Welcome.
If you clicked Start Here, you’re probably looking for something simple:
- a way through the noise
- words that finally fit
- help that doesn’t shame you
- a place where your mind makes sense
Stimpunks is a public library for neurodivergent and disabled life.
We build tools, language, and care infrastructure for people living at the edges of systems that weren’t designed for us.
You belong here.
New here? Stimpunks is a survival library, not a linear book. You don’t have to read it “in order.” Start with the door that fits your moment — and if you want a quick guide to navigating without overwhelm, read How to Read Stimpunks Without Getting Lost →
Help in 30 Seconds
If you need support right now, start here:
- Get grounded and find coping resources → Coping Field Guide
- Burnout, overwhelm, sensory survival → Burnout & Sensory Safety
- Communication without pressure → Communication & Interaction Access
- Urgent lifelines and next steps → Help Page
🆘 Crisis Mode: Small Steps, Right Now
If your brain is loud, your body is shaking, or everything is too much: you’re not failing. Systems are heavy. Sensory life is real. Start with the smallest next step.
I need help today
- Get Help — fastest paths and next steps
- Coping — survival resources and grounding
- Mutual Aid Grants — real help against the onslaught
My sensory system is on fire
- Burnout & Sensory Safety — reduce load, reduce harm
- Neuroception & Sensory Load — what’s happening in your bodymind
- Sensory Checklist Gallery — quick environment fixes
Words are hard / people are hard
- Communication & Interaction Access — connection without pressure
- Situational Mutism
- Glossary Map — find language that fits
Permission slip: you are allowed to stop. you are allowed to need help. you are allowed to be a real human with real needs.
Choose What Matches Your Day
Pick the doorway that fits your current reality:
- I’m overwhelmed / running on fumes
→ Coping Field Guide - My sensory system is on fire
→ Burnout & Sensory Safety - I need words for what I experience
→ Glossary Map - My attention works differently
→ Monotropism & Attention Worlds - Talking is hard / social rules don’t work for me
→ Communication & Interaction Access - I want the big picture: power, harm, systems
→ Justice & Systems - I want spaces designed for real humans
→ Learning Spaces
Not Just You
What brought you here is not a personal failure.
A lot of what gets labeled as:
- “too sensitive”
- “too intense”
- “too much”
- “not trying hard enough”
…is actually what happens when a real bodymind is forced through hostile systems.
Stimpunks rejects neuronormativity.
We presume competence.
We name power.
We build for dignity.
Authenticity is our purest freedom.
The Words People Come Here For
Many people find Stimpunks through a single term that finally clicks.
Start with the Glossary Map:
→ Glossary Map: The Words People Come Here For
A few common on-ramps:
- AuDHD — overlapping autism + ADHD traits
https://stimpunks.org/glossary/audhd/ - Monotropism — deep, narrow attention worlds
https://stimpunks.org/glossary/monotropism/ - Neurodivergent — minds that develop differently
https://stimpunks.org/glossary/neurodivergent/ - Autistic Burnout — the cost of masking and overload
https://stimpunks.org/glossary/autistic-burnout/ - Samefood, dolphining, penguin pebbling — everyday neurodivergent realities
https://stimpunks.org/everyday-realities/
Explore the Core Hubs
These are the main doorways through the site:
- Monotropism & Attention Worlds
Deep focus, overload, shutdown, spiky profiles - Burnout & Sensory Safety
Nervous system reality, sensory checklists, survival design - Communication & Interaction Access
Connection without coercion or performance - Everyday Neurodivergent Realities
The lived texture of different minds - Justice & Systems: Name the Power
Schools, policing, meritocracy myths, structural harm - Learning Spaces
Cavendish, belonging, human-centered education - Languages: Stimpunks Around the World
Shared words across cultures
Three Ways to Use Stimpunks
People come to Stimpunks for different reasons. You can explore the site in three main ways.
Understand Neurodivergent Life
Design Better Environments
- Design Method
- Design Principles
- Collaborative Niche Construction
- Pattern Recipes
- Environments
- Design Standard
Navigate Systems and Survive
Explore the Universe Map
Stimpunks is a connected ecosystem of experiences, patterns, language, design methods, recipes, environments, and systems change.
If you want to see how the major parts of the project fit together, start with the universe map.
Explore the Stimpunks Universe Map →
- Start with experience → recognition and lived reality
- Follow the patterns → recurring structures of neurodivergent life
- Move into design → recipes and environments
- See the bigger system → framework, philosophy, and systems change
Maps of Stimpunks
- Orientation Map — where to start and where to go next
- Universe Map — how the whole Stimpunks world fits together
- Pattern Atlas — pattern clusters and domains
- Pattern Graph — how patterns connect
- Pattern Paths — guided routes through the pattern language
- Design Catalog — curated exploration
- The Stimpunks Stack — the framework architecture
- The Stimpunks Canon — the core ideas and vocabulary
- Glossary Map — language and terminology
- The Three Maps of Stimpunks — three overlapping maps.
Stimpunks includes several kinds of maps: orientation maps, concept maps, pattern maps, and language maps.
Start Here if you are…
Pick the doorway that matches your moment. Three links max. No wrong answers.
…in crisis / overloaded
…trying to name your experience
…Autistic / AuDHD / neurodivergent
…a parent / caregiver
- Autism Pathway (start with the intros)
- Enable Dignity (Access)
- Burnout & Sensory Safety
…an educator
- Education Pathway
- Learning Spaces (Cavendish)
- Justice & Systems (name the power)
…a healthcare worker
…a designer / builder of spaces
…here for justice / systems change
…a donor / funder
🧭 Start Here If…
🪨 You want words for something you experience
Start in the Caves — pages that help you recognize experiences and learn the language for them.
🔥 You want to understand the big ideas
Visit the Campfires — philosophy and frameworks that help explain the systems shaping our lives.
💧 You need help coping or surviving hard systems
Stop at the Watering Holes — places focused on regulation, coping, and practical support.
🌿 You want to build better environments
Explore the Edges — places where we experiment with new systems and learning environments.
There’s no single correct path through Stimpunks. Follow what resonates, and move between caves, campfires, watering holes, and edges as your curiosity leads.
🌱 The Stimpunks Knowledge Garden (Recognition Seeds)
Stimpunks is a living knowledge ecosystem. People usually enter through a moment of recognition, then explore language, ideas, coping tools, and new ways of building better systems.
🪞 Recognition
Moments where people feel seen.
📚 Language
Shared vocabulary for neurodivergent experiences.
🧠 Attention Ecology
Understanding how different minds focus and learn.
🛟 Regulation & Coping
Tools for surviving systems while we build better ones.
🏕 Human-Centered Environments
Designing spaces where different minds thrive.
⚖️ Systems & Justice
Understanding and challenging the systems shaping our lives.
Most readers enter through recognition and then explore deeper layers of the garden: language, attention, coping, environment design, and systems change.
🪜 The Stimpunks Flow Ladder
Many people move through Stimpunks in a pattern like this: first recognition, then language, then support, then design, then systems understanding. You do not have to follow every step — but this is one common path.
1. 🪞 Recognition
You find something that feels like you.
↓
2. 📚 Language
You get words for what you’re experiencing.
↓
3. 💧 Regulation
You find tools for coping, safety, and nervous system support.
↓
4. 🏕 Environment
You start imagining and building spaces that fit human reality.
↓
5. ⚖️ Systems Change
You connect personal experience to power, design, and justice.
Some people start at regulation. Some start at systems. Some start with one tiny recognition page and wander outward. There is no single correct route through Stimpunks.
🧱 The ARLES Stack
Stimpunks is structured as a living design stack: from attention and relationships, through lived experience and environments, to systems that shape everyday life.
🤝 Relational (incl. regulation)
Connection, communication, co-regulation, and participation.
🌱 Lived Experience
Everyday realities of sensory, emotional, and cognitive life.
🏕 Environments
Spaces, tools, and contexts that shape participation and wellbeing.
⚙️ Systems
Institutions, norms, and structures that enable or constrain life.
Stimpunks moves from attention → relational (including regulation) → lived experience → environments → systems, designing conditions where neurodivergent life can flourish.
Quick Why Sheets (2–3 minute reads)
Fast explainers for the ideas behind the work. Start here if you want the “why” without the rabbit hole.
- All Why Sheets
- Why Cavendish Space — spaces designed for real nervous systems
- Why Foreground Complexity — complexity is the baseline, not an edge case
- Why Access Is Infrastructure — dignity is built, not granted
- Why Written Communication Helps — opportunity without pressure
- Why Name the Power — inequity is a power problem
Learning Pathways (guided walkthroughs)
Prefer a guided sequence instead of browsing? Take a path. We’ll walk you through the next right links in the next right order.
Starter Paths (5 links)
- Crisis / Survival Path: Help → Coping → Sensory Safety → Sensory Checklists → Communication Access
- Language Path: Glossary Map → Neurodivergent → Monotropism → AuDHD → Everyday Realities
- Systems Path: Justice & Systems → Systems of Power Pathway → Policing the Norm → Meritocracy → Learning Spaces
Deep Paths (10–15 links)
- Autism Pathway: Take a Walk in Our Shoes
- Education Pathway: Progressive, human-centered education
- Enable Dignity Pathway: Access is mutual
- Sensory Experience Path: Neuroception & Sensory Load
All pathways: https://stimpunks.org/pathways/ (index page)
🧭 The Stimpunks Design Method: ARLES
A field guide for understanding and changing neurodivergent environments.
The Five Questions
Attention
How does this mind work?
→ Where does attention flow or break?
Relational
How do people connect and regulate?
→ Is there safety, consent, and co-regulation?
Lived Experience
What is actually happening?
→ What does this feel like in real conditions?
Environment
What conditions are shaping this?
→ What can be changed right now?
Systems
What structures must change?
→ What would prevent this from happening again?
Better questions change what we design—and what becomes possible.
The Flow
Attention → Relational (incl. Regulation) → Lived Experience → Environment → Systems → Repeat
The Practice Loop
- Notice friction
- Name the pattern
- Apply a design move
- Adjust the environment
- Change the system
The Practice Loop is Design Questioning in action.
Use This When
- Someone is overwhelmed
- A system isn’t working
- A space feels unsafe
- Participation breaks down
- Burnout is happening
Core Principle
If it’s not working, it’s not the person.
It’s the environment, the relationships, or the system.
Start Here
- Patterns → /patterns/library/
- Recipes → /patterns/recipes/
- Environments → /environments/
- Design → /design/
Stimpunks.org
Designing a world where different minds are expected.
⚡ Use This Method
When something isn’t working, move through these questions.
- Attention
How does this mind work?
→ Where does attention flow or break? - Relational
How do people connect and regulate?
→ Is there co-regulation, or pressure to perform? - Lived Experience
What is actually happening?
→ What does it feel like in real conditions? - Environment
What conditions are shaping this?
→ What can be changed right now? - Systems
What structures must change?
→ What would prevent this from happening again?
Then:
- Identify friction
- Select patterns
- Apply design recipes
- Adapt the environment
- Scale through systems
Friction → Patterns → Design → Environment → Systems → Iterate
You Don’t Have to Earn Access
Stimpunks exists because:
- survival is work
- care is infrastructure
- disabled people deserve support without performance
- the accommodations for natural human variation should be mutual
We are building the place where we belong.
Live your truth.
Shred some gnar.
