Iirc, the brief gothfield trend gave her a boost in confidence around that time, and the new oc coomer art added onto that momentum (though I might be off with the timeframe). If it wasn’t for those bumps in attention, I assume she’d still be wallowing away in misery. I wouldn’t wish for someone like Autumn to straight up suffer like that, yet I have to ask:
What even is her plan right now?
She doesn't have a plan. That's the thing. She has a routine, but no plan. Wake up, eat, draw, get attention, game the algorithm for the most exposure as possible, repeat. Throw in the occasional slapfight, suicide bait, and comic and that's Autumn.
Like I know how most people don’t have everything in life figured out, and this sort of topic is very personal. But based off what she’s talked about publicly, it doesn’t seem like she has some specific goal that she’s working toward. There have been a few attempts at comic projects, yet those always fall through. And the patreon idea + commission freelancing also seem rather unlikely. So the only way to fight off the suicide-posting, as far as we know, is by eating large amounts of food and getting some positive attention on Twitter, both pf which are very short-term solutions. If she can’t settle on some kind of attainable goal soon, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear how she’s regressing back to those negative feelings once again.
The issue that I see is that she suffers from something a lot of people around her age suffer; apathy. It's dangerously easy to fall into a routine, especially if you hate change. All of a sudden you're a few years out of highschool (assuming she graduated) with no job, no schooling, nothing. So how does she feel like she accomplished something? Through posting art. But art is hard, and takes too much time, so she can just slap thunderthighs and tits on a character, appeal to a younger audience, and boom, validation for the day achieved. Except, the dopamine that she gets from these retweets are having less and less of an effect, and she's able to realize her situation more and more. Assuming her home life is as unhappy as she postulates, then it is even more of a reason to devote oneself to online validation if she isn't getting any from home. Which is why she caters to a younger audience. If you take an audience of someone adult age, they would be critical at times and not tolerate Puppy's actions, yet children are easy to manipulate, will never speak out against someone they idolize, and always give compliments and gush over anything that is made, even if it's a single tweet that says "boobie".
I have also noticed a trend, when she isn't posting art, her suicide bait posts go up. She is not getting validation, and thus she has more time to think of her situation and perhaps missed opportunities. Obliviously causation does not mean correlation, but there is a pattern there. If she had a patreon she would have more of a purpose, as art would be a sort of job, but then that would mean she would have to change her routine, and as stated before, she won't want to do that. Holding promises is something Autumn is not good at.
This is all based on my personal experience, I know a few artists online. Some that have Patreons and do well enough, and others that are like Autumn, not too popular but not unknown. Those that have the Patreon treat it like a job, devoting some time to ideas and interaction with their community, some time to expiriment, some time for themselves, and then time to finally draw the works/alts. It is this routine that gives them purpose, and while it may lead to burnout at least they are getting financial compensation. The artists that do not have a patreon are like Autumn, NEETs who live rent free in their parents/grandparents homes, and do nothing but vidya, coom, and draw. Except their art isn't the best when compared to others, but they can't motivate themselves to get better. They are constantly in a state of depression and unhappiness due to this fact, they are in a never ending cycle of apathy yet are too scared to try new things. And with the trajectory Autumn is on, I see her going down the same route.
Tl;Dr Autumn's only source of validation and happiness seems to be Twitter likes and I made a schizpost.
The most honest thing she's ever said.