to be inclusive—and not just in the superficial sense associated with the liberal politics of representation. Rather than just preaching to the converted, it should draw in people from a wide range of backgrounds and politics. We want to reach the same young folks who are going to be targeted by military recruiters, and we want to reach them first. Sure, that will mean rubbing shoulders with a lot of people who are not anarchists—it will mean a big messy stew of different politics and conflicts and contradictions—but the goal is to spread anarchism, not to hide out in it. Get everyone together in a space premised on horizontality, decentralization, self-determination, reproducible models, being ungovernable, and so on and let them discover the advantages for themselves.

The most important thing is the participation of those who are poor, volatile, and angry. Not out of any misguided notion of charity, but rather because the so-called dangerous classes are usually the motor force of change from below. The self-satisfied and well-behaved lack the risk tolerance essential for making history and reinventing culture.

Picture a self-education society without instructors, ranks, or lesson plans. Teenagers will teach themselves to play drums by watching other teenagers play drums. They won’t learn about politics in dusty tomes, but by publishing zines about their own experiences and corresponding with people on the other side of the planet. Every time well-known musicians perform, musicians who are just getting started will perform, too. Learning won’t be a distinct sphere of activity, but an organic component of every aspect of the community.

CrimethInc. : Punk—Dangerous Utopia : Revisiting the Relationship between Punk and Anarchism

🧷 Let’s Go to the Punk Rawk Show

We ain't got no place to go
So let's go to the punk rawk show
Darling take me by the hand
Gonna see a punk rawk band
There's no use in tv shows
Radio or rodeos
I wanna get into the crowd
Wanna hear it play real loud

Ain't' got no money to pay
We'll get in anyway
Doesn't matter I don't care
It feels good so we should share
We're going to the punk rawk show
Show-oh-oh, show-oh-oh, show-oh-oh, show-oh-oh-oh-oh

🤲 The Dream of the Accepting Community

Any time I think I feel at home again
I hit the ground running 'til I'm gone
I've spent the past few months stuck in my own head
Just 'cause I can't connect with anyone

My legs are restless, eyes are heavy, set me free
From this feeling I have learned is discontent
I'm out of gas, I'm out of cash, but now I see
I was never really broken
I was bent

-- Roots

The lyrics referred to the way many people viewed fans of punk rock (who often endured stares, slurs and assaults at the time), but they could just have easily been about people diagnosed with mental illnesses, who are frequently looked down upon as crazy, violent and unintelligent.

A long-standing and influential theory regarding disability is the “social model,” initially advanced by Mike Oliver. The social model argues that “disability” does not reside within individuals, but is actually created by a mismatch between social structures and individual capacities. These structures can include obvious physical barriers (such as stairs, which could make it impossible for people in wheelchairs to enter a school or workplace by themselves), but can also include intolerant social attitudes which make it very difficult for people who don’t act in a manner that is considered “acceptable” to participate socially or avail themselves of community resources.

British human right activist Liz Sayce has specifically extended the social model to explain much of the disability that is experienced by people diagnosed with mental illnesses, and has argued for the establishment of “inclusive communities” to facilitate greater community participation among these individuals.

Punk Rock and the Dream of the Accepting Community | Psychology Today

We found community amidst online genderpunks, neuropunks, and cripplepunks conversant in the social model. That community and connection gave rise to the name of our endeavor, Stimpunks, and our motivation to build “a safe and nurturing environment for divergent thinking” under our umbrella.

Magic happens when you combine collaboration and neurodiversity, because then the result is diversity and creativity rather than groupthink.

NeurodiVenture : an inclusive non-hierarchical organisation operated by neurodivergent people that provides a safe and nurturing environment for divergent thinking, creativity, exploration, and collaborative niche construction.

NeurodiVerse : human scale cultures created by neurodiversity within the human species

NeurodiVentures | Autistic Collaboration

Here’s some collected listening that covers a gamut of punk and punk-adjacent music on mental health and living in divergent bodyminds. “Everything that was normally supposed to be hidden was brought to the front.” This playlist, in part, seeks to bring to the front.

Content Notes: suicidal ideation, addiction, mania, depression, dysphoria, chronic illness, anxiety, overwhelm, panic, meltdown, masking, burnout, exposure anxiety, rejection sensitive dysphoria, OCD, ADHD, ADD, SPD, bipolar, autism

On Spotify:

On YouTube:

On Apple Music:

https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/chronic-neurodivergent-depressed-queer-punk/pl.u-yZyVVjZtYzXDqW

It’s about rejecting pity, inspiration porn, & all other forms of ableism. It rejects the “good cripple” mythos. Cripple Punk is here for the bitter cripple, the uninspirational cripple, the smoking cripple, the drinking cripple, the addict cripple, the cripple who hasn’t “tried everything”. Cripple Punk fights internalized ableism & fully supports those struggling with it. It respects intersections of race, culture, gender, sexual/romantic orientation, size, intersex status, mental illness/neuroatypical status, survivor status, etc. Cripple Punk does not pander to the able bodied.

what are the principles of cripple punk? Are there any rules?

🙏🧠 We Stand Together, We Think Apart

Please complete this simple task
Push the buttons just like we ask
This step first and that step last
Over and over and do it fast
I’m watching everyone, feeling like a simpleton
Why can’t I get it done? I just want to scream and run

I don’t think like you
But I’m the one that’s called abnormal
This construct
Was built by petty tyrants

Am I on the level yet? (Level yet)
How did I do on your little test?
Get my brain to reset (Reset)
'Cause everything you say is static
Do I make a good pet? (Good pet)
Obey the commands or get the back of the hand
'Cause the world wasn’t built for a brain like mine
Change my mind, change my mind, change my mind

This construct
Was built and can be dismantled

We stand together
We think apart
We stand together
We think apart

--Neurodivergent by Rabbit Junk

🛑🕹 Standing in the Way of Control, We Will Live Our Lives

Because we′re standing in the way of control
We will live our lives

Standing In the Way of Control by Gossip

⚖️ Know Your Rights; These Are Your Rights

You have the right to food money
Providing of course you
Don't mind a little
Investigation, humiliation
And if you cross your fingers
Rehabilitation

Know your rights
These are your rights

Know Your Rights, The Clash

• The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 – Car Autism Roadmap – https://www.carautismroadmap.org/the-americans-with-disabilities-act-of-1990-ada/
• Job Accommodation Network – https://askjan.org/ 
• Inclusive Schools Network – https://inclusiveschools.org/ 
• Wrightslaw Special Education Law and Advocacy – https://www.wrightslaw.com/
• Olmstead Self-Assessment – https://www.olmsteadrights.org/self-helptools/assessment/ 
• How to Make a Supported Decision-Making Agreement – ACLU – https://www.aclu.org/other/how-make-supported-decision-making-agreement 
• National Disability Rights Network – https://www.ndrn.org/about/ndrn-member-agencies/ 
• Information on the ADA – https://www.ada.gov/
• International Disability Alliance – http://www.internationaldisabilityalliance.org/
• International Disability Rights – Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund – https://dredf.org/legal-advocacy/international-disability-rights/

We have worked together for many years, and we made the disability rights movement. The disability rights movement is when disabled people fight back against ableism. We work to change society to be better for disabled people, and fight for our rights as people with disabilities.

Self-advocacy isn’t just speaking up for yourself. It can also mean speaking up for your whole community. The self-advocacy movement is when we all speak up together. The self-advocacy movement is part of the disability rights movement, where people with intellectual and developmental disabilities fight for our rights.

We still have a long way to go, since disabled people still get treated unfairly. We can’t always choose where we live or what help we get. We don’t always have the right to vote. We might not get to choose how we want to spend our money, or have control over who cares for us. But we are still fighting for our rights.

Welcome to the Autistic Community

In a perfect world, we would all be guided by the presumption of competence, not just in regard to disability but in all human interaction. But we do not live in a perfect world. In the real world, no matter what skills I acquire—be they social, emotional, physical, or educational—there will be a sizable number of people who will presume me to be incompetent. Brace me for it. Make sure I know my rights. Let me know over and over again that I am so much more than the box some small-minded person wishes to fit me into. Practice with me the interactive tools I need to stand up in the face of those who do not believe in me.

Autistic Women and Nonbinary Network. Sincerely, Your Autistic Child (p. 6). Beacon Press.

Revolution rock
Yeah so, get that cheese grater going
Against the grains
Wearin' me down
Pressure increase
Everybody!

--Revolution Rock by The Clash

🪶 Nobody Gets It; They Say We’re Too Sensitive

I get overwhelmed so easily
My anxiety creeps inside of me
Makes it hard to breathe
What's come over me
Feels like I'm somebody else
I get overwhelmed so easily
My anxiety keeps me silent
When I try to speak
What's come over me
Feels like I'm somebody else
I get overwhelmed

All of these faces
Who don't know what space is
And crowds are shut down
I'm overstimulated
Nobody gets it
They say I'm too sensitive
I can't listen cause I'm eyeing the exits

--Overwhelmed by Royal & the Serpent

I get overwhelmed so easily
My anxiety
Creeps inside of me
Makes it hard to breathe
What's come over me?
Feels like I'm somebody else

I get over, well, well, well
Would you look at that?
Another person telling me that I should just relax
"Calm down and take it easy everything will be okay"
Yeah, sure 'cause that's what they all say

--Overwhelmed by Ryan Mack

😢 Shave the Pride: Say You’re Sorry

Take a step back, take one step back
Take a step back and shave that pride off
Take a second, open your mind
Take a step back and stop this madness

You say you taste the frozen sorrow
Well we can feel your lack of información
I see the hunger, hate and love
It might not do us any good
It cannot do us any good

Small minds who feed suck the children to dirt
It gives us shivers the way they shed blood
Trying to forget but we can't much longer
The sight of anger breaks small ginger hopes

Take a step back, take one step back
Take a step back and shave that pride off
Take a second, open your mind
Take a step back and stop this madness
Take a step back, take one step back
Take a step back and shave that pride off
Take a second, open your mind
Take a step back and stop this madness
And stop this madness
Stop this madness

The bricks are grown makes this place much colder
It give us shivers the way they shed snow
Trying to forget, but we can′t much longer
The sight of anger breaks small ginger hopes

Old sores permit these scars to scare us senseless
Makes my spine increase with sudden panic
These problems started in our adolescence
The size of your rage drowns my urge for loving

🌈🦄🦓♿️ We Wrote This for the Outcasts

Hey, you ever stop to think that maybe we're all different?
Or that you can't just throw every student into the same system
Just examine resources and where they're placin' em

I'm just saying there's different students out there facing some pain
It's completely unfair to expect that they would behave the same
But go ahead, make it harder for one and watch them play the game

So real shit? I wrote this for the outcasts
What you have to offer is worthwhile, don't ever doubt that

-- Imaginary Numbers by Feral the Earthworm

🫀🧠 Spare Me from the Mold

I make the right mistakes
And I say what I mean

Spare Me From The Mold

--Spare Me From The Mold by Gossip

That Could Be Me: Inspiring Constructionism

Pretty much immediately Poly Styrene and X-Ray Spex’s influence was felt. Just like seeing the Sex Pistols had convinced Styrene that getting onstage without much musical grounding was possible, a generation of punk and new wave women saw X-Ray Spex and thought “That could be me.” Her left of centre look also helped in that, not being the traditional male fantasy of many other women that had appeared on Top of the Pops. “The idea that just anyone could (start a band) was really big to me. That people in your neighbourhood could start a cassette label or a record label, that you could see people who were making records walking down the street. And they didn’t necessarily have to be in a glossy magazine, and they didn’t have to weigh 90 pounds and have blonde hair down to their ankles or whatever was the fashion of the day.”

Before Riot Grrrl: X-Ray Spex & “Oh Bondage Up Yours!” | New British Canon – YouTube

I can fix my bike up (Do it yourself)
I can grow a salad (Do it yourself)
I can start a punk band (Do it yourself)
Do it, Do it, Do it, Do it, Do it yourself
I can make peanut butter (Do it yourself)
I can walk myself home (Do it yourself)
I can make the rain come (Do it yourself)
Do it, Do it, Do it, Do it, Do it yourself

Do it do it yeah x3

I can make the first move (Do it yourself)
I can fight my own corner (Do it yourself)
I can put it back together (Do it yourself)
Do it, Do it, Do it, Do it, Do it yourself
I can put shelves up (Do it yourself)
I can give a hair cut (Do it yourself)
I can heal a broken heart (Do it yourself)
Do it, Do it, Do it, Do it, Do it yourself

Do it do it yeah x6

You are good enough (Do it yourself)
You are strong enough (Do it yourself)
You are smart enough (Do it, Do it, Do it, Do it, Do it yourself)  x3

You are good enough (Do it, do it, do it)
You are strong enough (Do it, do it, do it)
You are smart enough (Do it, do it, do it)  x2

Do it yourself

DIY by Dream Nails

Appropriate Space

There is, however, a major difference between these other uses of the home for collective music experiences and punk house shows. The people who live in the house and book the shows are enacting a DIY philosophy and politics, as are the bands that play and many of the people in attendance. The home space has in effect been appropriated to shift from a container for standard domestic practices to a pseudo-public place that offers an alternative venue option for many DIY punk bands that are often excluded from more official (or legitimate) live music venues.

Underground: The Subterranean Culture of DIY Punk Shows | Microcosm Publishing

Do you ever feel unsafe?
Do you wanna take up space?

Do you (Take up space)
Wanna? (Take up space)
Do you
Oh, do you wanna?
Ooh, ooh
Ooh, ooh
Sha-la-la-la-la

--Take Up Space by Dream Nails

Bricolage is a Living Thing

Oh bondage, up yours
Oh bondage, no more
Oh bondage, up yours
Oh bondage, no more

🎶🌈 It Take a Joyful Sound: New Wave, New Phrase, Neurodiversity

New wave, new phrase
New wave, new craze

It take a joyful sound
To make a world go around
Come with your heart and soul
Come on come and rock your boat
Because it's a punky reggae party
And it's tonight
It's a punky reggae party
And it's alright

Rejected by society
(do re mi fa)
Treated with impunity
(so la te do)
Protected by my dignity
(do re mi fa)
I search for reality
(So La te Do)

--Punky Reggae Party by Bob Marley & The Wailers

New wave, new phrase

New wave, new craze

Neurodiversity

What Neurodiversity Means to Me 

Neurodiversity, to me, means both a fabulous celebration of all kinds of individual minds, and a serious, holistic acknowledgment of the necessity of diversity in order for society to survive, thrive, and innovate. It means identity, belonging, and community. It means I am not broken, not alone, and neither are my siblings standing with me beneath that huge, multi-colored neurodiversity umbrella: we the autistic, the mad, the weirdly-wired, the queer, the crippled, and the labeled with neurodivergent diagnoses like flowers that glorify our beautiful bodies and minds.

Autistic Community and the Neurodiversity Movement: Stories from the Frontline

Neurodiversity is one of the most powerful ideas of our generation.

It take a joyful sound. Reframe.

❤️🫀 Translate Your Love Into Action

I wasted my twenties in submission
I thought I was outside the system
I was rolling over for wealth and power
As if they really cared about me
The kids are just getting started
They only just learned how to howl
And most of them throw in the towel
Bout the time that they turn twenty three
You've got the taste for transcendence
That translates your love into action
And participate in the fight now
For a creed you can truly believe

It is time for the evening prayer
Time to do justice for the poor
It is time for the evening prayer
Time to do justice for the poor

Tonight you've got fire in your bloodstream
Your frail human heart is still pumping
And make this one night you'll remember
A note you'll deliver by hand
And when you get up in the morning
Let no man return it to sender
Pour gasoline on the embers
Give yourself a physical record
Deliver that fire in the real world
And tell them that E Furman sent ya

Let's organize our lives around love and care
Let's write each other letters and call it prayer
Let's congregate in the place that isn't anywhere
At the temple of broken dreams

--Temple of Broken Dreams by Ezra Furman

☀️ Standing Up for the Rights, Like the True Light!

Reggae music is still here
As the voice of the people everywhere
Whenever there is injustice and tyranny
Reggae music is there
Standing up for the rights, like the true light!

Reggae music gonna make me feel good
Reggae music gonna make me feel alright now
Reggae music gonna make me feel good
Reggae music gonna make me feel alright now
(Reggae, reggae, reggae gonna make me feel good!)
Reggae music gonna make me feel alright now
Reggae music gonna make me feel good
Reggae music gonna make me feel alright now

--Reggae Music by Jimmy Cliff

New wave, new phrase
New wave, new craze

--Punky Reggae Party by Bob Marley & The Wailers

One more, one more, one more, one more

I got one more song I must sing
Ting-a-ling
Freedom ring
I got one more song I must sing
Simple song, so sing along

One more, one more, one more, one more

All we got
One more life to live
One more love to give
One more cliff to climb
One more
It's my time

--One More by Jimmy Cliff

We’re a Feisty Group of Disabled People

That girl thinks she's the queen of the neighborhood
She's got the hottest trike in town
That girl, she holds her head up so high
I think I wanna be her best friend, yeah

Rebel girl, rebel girl

I wanna see a feisty group of disabled people around the world…if you don’t respect yourself and if you don’t demand what you believe in for yourself, you’re not gonna get it.

Judith Heumann

🏗 We Rebuild What You Destroy

We can take turns taking the reins
Lean on each other when we need some extra strength
We’ll never cave or we’ll never waver
And we’ll always become braver and braver

We’ll dance like nobody’s there
Wе’ll dance without any cares
We’ll talk 'bout problеms we share
We’ll talk 'bout things that ain’t fair
We’ll sing 'bout things we don’t know
We’ll sing to people and show
What it means to be young and growing up

--Growing Up by The Linda Lindas

🫀🧠 Keep on Livin’

We serve our loved people so we can keep on living through the onslaught.

Look up to the sky, sky, sky
Take back your own tonight
You'll find more than you see
It's time now, now, get ready

This is your time, this is your life and
This is your time, this is your life and
This is your time, this is your life and
This is your time, this is your life and

You gotta keep on (Keep on livin!)
Gotta keep on (Keep on livin!)
You gotta keep on (Keep on livin!)
Gotta keep on (Keep on livin!)
You gotta keep on (Keep on livin!)
Gotta keep on (Keep on livin!)
You gotta keep on (Keep on livin!)
Gotta keep on (Keep on livin!)

-- Keep On Livin'

Keep on Livin’ Punk

Further reading,