Fritz Johnson

08/22/2025

This is why I didn’t post much during the first two weeks of August. Now then, who should I sue?

08/21/2025

My parents had me kidnapped in the middle of the night when I was 15 years old. They needed a safe way to get me to a treatment center in Utah.

Things had been bad at home - endless screaming and crying and wishing for death. Between my autism challenges and my sister’s cancer, everything was reaching a breaking point at the same time.

Getting pulled out of bed and dragged off to wilderness therapy wasn’t fun - in fact, those first few months were the hardest thing I’ve ever had to endure. It’s one of those things that - from the outside - looks like a horrific abuse of power by my parents.

There was no better way. I say this with absolute certainty. Every intervention they had tried before failed, and there were plenty. My mental and emotional state was such that they weren’t sure whether I’d live through any given night.

Sometimes you’ve gotta make hard choices. This was theirs - and I owe them my life for it.

08/20/2025

One of my “autistic special interests” is history, which made it a really special experience to find out that my great grandfather wrote down a solid chunk of his life story.

It spans from *his* father’s service in the Imperial German army & French Legion to his time growing up in Silesia (then Germany, now Poland) to meeting my great grandmother and, together, building a cabinetry business and real estate empire in San Francisco.

Reading it made me feel connected with my past & proud of my heritage. I’d love to adapt it someday, if it could be done properly.

08/19/2025

If your journey with autism is anything like mine, abundant joy & friendship is closer than you might think.

Still, there’s no shame in fudging the numbers a bit to keep yourself going.

08/19/2025

Somebody asked me what the “turning point” was for me with my autism where things started to get better after the chaos of my early years.

I’d have to say it started around 19, when my dad took a leap of faith - despite some of my recent failures - and sent me to school at Santa Barbara City College (originally for culinary school).

I basically never went to class (though I did enjoy a German elective and the beach volleyball class)

The real difference was that I started making friends who actually *chose* to be around me for the first time in my life. It wasn’t easy, but I went on dates and got invited to parties and drank and “lived life” for the first time in years.

I bombed out after a year and a half, but gained so much from the experience. Eventually you have to leave the nest.

08/18/2025

One of the most important skills I’ve had to learn as an autistic person? Smiling in photos! It really matters. Helps me to think of it as mandatory.

08/18/2025

Wrote a post about how to take over a “Mainline” Protestant church and use its assets for a better purpose than as a social club for octogenarians.

You can find it at my link in bio!

08/18/2025

Gotta be one of the craziest things that I’ve ever been involved with.

08/18/2025

One of the biggest questions people ask me about being k*napped by my parents is if I ever forgave them.

Truth is, I’m not sure there’s anything to forgive. I hated them for years but with the benefit of hindsight, I don’t think they had any better options.

It was really good seeing my dad this last week. I’ve already spent 99% of the time I ever will with him so every day was a gift.

08/18/2025

08/01/2025

Every once in a while a comment will catch me by surprise. This is one of those times. Life is better now, but autism used to make things *really* hard for me.

I feel deeply for people who are still going through their worst days. I know what it's like to be so painfully and hopelessly alone.

Ruminating on how things used to be doesn't do anything good, but damn if I don't do it anyway sometimes.

Just gotta look forward to the better future I intend to earn.

08/01/2025

I’m autistic, and when I was maybe 8 years old, my dad pulled me out of school for two or three days to take me to the Legoland theme park in Carlsbad, CA.

It wasn’t a reward for good behavior or personal success - my relationship with school had really started to fall apart, and my social life was only hanging on by a thread.

No, it was an act of compassion - a lifeline, if you will. My dad saw that I was gasping for air & flailing about in a world that wasn’t built for people like me.

He could well have turned up the heat & tried to force my round peg into the square hole of a typical childhood. It wouldn’t have been the first time.

Instead, he showed up to my classroom at 10 AM one day, pulled me out of class, & all but told me we were gonna play hooky.

We took the drive down to Carlsbad & stayed at a hotel that had a private entrance to the park. Better still, because it was a school week, we had the park almost entirely to ourselves.

The memories we made will last the rest of my life.

My teacher made a big fuss to my parents about what he did (you better believe I bragged to my peers about skipping class for legoland)… but looking back, that two-day vacation was the brightest moment of an pretty bleak childhood.

Fast forward a couple decades to today. I started my trip from Pattaya, Thailand to San Diego about 7 hours ago - and I still have another 20 ahead of me.

I’m tired, sweaty, & sore from the cab ride & sitting around for hours just to check in for my flight. I’m feeling absolutely defeated & filled with dread.

Once again - I was thrown a lifeline, in the form of the business class lounge I’m writing this from - in particular, its shower facilities.

My dad knew I had a rough & cramped flight on the way out & offered to spring for an upgrade - comfort I had no right to expect.

I’d never taken a shower at an airport before, but as I was toweling myself off, I thought back to those two perfect days in Carlsbad.

If you feel see someone drowning in life, do what you can to offer them a lifeline. It doesn’t take as much as you’d think to rekindle a bit of hope - and they’ll never forget it.