The Way I'm Wired

A memoir about music, wiring, neurodivergence, loss, and finding my way back.

© 2025 Jonathan K. Wanger / Psycho Dinger Music™. All rights reserved.
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The Way I’m Wired is a memoir about growing up with a brain that didn’t fit the world around it — a brain that was loud, fast, sensitive, creative, anxious, and deeply attuned to everything most people seemed to ignore.
It’s about music as a lifeline, grief as a turning point, and the long climb toward understanding who you are when your wiring feels like both a gift and a curse.Jon takes readers through the moments that shaped him: the artists who cracked something open in him, the friendships that steadied him, the teachers and doctors who misunderstood him, and the losses that carved permanent lines through his life. Through every chapter, music is the thread — the thing that kept him going, kept him grounded, and often kept him alive.The story moves through childhood, high school, early adulthood, mental health crises, and the slow, difficult process of rebuilding. It explores what it means to feel everything too intensely, to mask until you break, to carry grief you don’t know how to name, and to grow up trying to decode a brain that didn’t seem to come with instructions.At its core, The Way I’m Wired is about survival, connection, self-awareness, and learning to show compassion toward the parts of yourself you spent years trying to hide.
It’s a memoir for anyone who ever felt out of place, too much, not enough, misunderstood, or wired differently — and for anyone who found refuge in music when nothing else made sense.

About the Author

Jon Wanger is a writer, musician, lifelong overthinker, and the creator of Psycho Dinger Music.
He grew up wired a little differently — intensely curious, emotionally tuned, hilarious at the wrong times, and always trying to make sense of the noise in his head. Music became his map. Guitars, riffs, and late-night headphone escapes shaped the way he saw the world and helped him survive some of the hardest moments of his life.The Way I’m Wired is his first memoir — a mix of music, neurodivergence, grief, humour, and the long road back to himself. It’s about growing up misunderstood, finding lifelines in unexpected places, and learning to navigate a brain that doesn’t come with an instruction manual.Jon lives in Toronto with his wife Alexis and their son Nathan, who inherited his dad’s wiring, curiosity, and unstoppable heart.When he’s not writing, he’s usually playing guitar, modding one, playing video games, or digging himself out from under a pile of trading cards — while trying to convince himself he doesn’t need another one of any of those things.

About Psycho Dinger Music

Psycho Dinger Music is Jon’s personal creative imprint — a name that grew from an inside joke in high school.
A friend once drew a cartoon of Jon as a certain space villain claiming he was the “Dark Lord,” and because Jon’s nickname at the time was “Dinger,” the joke snowballed into the mock title “Psycho Dinger.”It was never serious — just a playful, over-the-top nickname between friends that stuck.In this context, “psycho” never meant anything negative.
It meant wired, energetic, passionate, and a little chaotic in a fun way — the same creative spark behind Jon’s writing, music, humour, and storytelling.It represents the way he thinks, creates, jokes around, and connects with people.
It isn’t literal, it isn’t edgy, and it doesn’t reference mental health.
It’s simply a personal piece of history that evolved into his creative brand.Psycho Dinger Music exists to publish Jon’s memoir, future creative work, and anything else he builds — with heart, humour, honesty, and authenticity.

FORM 1 – How I Finally Got My Shit Together“I remember it feeling like days in some office, answering questions and doing puzzles. Eventually, I was told I was ‘borderline gifted’ and had a learning disability: dysgraphia. Basically, I had the ideas. The big thoughts were all there. But when it came time to write them down or speak them out loud? Nothing came out right.”The Day the World Changed & I Stayed the Same“I remember sitting on the living room sofa, staring. My five-month-old nephew, Owen, was lying on the floor in front of me, playing, babbling. This perfect, innocent little life — smiling up at the ceiling while the world burned in real time on TV.”Zadie’s Gone“Zadie was also the first person to get me drunk — and not at legal drinking age. I was probably seven or eight. They had this cherry tree in the backyard, and Zadie would pick the cherries and use them to make juice. He kept the juice in a sealed glass container, stored in the buffet — cool, dark, perfect for storage… and, well, fermentation.”The Park“Then I walked straight into the portable, no idea what kind of mess I was about to walk into.
There was tension. And I don’t mean awkward silence or side-eyes. I mean tension like a wire twisted so tight that if you breathed on it from a mile away, it would snap.
You could feel it in the air — like static before a lightning strike.”That Night in Toronto“As you could probably guess, it didn’t take long for someone to call the cops. York Region Police rolled up fast — sirens, cruisers, the whole suburban spectacle. And just like that, these two dumbasses managed to get themselves into a situation straight out of an episode of COPS. All they were missing was the tank top, the bad tattoos, and a camera crew yelling, ‘Get on the ground!’”The Redheaded Valkyrie“I looked at him and said, ‘Dude, why are you smiling like that? It was so fast you probably didn’t see anything.’
And his reply — to this day — still makes me lose it every time I think about it:
‘No man, I’m really high so I turned it into slow motion.’
You had to be there.”Edward – Part 1“It must be my brain. My neurodivergence. When I find something and really dig into it, it doesn’t just become a hobby — it becomes an obsession. I want to know everything. Hear everything. Understand it from every angle. It’s like my mind latches on and won’t let go until it’s mapped the entire landscape.
And with Eddie, that landscape was endless.”That Basement“There were the late-night McDonald’s drive-thru runs, too. Part tradition, part hunger-fueled pilgrimage. But if I wasn’t the one placing the order? Oh, I was doomed. They’d mess with me every time. I’d end up with some Franken-McChicken stacked with every weird customization they could think of. Pickles, Big Mac sauce, extra onions, maybe even a Filet-O-Fish square jammed in there for good measure.
It was gross. It was hilarious. It was friendship.”R.“Harper, Shawn, and I were dying laughing. We thought we nailed it. And then the teacher slammed on the brakes.
‘What the hell was that?’ he said, glaring at the screen. ‘What was the purpose of having that in there?’
Without even thinking, I blurted out, ‘It’s funny.’
He didn’t miss a beat. ‘No. It’s dumb.’
And then… R. turned around to look at me — with this disgusted look on her face. Like ugh.”The Flicker and the Fight“Once my dad got sick — and kept getting sicker — I got scared. Really fucking scared.
My biggest fear was that I was going to lose him. And I wasn’t ready to lose him.
See, this is where it gets complicated.
In the middle of all of it — the hospital runs, the waiting, the stress — Alexis calls me into the bathroom one night. She’s standing there holding a pregnancy test. It’s positive.
I break down.”

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