The Late Diagnosis Club

How Amy Built a New School After Discovering She Was Autistic

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 05:00:00 GMT

In this meeting of The Late Diagnosis Club, Dr Angela Kingdon welcomes Amy Kriewaldt, a late-diagnosed Autistic, ADHD, and PDA mother of three neurodivergent children.

Amy grew up a hyperlexic piano prodigy, praised for talent and performance while quietly navigating sensory overwhelm, situational mutism, perfectionism, and crushing internal expectations. It wasn’t until her children began receiving diagnoses that she started to recognise herself in their traits, and ultimately heard the words that changed everything: “Oh, I think you’re Autistic.”

Together, Angela and Amy explore hyperlexia, auditory processing differences, late self-recognition, self-compassion, memoir writing as a reframing, ADHD medication, self-medication through alcohol and caffeine, and the shift from compliance-based education to connection-centred learning.

This is a conversation about reframing failure, advocating fiercely, rewriting your past, and building systems that support autistic people across the lifespan.

🪑 Attendees

Chair: Dr Angela Kingdon — Author, community-builder, and Autistic advocate

Guest: Amy Kriewaldt — late-diagnosed Autistic, ADHD, and PDA advocate; founder of Creewald Academy

You: The Listener!

🗒️ Meeting Agenda

Opening remarks from the Chair
Member introduction: Prodigy pressure, hyperlexia, and sensory overwhelm
Discussion: Parenting autistic children and recognising yourself
Auditory processing, situational mutism, and late diagnosis
ADHD, self-medication, and relief through treatment
Rewriting childhood through memoir and self-compassion
Restraint policies, advocacy, and saying “no”

🧾 Minutes from the Meeting

1️⃣ Opening Remarks

Angela introduces Amy as a late-diagnosed Autistic and ADHD parent navigating life with three neurodivergent children — all PDA — and building alternatives where traditional systems fall short.

2️⃣ Member Introduction: Amy’s Story

Amy describes growing up as the youngest of eight children and a piano prodigy — hyperlexic, musically analytical, and praised for performance. Behind the talent were sensory overload, situational mutism, intense perfectionism, and chronic overwhelm that went unrecognised.

As her children received diagnoses, Amy began to see familiar patterns: auditory processing differences, sensory avoidance, social anxiety, and shutdown.

During a phone call describing how she processes information — needing complete silence to think — her psychologist paused and said, “Oh. I think you’re autistic.”

3️⃣ Discussion Highlights

Prodigy pressure: Performance, perfectionism, and masking through music
Parenting mirror: Recognising autistic traits through her children
Auditory processing: Needing silence to think and work
ADHD realisation: Chronic lateness, executive dysfunction, and relief through medication
Self-medication cycle: Alcohol, caffeine, and nervous system swings
IEP advocacy: “It doesn’t need fixing. It needs supporting.”
Restraint refusal: Saying no to compliance-based control

4️⃣ Key Learnings

Diagnosis can transform shame into self-compassion
Failure often reflects unmet needs, not broken character
Support changes everything
Advocacy sometimes begins with “No”
Compliance is not the same as learning
Children thrive when autonomy is honoured
Rewriting your past can reprogram your future
You are not a moral failure for having limits

📌 Notice Board

📣 Club Announcements

🎧 The Late Diagnosis Club is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major platforms.

💬 Join our online meetups and community at latediagnosis.club.

📌 Check the LDC Notice Board for Member Contributions

💜 There is a small charge — but no one is turned away for lack of funds.

🌈 Celebrate autistic voices with early access, ad-free listening, and our full archive at AutisticCulturePlus.com

🌐 Visit www.autisticculturepodcast.com

📲 Follow us on Instagram: @autisticculturepodcast

🎙️ Executive Producers: Amy Burns, Anamaria B Call, Andrew Banner, Anna Goodson, Ashley Apelzin, Audrea Volker, Ben Coulson, Brian Churcek, Cappy Hamper, Carley Biblin, Charlene Deva, Chloe Cross, Clay Duhigg, Clayton Oliver, Danny Dunn, Daria Brown, David Garrido, Emily Burgess, Eric Crane, Erik Stenerud, Fiona Baker, Grace Norman, Helen Shaddock, Jaimie Collins, Jason Killian, Jen Unruh, Jennifer Carpenter, Julia Tretter, Kathie Watson-Gray, Kenneth Knowles, Kira Cotter, Kristine Lang, Kyle Raney, Llew P Williams, Laura Alvarado, Laura De Vito, Laura Provonsha, Lily George, Nelly Darmi, Nigel Rogers, Rachel Miller, Tim Scott, Tyler Kunz, Victoria Steed, Yanina Wood.

🎧 Producers: AJ Knight, Bobby Simon, Da Kovac, Eleanor Collins, Emily Griffiths, Hannah Hughes, Jennifer Kemp, Jonas Fløde, Kate F, Katie N Benitez, Kendra Murphy, Lisa Dennys, Logan Wall, Louise Lomas, Melissa Nance, Nicola Owen, Rebecka Johansson, Sam Morris, Sarah Hannah Morris.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How Claire Stopped Believing ABA Was the Answer

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 05:00:00 GMT

In this meeting of The Late Diagnosis Club, Dr Angela Kingdon welcomes Claire Samuels, a proud Autistic speech-language pathologist whose journey to self-recognition unfolded inside the very system she would later question.

Claire began her career as a Registered Behaviour Technician (RBT) in the ABA industry, believing what she was told: that ABA was the gold standard for Autistic children. She loved the kids she worked with and believed she was making a positive impact. But as she read autistic voices, learned about interoception, and began recognising her own sensory and regulatory differences, cracks in the framework began to show.

Together, Angela and Claire explore ABA, nuance, Autistic self-recognition, masking, sensory processing, burnout, and what it means to move from compliance-based therapy to connection-based communication.

This episode is about shifting lenses, from behaviour to nervous systems, from control to connection, and from moral judgment to regulation.

🪑 Attendees

Chair: Dr Angela Kingdon — Author, community-builder, and Autistic advocate

Guest: Claire Samuels — Autistic speech-language pathologist

You: The Listener!

🗒️ Meeting Agenda

Opening remarks from the Chair
Member introduction: Theatre kid, masking, and early sensory differences
Discussion: Entering ABA and believing the gold standard
Interoception, meltdown empathy, and late self-recognition
Leaving ABA and shifting from behaviour to environment
Becoming an SLP: AAC, connection, and child-led therapy
Key learnings
Club announcements

🧾 Minutes from the Meeting

1️⃣ Opening Remarks

Angela introduces Claire as a clinician whose story offers a rare inside perspective on ABA. Someone who entered the field with good intentions and left with a deeper understanding of Autistic nervous systems and lived experience.

2️⃣ Member Introduction: Claire’s Story

Claire describes herself as a “chameleon” in school, a theatre kid who learned to play the role of “normal” while privately embracing her oddities. She studied psychology to understand how people “people,” navigated burnout in college, and found improv as a regulatory outlet.

After serving in the Peace Corps in The Gambia, she returned to the USA, unsure of her path, but drawn to working with neurodivergent children. A friend introduced her to ABA, promising meaningful work, strong income potential, and the opportunity to work in the “gold standard” of Autism treatment.

3️⃣ Discussion Highlights

ABA immersion: 40-hour weeks for toddlers and gold-standard messaging
RBT reality: Minimal training, low pay, no autism coursework required
Demand maintenance: Repeating instructions during meltdowns until compliance
Interoception moment: Supervisor unfamiliar with the concept
Masking realisation: Social media and autistic adult narratives
Pendulum swing: From “gold standard” to “ABA is abuse” to nuance
SLP path: Language, connection, AAC, and feature matching
Child-led therapy: Slower but healthier device relationships
Self-accommodation: Headphones, fidgets, and nervous system resets
Autistic joy: Sesame Street, stimming, and public authenticity

4️⃣ Key Learnings

Behaviour is not the whole story
Good people can work inside broken systems
Language and connection are cyclical
Autistic regulation is not a moral failure
Self-accommodation changes relationships
Labels serve us — not the other way around

📌 Notice Board

📣 Club Announcements

🎧 The Late Diagnosis Club is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major platforms.

💬 Join our online meetups and community at latediagnosis.club.

📌 Check the LDC Notice Board for Member Contributions

💜 There is a small charge — but no one is turned away for lack of funds.

🌈 Celebrate autistic voices with early access, ad-free listening, and our full archive at AutisticCulturePlus.com

🌐 Visit www.autisticculturepodcast.com

📲 Follow us on Instagram: @autisticculturepodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How Julie Discovered Her Autism Through Burnout and Books

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 05:00:00 GMT

In this meeting of The Late Diagnosis Club, Dr Angela Kingdon welcomes Julie Farrell, a late-diagnosed Autistic and ADHD writer, activist, and co-founder of The Inklusion Guide, a resource dedicated to making literature events accessible to disabled people.

Julie shares her slow, layered journey toward understanding her neurodivergence — from burnout, migraines, and chronic illness labels, to finding herself mirrored in Autistic writers like Katherine May, to sobbing through the documentary Seeing the Unseen and finally knowing in her bones.

Together, Angela and Julie explore masking, shutdowns mislabelled as anxiety, CPTSD, creative identity, freelance work as nervous system regulation, and the relief of receiving a diagnosis in a supportive, affirming environment. They also talk about ADHD medication, menstrual cycle titration, EMDR therapy, and what it feels like to “precipitate out of the hot goo” and become solid for the first time.

This episode is also about Autistic joy — about stars, navigation, grief, and how Julie’s late father taught her to look up at the night sky and find her way.

🪑 Attendees

Chair: Dr Angela Kingdon — Author, community-builder, and Autistic advocate

Guest: Julie Farrell — Writer, activist, and late-diagnosed Autistic & ADHD woman

You: The Listener!

🗒️ Meeting Agenda

Opening remarks from the Chair
Member introduction: Burnout, writing communities, and slow recognition
Discussion: Masking, shutdowns, and anxiety misdiagnosis
Chronic illness labels, brain fog, and nervous system overwhelm
Self-identification, late ADHD discovery and medication
Creativity, rejection sensitivity, and publishing Someone Like Me
Key learnings
Club announcements

🧾 Minutes from the Meeting

1️⃣ Opening Remarks

Angela introduces Julie as a writer whose work reclaims Autistic narrative and centres accessibility, creativity, and late discovery. The conversation begins with the power of anthologies — reading other Autistic women’s work and realising, “Oh. That wasn’t just me.”

2️⃣ Member Introduction: Julie’s Story

Julie traces her recognition back to 2018, when she ran a co-writing group in Edinburgh and befriended an openly Autistic man who spoke about burnout cycles. At the time, she didn’t see herself in autism — she was high masking and had internalized generalized anxiety and fibromyalgia diagnoses.

Reading Wintering by Catherine May and later reviewing the documentary Seeing the Unseen became turning points. She describes sobbing at the end of the film and knowing, finally, that she was Autistic.

3️⃣ Discussion Highlights

Masking & shutdowns: Nonverbal shutdowns misinterpreted as panic attacks
Misdiagnosis: Anxiety and fibromyalgia concealing Autistic burnout
Burnout at 30: Months unable to leave the sofa; repeated medical dismissal
Self-ID vs formal diagnosis: The emotional weight of both
Being believed: “Are you telling me I’m not stupid?”
ADHD discovery: Hyperactivity, career misalignment, and paid assessment
Medication: Titration and menstrual cycle adjustments
Publishing: Invited to contribute to Someone Like Me
Grief & stars: Writing about her father, navigation, and expansive belonging

4️⃣ Key Learnings

Burnout cycles can be mistaken for anxiety
Masking can delay self-recognition for years
Diagnosis can dissolve lifelong shame
Medication can reshape creative capacity
Freelance work can be nervous system care
Autistic joy often lives in special interests

📌 Notice Board

📣 Club Announcements

🎧 The Late Diagnosis Club is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major platforms.

💬 Join our online meetups and community at latediagnosis.club.

📌 Check the LDC Notice Board for Member Contributions

💜 There is a small charge — but no one is turned away for lack of funds.

🌈 Celebrate autistic voices with early access, ad-free listening, and our full archive at AutisticCulturePlus.com

🌐 Visit www.autisticculturepodcast.com

📲 Follow us on Instagram: @autisticculturepodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How Helen Learned She Was Autistic After a Lifetime of Misdiagnosis

Fri, 13 Feb 2026 05:00:00 GMT

In this meeting of The Late Diagnosis Club, Dr Angela Kingdon welcomes Helen Shaddock, a multidisciplinary artist, writer, and PhD researcher whose work explores autism, eating distress, OCD, and healing through creativity.

Helen was diagnosed with anorexia at 13 and spent the next 25 years moving through eating-disorder pathways that never fully explained her experience. It wasn’t until her late 30s — after years of treatment, physical injury, and burnout — that an occupational therapist recognised what others had missed: Helen was Autistic.

Helen and Angela explore the long overlap between eating distress, OCD, and autism, how Autistic regulation was repeatedly misread as pathology, and how late diagnosis reframed decades of self-blame. Helen shares her experiences around interoception, stimming, routine, sensory regulation, and the difference between Autistic eating and eating disorder treatment.

This episode is also about creative becoming — how art, writing, and storytelling can be tools for survival, meaning-making, and identity reconstruction.

🪑 Attendees

Chair: Dr Angela Kingdon — Author, community-builder, and Autistic advocate

Guest: Helen Shaddock — Autistic multidisciplinary artist, writer, and PhD researcher

You: The Listener!

🗒️ Meeting Agenda

Opening remarks from the Chair
Member introduction: Autism missed across treatment pathways
CBT, clinical harm, and misinterpretation of Autistic regulation
Autistic eating vs eating disorder frameworks
Burnout, grief, and late autism recognition
Creative becoming through art and storytelling
Key learnings
Club announcements

🧾 Minutes from the Meeting

1️⃣ Opening Remarks

Angela welcomes Helen as a long-standing member of the LDC community and frames the conversation around storytelling, creativity, and late recognition. This meeting emphasises intimacy and pacing — meeting one another “one at a time,” in a way that feels distinctly Autistic.

2️⃣ Member Introduction: Helen’s Story

Helen was diagnosed with anorexia at 13 and spent her adolescence and adulthood navigating eating-disorder treatment, CBT, and medical surveillance.

Many Autistic traits, including routine, stimming, sensory sensitivity, and the need for predictability, were interpreted as pathology rather than regulation.

She experienced chronic fatigue in early adolescence, missed significant periods of school, and was bullied. Later injuries, stress fractures, and physical complications were consistently attributed to anorexia, obscuring the role of autism and interoceptive differences.

3️⃣ Discussion Highlights

25 years missed: Autism identified at 38 after decades of eating-disorder treatment
Misinterpretation: Autistic stimming and regulation framed as calorie-burning or compulsion
Interoception: Pain, hunger, and bladder signals go unnoticed until extreme
Routine & safety: The difference between Autistic eating and eating distress
Grief: Mourning the support that could have existed earlier
Language shift: Choosing “eating distress” over “eating disorder”
Creative becoming: Identity as fluid, evolving, and reconstructed through art
ArtEd: Digital storytelling, visual diaries, and community zines

4️⃣ Key Learnings

Eating distress can mask autism — and vice versa
Late diagnosis can dissolve decades of self-blame
Autistic regulation is often misunderstood as a disorder
Creativity is not a luxury — it is a survival tool
Community reduces isolation and restores dignity

📌 Notice Board

📣 Club Announcements

🎧 The Late Diagnosis Club is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major platforms.

💬 Join our online meetups and community at latediagnosis.club.

📌 Check the LDC Notice Board for Member Contributions

💜 There is a small charge — but no one is turned away for lack of funds.

🌈 Celebrate autistic voices with early access, ad-free listening, and our full archive at AutisticCulturePlus.com

🌐 Visit www.autisticculturepodcast.com

📲 Follow us on Instagram: @autisticculturepodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How Tara Survived Without Knowing She Was Autistic

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 05:00:00 GMT

In this meeting of The Late Diagnosis Club, Dr Angela Kingdon welcomes Tara for one of the most difficult and important conversations the Club has held.

⚠️ Content notice: This episode includes discussion of violence, sexual abuse, child harm, and coercive control. Listener discretion is strongly advised. Please pause or skip as needed and take care of yourself.

Tara is a late-diagnosed Autistic woman, a mother, and a survivor of severe childhood abuse, abduction, and exploitation. She shares her story not for shock, but to illuminate how Autistic girls and women are uniquely vulnerable — especially when they grow up without protection, language, or recognition of their neurodivergence.

Together, Angela and Tara explore survival as an Autistic trait, truth-telling as both a strength and a liability, vulnerability to cults and exploitative systems, and the long road to healing through prolonged exposure therapy. Tara’s story is harrowing — but it is also a testament to resilience, instinct, and the life-saving power of being believed.

🪑 Attendees

Chair: Dr Angela Kingdon — Author, community-builder, and Autistic advocate

Guest: Tara — late-diagnosed Autistic woman, mother, and survivor

You: The Listener!

🗒️ Meeting Agenda

Opening remarks from the Chair
Member introduction: Abuse, abduction, and survival
Discussion: Autistic vulnerability and coercive control, misdiagnosis, and being labelled a liar
Cults, self-help movements, and exploitation
Prolonged exposure therapy and Late autism self-recognition
Key learnings
Club announcements

🧾 Minutes from the Meeting

1️⃣ Opening Remarks

Angela opens the meeting with a clear trigger warning and an explanation of the safeguards taken to ensure this conversation was shared safely and consensually. This episode is framed as difficult — but necessary — for Autistic people, particularly women and girls, whose experiences of abuse are often misunderstood or erased.

2️⃣ Member Introduction: Tara’s Story

Tara describes knowing she was different from early childhood — hyperlexic, highly intelligent, sensory-sensitive, and deeply compliant. As a CODA, she was placed in adult responsibilities far too young, acting as her mother’s ears while navigating an unsafe home environment.

Family members responded to her Autistic traits with punishment and violence rather than protection. Tara was repeatedly locked away, beaten, and labelled with slurs — experiences that primed her for later exploitation.

At 14, Tara was abducted by adults known to her family. She was held, tortured, and left for dead. No search party was launched. No justice followed. Tara survived through instinct, dissociation, and an extraordinary will to live.

3️⃣ Discussion Highlights

Autistic vulnerability: How isolation, compliance, and literal trust increase risk
Survival instincts: Autism as a tool for endurance and escape
Misdiagnosis: Repeatedly labelled with personality disorders
Cults and self-help: Seeking safety and meaning in exploitative systems
Prolonged exposure therapy: Ten years of structured trauma processing
Late autism recognition: Finding language after decades of harm
Motherhood: Love, rupture, and intergenerational neurodivergence
Justice: Living without it — and learning how to go on

4️⃣ Key Learnings

Autistic girls are especially vulnerable when their differences go unprotected
Being articulate does not prevent exploitation
Truth-telling can be punished in unsafe systems
Misdiagnosis can cause as much harm as no diagnosis
Self-diagnosis can be life-saving

📣 Club Announcements

🎧 The Late Diagnosis Club is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major platforms.

💬 Join our online meetups and community at latediagnosis.club.

📌 Check the LDC Notice Board for Member Contributions

💜 There is a small charge — but no one is turned away for lack of funds.

🌈 Celebrate autistic voices with early access, ad-free listening, and our full archive at AutisticCulturePlus.com

🌐 Visit www.autisticculturepodcast.com

📲 Follow us on Instagram: @autisticculturepodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How Abbey Realised She Was Autistic After Decades of Masking

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 05:00:00 GMT

In this meeting of The Late Diagnosis Club, Dr Angela Kingdon welcomes Abbey Thompson — a librarian, classically trained vocalist, prize-winning baker, gamer, social justice bard, and self-described random fact machine.

Abbey is a fat, queer, neurodivergent woman living in Los Angeles with two orange cats and a deep commitment to creativity without perfection.

Diagnosed with ADHD in her 40s and later recognising she was also Autistic, Abbey describes how finally naming her neurodivergence didn’t just bring understanding — it brought permission. Permission to be loud, to be big, to be joyful, to be mediocre, and to exist without apology.

Together, Angela and Abbey explore late identification, fatness and bullying, perfectionism, burnout, AuDHD, creativity as regulation, and the radical act of letting go of shame. This episode is an invitation to stop fixing yourself — and start living.

🪑 Attendees

Chair: Dr Angela Kingdon — Author, community-builder, and Autistic advocate

Guest: Abbey Thompson — AuDHD librarian, vocalist, baker, and creator of the Mediocre Arts and Crafts Club

You: The Listener!

🗒️ Meeting Agenda

Opening remarks from the Chair
Member introduction: Masking, bullying, and being “too much”
Discussion: Late diagnosis, burnout, friendship, fatness, queerness, and shame
Sensory processing, burnout, animals, justice sensitivity, and belonging
Key learnings
Club announcements

🧾 Minutes from the Meeting

1️⃣ Opening Remarks

Angela introduces Abbey as someone whose life defies neat categories — librarian, opera singer, baker, gamer, and cat enthusiast — all in one person. From the outset, this conversation sets aside productivity and leans into permission: to be multifaceted, messy, and fully yourself.

2️⃣ Member Introduction: Abbey’s Story

Abbey describes growing up as a high-achieving, compliant student who internalised bullying and othering — largely attributing friendship difficulties to being fat in a culture that relentlessly punished difference.

Early signs of neurodivergence, including hyperfocus, rigidity, gullibility, sensory sensitivity, and being “too loud,” were reframed for decades as personal flaws. Only later did Abbey come to understand these traits through an Autistic and ADHD lens — one that offered compassion instead of criticism.

3️⃣ Discussion Highlights

Late diagnosis: ADHD and autism identified in Abbey’s 40s
Burnout: Years of overachievement, graduate school, and unrecognised exhaustion
Masking: Being capable on the outside while struggling internally
Fatness & bullying: How body stigma obscured neurodivergence
Creativity as regulation: Singing, baking, crafting, and making for joy
Mediocre Arts and Crafts Club: Creating without perfection or monetisation
Shame: Letting go of self-policing and internalised judgment
Community: Belonging as protection and healing

4️⃣ Key Learnings

Competence can hide profound struggle
Shame is not a motivator — it’s a barrier
Creativity doesn’t need to be perfect to be meaningful
Late diagnosis can offer forgiveness, not just answers
Community helps return shame to where it belongs
You don’t need permission to exist — but it helps when you finally give it to yourself

📌 Notice Board

📣 Club Announcements

🎧 The Late Diagnosis Club is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major platforms.

💬 Join our online meetups and community at latediagnosis.club.

📌 Check the LDC Notice Board for Member Contributions

💜 There is a small charge — but no one is turned away for lack of funds.

🌈 Celebrate autistic voices with early access, ad-free listening, and our full archive at AutisticCulturePlus.com

🌐 Visit www.autisticculturepodcast.com

📲 Follow us on Instagram: @autisticculturepodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How Sarma Realised She Was Autistic After Everything Fell Apart

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 05:00:00 GMT

In this meeting of The Late Diagnosis Club, Dr Angela Kingdon welcomes Sarma Melngailis, a late-identified Autistic woman whose life unfolded in public long before she had language for her neurodivergence.

Sarma was once a celebrated New York restaurateur and entrepreneur. Years later, she became the subject of global scrutiny following a highly publicised documentary that framed her story through scandal rather than context. She was not diagnosed as Autistic until age 51, after everything had already happened.

In this conversation, Sarma speaks candidly about sensory overwhelm, being misread as cold or suspicious, vulnerability to coercive control, and how not knowing she was Autistic shaped her relationships, business decisions, and sense of self. This episode is not about scandal — it’s about what happens when a life is interpreted through the wrong lens, and what becomes possible when the right one finally arrives.

🪑 Attendees

Chair: Dr Angela Kingdon — Author, community-builder, and Autistic advocate

Guest: Sarma Melngailis — late-identified Autistic author and entrepreneur

You: The Listener!

🗒️ Meeting Agenda

Opening remarks from the Chair
Member introduction: Public success without private understanding
Discussion: Late diagnosis, vulnerability, and coercive control
Being misread: affect, communication, and media narratives
Sensory processing, burnout, leadership, animals, justice sensitivity, and belonging
Key learnings
Club announcements

🧾 Minutes from the Meeting

1️⃣ Opening Remarks

Angela introduces Sarma as a member whose story was widely told before it was widely understood. While the public narrative focused on spectacle and suspicion, Sarma’s lived experience was shaped by sensory overwhelm, misinterpretation, and deep vulnerability — all without the context of an autism diagnosis.

2️⃣ Member Introduction: Sarma’s Story

Sarma describes growing up feeling different without knowing why, gravitating toward misfits and animals, and navigating adulthood with intense sensory sensitivity and a strong drive toward justice and care.

Her autism was first suggested not by clinicians, but by viewers of a documentary who recognised themselves in her, many of them late-diagnosed Autistic adults.

3️⃣ Discussion Highlights

Late diagnosis at 51: Recognition after public life and collapse
Misinterpretation: Flat affect, pauses, and Autistic communication framed as guilt or deception
Coercive control: How Autistic trust and literal thinking increase vulnerability
Being “seen”: Why manipulative attention can feel like understanding
Public narratives: Harm caused by edited stories and missing context
Sensory overload: Sound, scent, and cumulative exhaustion in high-pressure environments
Animals and connection: Deep attachment as regulation and grounding
Safeguards: Learning to listen to trusted outsiders and name red flags

4️⃣ Key Learnings

Not knowing you’re Autistic can increase vulnerability to exploitation
Being articulate and successful does not protect against harm
Autistic affect is often misread through a moral lens
Clarity does not erase the past — but it can soften self-blame
Community and outside perspective are protective factors
Having language for your nervous system changes what you tolerate

📌 Notice Board

People Magazine — Sarma Melngailis on Autism Diagnosis

Sarma Melngailis on Instagram

The Girl with the Duck Tattoo — Book Website

Sarma Raw — Personal Website

📣 Club Announcements

🎧 The Late Diagnosis Club is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major platforms.

💬 Join our online meetups and community at latediagnosis.club.

📌 Check the LDC Notice Board for Member Contributions

💜 There is a small charge — but no one is turned away for lack of funds.

🌈 Celebrate autistic voices with early access, ad-free listening, and our full archive at AutisticCulturePlus.com

🌐 Visit www.autisticculturepodcast.com

📲 Follow us on Instagram: @autisticculturepodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How George Realised They Were Autistic While Studying Autism

Fri, 16 Jan 2026 05:00:00 GMT

In this meeting of The Late Diagnosis Club, Dr Angela Kingdon welcomes George Watts, a neurodivergent researcher, parent, and PhD candidate whose path into autism research began before realising they were autistic themselves.

George first studied autism from the outside, absorbing dominant behavioural frameworks and evidence-based models that promised to “help” Autistic people. It wasn’t until they encountered Autistic voices, community, and their own reflection in the literature that their understanding — and their life — fundamentally shifted.

Together, Angela and George explore late identification, burnout, childbirth, internalised deficit models, the harm of behaviourism, and what becomes possible when Autistic people stop being studied in isolation and start building community together. This episode centres Autistic quality of life — not as an abstract metric, but as a lived, relational experience grounded in belonging, autonomy, and joy.

🪑 Attendees

Chair: Dr Angela Kingdon — Author, community-builder, and Autistic advocate

Guest: George Watts — Autistic researcher, PhD candidate, and parent

You: The Listener!

🗒️ Meeting Agenda

Opening remarks from the Chair
Member introduction: Childhood signs without diagnosis
Discussion: Burnout, childbirth, late identification, unlearning behaviourism and deficit-based models
Autistic parenting and education research shaped by lived experience
Key learnings
Club announcements

🧾 Minutes from the Meeting

1️⃣ Opening Remarks

Angela introduces George as a researcher whose academic path into autism began long before they understood their own neurodivergence. Early training framed autism as a problem to be fixed — with behavioural intervention positioned as the solution.

This episode traces what happens when that framework begins to crack.

2️⃣ Member Introduction: George’s Story

George returned to university as a mature student, studying autism after years of precarious work, burnout, and unrecognised neurodivergence. As they immersed themselves in autism literature, moments of resonance accumulated — until self-recognition became unavoidable.

Childbirth, sensory overload, and years of misattributed mental health struggles came into focus through a new lens. What had once been framed as personal failure or psychological fragility was re-understood as the cost of navigating a world not built for Autistic nervous systems.

3️⃣ Discussion Highlights

Late identification: Studying autism before recognising it in yourself
Burnout and childbirth: Sensory overwhelm and unmet support needs
Unlearning behaviourism: Letting go of ABA as “help”
Community as intervention: Autistic people supporting each other
Quality of life: Shifting research focus from causes and cures to belonging
Autistic parenting: Reducing unnecessary demands and honouring regulation
Research from the inside: Autistic-led questions shaping the field

4️⃣ Key Learnings

Understanding autism can reframe decades of self-blame
Behavioural compliance is not the same as well-being
Quality of life looks different for Autistic people — and should be defined by them
Community and belonging are not extras; they are foundational
Autistic-led research changes what we ask — and what matters

📌 Notice Board

George Watts — YouTube talk

Autism Studies (FutureLearn course)

Research paper: A Certain Magic

Grove Neurodivergent Mentoring and Educating

Autistic Quality of Life Measure (ASQoL)

📣 Club Announcements

🎧 The Late Diagnosis Club is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major platforms.

💬 Join our online meetups and community at latediagnosis.club.

📌 Check the LDC Notice Board for Member Contributions

💜 There is a small charge — but no one is turned away for lack of funds.

🌈 Celebrate autistic voices with early access, ad-free listening, and our full archive at AutisticCulturePlus.com

🌐 Visit www.autisticculturepodcast.com

📲 Follow us on Instagram: @autisticculturepodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How Julie Understood Herself After Raising an Autistic Child

Fri, 09 Jan 2026 05:00:00 GMT

In this meeting of The Late Diagnosis Club, Dr Angela Kingdon welcomes Julie M. Green, a writer, Autistic mother, and late-identified Autistic woman whose self-recognition unfolded through parenting. Julie’s story begins not with her own diagnosis, but with her son’s. As she learned how to support an Autistic child, she slowly began to recognise familiar patterns in herself — sensory sensitivity, rigidity, perfectionism, chronic illness, and lifelong shyness that had always been framed as personality flaws rather than neurodivergence.

Together, Angela and Julie explore maternal guilt, masking across decades, self- and formal diagnosis, and what changes — and what doesn’t — when you finally have language for your nervous system.

🪑 Attendees

Chair: Dr Angela Kingdon — Author, community-builder, and Autistic advocate

Guest: Julie M. Green — Autistic writer, Author, and mother

You: The Listener!

🗒️ Meeting Agenda

Opening remarks from the Chair
Member introduction: Childhood signs without diagnosis
Discussion: Parenting an autistic child while recognising autism in yourself
Masking, perfectionism, and decades of mislabeling
Self-diagnosis, formal diagnosis, and imposter syndrome
Key learnings
Club announcements

🧾 Minutes from the Meeting

1️⃣ Opening Remarks

Angela introduces Julie as a member whose story begins in a paediatrician’s office — not for herself, but for her son. What started as advocacy and research quickly became a mirror, reflecting traits Julie had carried since childhood but never had language for.

2️⃣ Member Introduction: Julie’s Story

Julie grew up in the 1970s and 80s as a highly anxious, perfectionistic, and extremely shy child. Changes in routine triggered meltdowns, collections were rigidly organised, and sensory sensitivities shaped daily life — all framed at the time as personality flaws or the result of being an only child.

In school, Julie was quiet, compliant, and high-achieving. Anxiety and perfectionism were invisible to teachers, while internal distress went unnamed.

Years later, as a first-time mother, Julie struggled with sensory overload, shutdowns, and intense guilt. When her son was diagnosed with autism at age three, Julie immersed herself in research — first to support him, and eventually to understand herself.

3️⃣ Discussion Highlights

Masking and mislabeling: Shyness, rigidity, and perfectionism framed as flaws
Maternal guilt: Internalising blame for sensory overwhelm and burnout
Self-recognition: Seeing autistic traits through parenting without immediately claiming identity
Diagnosis decisions: Self-diagnosis, formal assessment, and imposter syndrome
Disclosure: Navigating silence, validation, and scepticism from others
Autistic parenting: Modelling boundaries, regulation, and self-advocacy

4️⃣ Key Learnings

Autism can become visible through caregiving before self-recognition
Compliance and quiet achievement often hide distress
Formal diagnosis may change nothing — and everything
Self-diagnosis is valid; seeking assessment is a personal choice
Modelling boundaries is a powerful form of parenting
Understanding yourself can reduce shame across generations

📌 Notice Board

Link for Julie’s book: Motherness: A Memoir of Generational Autism, Parenthood, and Radical Acceptance

Julie’s Substack: https://theautisticmom.substack.com/

📣 Club Announcements

🎧 The Late Diagnosis Club is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major platforms.

💬 Join our online meetups and community at latediagnosis.club.

📌 Check the LDC Notice Board for Member Contributions

💜 There is a small charge — but no one is turned away for lack of funds.

🌈 Celebrate autistic voices with early access, ad-free listening, and our full archive at AutisticCulturePlus.com

🌐 Visit www.autisticculturepodcast.com

📲 Follow us on Instagram: @autisticculturepodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How Becca Reclaimed Her Voice as an Autistic Adult

Fri, 02 Jan 2026 05:00:00 GMT

In this meeting of The Late Diagnosis Club, Dr Angela Kingdon welcomes Becca Engle, an Autistic educator, author, and advocate whose early disability was recognised, but whose autism was not fully named until adulthood.

Becca was identified as disabled at age three and was once non-speaking. She was repeatedly told she would never be independent, never succeed academically, and never become a teacher. Instead, she grew up navigating education systems that focused on compliance over understanding — systems that demanded silence, masking, and endurance rather than support.

Together, Angela and Becca explore early childhood diagnosis without clarity, the harm of behaviour-based interventions, masking in higher education, autistic anger as a catalyst for advocacy, and what it means to design learning environments that support regulation rather than control.

🪑 Attendees

Chair: Dr Angela Kingdon — Author, community-builder, and Autistic advocate

Guest: Becca Engle — Autistic educator, author, and disability advocate

You: The Listener!

🗒️ Meeting Agenda

Opening remarks from the Chair
Member introduction: Early childhood diagnosis and being “almost autistic”
Discussion: Masking, compliance, and exclusion in education systems
Regulation, classroom design, and alternatives to seclusion
Key learnings
Club announcements🧾 Minutes from the Meeting

1️⃣ Opening Remarks

Angela introduces Becca as someone whose autism was visible early but never fully acknowledged. Despite being labelled with multiple developmental diagnoses, Becca’s needs were misunderstood, and expectations for her future were set painfully low.

What followed was not support, but pressure to conform.

2️⃣ Member Introduction: Becca’s Story

Becca was diagnosed at age three with conditions that stopped short of autism and was repeatedly told she would never speak, learn independently, or attend school. Early intervention included speech therapy, occupational therapy, and exposure to behaviour-based systems that relied on control and seclusion.

Years later, in college, Becca was told she was “too autistic” to teach. She graduated anyway — and later pursued further credentials outside traditional pathways.

Becca formally received an autism diagnosis in adulthood, bringing clarity, legitimacy, and permission to name what had always been true.

3️⃣ Discussion Highlights

Early diagnosis without clarity: Being labelled disabled but not autistic shaped expectations and access to support
Compliance over care: Behaviour systems prioritised obedience rather than regulation or understanding
Masking in higher education: Silence was rewarded; authenticity was punished
Anger as fuel: Advocacy emerged not from inspiration, but from injustice
Regulation-focused classrooms: Becca describes her three-zone regulation model as an alternative to calm corners, seclusion, and PBIS
Stimming and creativity: Writing, knitting, and movement as regulation — not distraction

4️⃣ Key Learnings

Early identification without understanding can still cause harm
Compliance systems teach masking, not self-regulation
Silencing autistic communication is often framed as professionalism
Anger can be an appropriate and productive response to injustice
When environments change, people don’t have to disappear to succeed

📌 Notice Board

Becca’s Social Media:

• Instagram: @StitchesStanzas

• Facebook: Becca Engle / Stitches & Stanzas

Becca’s Books:

• Step Into My Shoes: https://a.co/d/hJRVXSG

• Through Our Lens series: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G3XQZ8KV

📣 Club Announcements

🎧 The Late Diagnosis Club is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major platforms.

💬 Join our online meetups and community at latediagnosis.club.

📌 Check the LDC Notice Board for Member Contributions

💜 There is a small charge — but no one is turned away for lack of funds.

🌈 Celebrate autistic voices with early access, ad-free listening, and our full archive at AutisticCulturePlus.com

🌐 Visit www.autisticculturepodcast.com

📲 Follow us on Instagram: @autisticculturepodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How Monique Realised Survival Mode Was Autistic Masking

Fri, 26 Dec 2025 05:00:00 GMT

In this meeting of The Late Diagnosis Club, Dr Angela Kingdon welcomes Monique Lindner — a late-identified Autistic woman whose life once revolved around relentless achievement, overwork, and endurance.

Monique was a high-performing systems thinker, corporate leader, and entrepreneur who learned early how to push through trauma, chronic pain, sleep deprivation, and sensory overload. What finally cracked the façade wasn’t a dramatic breakdown — it was a slow unravelling, followed by a single, unexpected question from her book editor that sent her down a ten-month path toward understanding her neurodivergence.

Together, Angela and Monique explore late identification, masking, Autistic burnout, trauma, friendship loss, unmasking, psychic pattern-matching, and what happens when you stop explaining yourself and start protecting your nervous system.

🪑 Attendees

Chair: Dr Angela Kingdon — Author, community-builder, and Autistic advocate

Guest: Monique Lindner — Late-identified Autistic writer, entrepreneur, and systems thinker

You: The Listener!

🗒️ Meeting Agenda

Opening remarks from the Chair
Member introduction: Monique’s pre-diagnosis life
Discussion: Burnout, trauma, masking, and loss after unmasking
Key learnings
Club announcements

🧾 Minutes from the Meeting

1️⃣ Opening Remarks

Angela introduces Monique as someone whose life looked successful on the outside — leadership roles, global travel, financial stability — while quietly exacting a devastating cost on her nervous system. What finally brought clarity wasn’t collapse alone, but permission to question why survival had become the baseline.

2️⃣ Member Introduction: Monique’s Story

Monique spent decades pushing through exhaustion, trauma, and sensory overload without understanding why it cost her so much. Her autism went unrecognised until the pandemic revealed how much relief she felt in solitude. A question from her book editor finally gave her language for her burnout, intuition, and need for boundaries.

3️⃣ Discussion Highlights

High achievement as masking: Leadership, overwork, and perfectionism hid severe sensory and emotional costs.
Late identification: A book editor’s observation opened a ten-month self-identification process.
Unmasking fallout: Friendships ended when Monique began asking for basic accommodations.
Autistic burnout: Multiple collapses following trauma, surgery, and prolonged stress.
Pattern-matching & intuition: Monique describes deep knowing, heightened perception, and intuitive clarity as Autistic strengths.
Boundaries as survival: Learning when to stop explaining and start protecting herself.

4️⃣ Key Learnings

Survival skills can look like success — until they stop working.
Unmasking may cost relationships, but it preserves health.
Asking for accommodations often reveals who was benefiting from your silence.
Pattern-matching and intuition are forms of Autistic intelligence.
Trusting yourself is a radical act after years of dismissal.

📌 Notice Board

Monique’s Website: moniquelindner.com
Monique’s Substack: moniquelindner.substack.com

📣 Club Announcements

🎧 The Late Diagnosis Club is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major platforms.

💬 Join our online meetups and community at latediagnosis.club.

📌 Check the LDC Notice Board for Member Contributions

💜 There is a small charge — but no one is turned away for lack of funds.

🌈 Celebrate autistic voices with early access, ad-free listening, and our full archive at AutisticCulturePlus.com

🌐 Visit www.autisticculturepodcast.com

📲 Follow us on Instagram: @autisticculturepodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How Sean Realised His Burnout Was Autistic, Not Failure

Fri, 19 Dec 2025 05:00:00 GMT

In this meeting of The Late Diagnosis Club, Dr Angela Kingdon sits down with Sean Hawthorne, a late-identifying Autistic adult who is still in the very middle of discovery — not the end of the journey. Sean spent decades performing a socially acceptable version of himself: the reliable friend, the focused finance professional, the guy who shaped his interests to fit in and kept his sensory overwhelm hidden. But in 2021, a catastrophic burnout forced him to confront a truth he could no longer outrun.

Together, Angela and Sean explore autistic burnout, somatic reconnection, cultural and religious messaging, unmasking, identity, self-diagnosis, and the relief of realising you were never broken — you were misunderstood.

🪑 Attendees

Chair: Dr Angela Kingdon — Author, community-builder, and Autistic advocate

Guest: Sean Hawthorne — Self-diagnosed Autistic adult navigating late discovery

You: The Listener!

🗒️ Meeting Agenda

Opening remarks from the Chair
Member introduction: Sean’s early clues
Discussion: Burnout, masking, religion, culture & re-learning the body
Key learnings
Club announcements

🧾 Minutes from the Meeting

1️⃣ Opening Remarks

Angela introduces Sean as someone still in process — mid-discovery, mid-unmasking, mid-clarity — reflecting the reality that Autistic identification can take years, even a decade, to understand fully.

2️⃣ Member Introduction: Sean’s Story

Sean’s earliest clues were sensory processing difficulties so intense that he sometimes froze, unable to respond to teachers who insisted he “just answer.” He excelled academically only when placed in a smaller, more patient classroom — a sign of undiscovered neurodivergence that went unnoticed.

3️⃣ Discussion Highlights

Sensory overwhelm: Freezing in classrooms, noise sensitivity, overstimulation.
Masking: Clubs, alcohol, social rules, performing “acceptable” masculinity.
Cultural & religious pressure: Caribbean/Christian frameworks that framed distress as spiritual or disciplinary issues.
Burnout: Losing mobility, shutting down, thinking it was “a lack of discipline.”
Somatic reconnection: Learning interoception, feeling his body’s signals for the first time.
Self-diagnosis: Valid, grounded, and life-saving.
Intersectionality: Autistic burnout in the context of Blackness, surveillance, and systemic injustice.

4️⃣ Key Learnings

Being dismissed doesn’t mean you were wrong — it means you were unseen.
Masking becomes a personality, not a strategy.
Burnout often looks like failure until you have the right language.
Self-identification can save lives long before formal diagnosis is accessible.
Reconnecting with the body is disorienting — but also a homecoming.
Autistic adults aren’t fragile; we’re deprived of support.

📣 Club Announcements

🎧 The Late Diagnosis Club is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major platforms.

💬 Join our online meetups and community at latediagnosis.club.

📌 Check the LDC Notice Board for Member Contributions

💜 There is a small charge — but no one is turned away for lack of funds.

🌈 Celebrate autistic voices with early access, ad-free listening, and our full archive at AutisticCulturePlus.com

🌐 Visit www.autisticculturepodcast.com

📲 Follow us on Instagram: @autisticculturepodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How Georgina Turned Years of Being Dismissed Into Life-Saving Work

Fri, 12 Dec 2025 05:00:00 GMT

In this week’s meeting of The Late Diagnosis Club, Dr Angela Kingdon welcomes Georgina Banks - Autistic, ADHD, chronically ill, and the founder & CEO of AuDHD UK, a suicide-prevention charity reshaping access to diagnosis and support across the UK.

Georgina spent nearly a decade searching for answers while doctors dismissed her chronic illness, sensory overwhelm, and burnout as “anxiety.” In today’s conversation, she shares how late discovery helped her finally understand her body, her needs, and her mission — and how she turned personal pain into a national effort to save neurodivergent lives and to support hundreds of adults still fighting to be believed.

This episode includes a discussion of suicide. Please listen with care.

🪑 Attendees

Chair: Dr Angela Kingdon — Author, community-builder, and Autistic advocate

Guest: Georgina Banks — Autistic & ADHD founder of AuDHD UK

You: The Listener!

🗒️ Meeting Agenda

Opening remarks from the Chair
Member introduction: Georgina’s late identification
Discussion: chronic illness, dismissal, and Autistic burnout
Building AuDHD UK & suicide prevention
Key learnings
Club announcements

🧾 Minutes from the Meeting

1️⃣ Opening Remarks

Angela opens with a truth many late-identified Autistic adults know deeply:

We often spend years trying to survive systems that don’t recognise what’s happening to us.

Georgina’s story shows how dangerous that invisibility can be — and how powerful clarity becomes once we have it.

2️⃣ Member Introduction: Georgina’s story

At 15, Georgina became severely ill while preparing for GCSEs. Doctors insisted it was “stress.”

At 19, a gastroenterologist noted she had “a hint of Asperger’s.” At 20, she was officially diagnosed Autistic. ADHD would come years later, after burnout and shutdowns became impossible to ignore.

3️⃣ Discussion Highlights

Misdiagnosed for years: Chronic illness, shutdowns, and sensory collapses dismissed as “anxiety.”
Autistic traits overlooked: Literal thinking, tics, clumsiness, non-verbal episodes, sensory pain.
Unmasking & regression: After diagnosis, lifelong compensations fell away.
Founding AuDHD UK: Building a suicide-prevention charity offering assessments and weekly peer-support groups for undiagnosed adults who cannot afford private pathways.
Why diagnosis access matters: Not for a label — but for safety, language, stability, and belonging.

4️⃣ Key Learnings

Being unseen by the system does not mean you were wrong about yourself.
Burnout, shutdown, and sensory overwhelm can masquerade as “anxiety.”
Identification is a turning point, not the end point.
Suicide prevention begins with validation, access, and community.
Neurodivergent people design better support systems when they lead them.

📌 Notice Board

AuDHD UK — https://audhduk.org

The suicide-prevention charity founded by Georgina. AuDHD UK provides subsidised diagnostic assessments, weekly peer-support groups, and advocacy for neurodivergent adults who cannot safely or affordably access traditional diagnosis pathways.

📣 Club Announcements

🎧 The Late Diagnosis Club is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major platforms.

💬 Join our online meetups and community at latediagnosis.club.

📌 Check the LDC Notice Board for Member Contributions

💜 There is a small charge — but no one is turned away for lack of funds.

🌈 Celebrate autistic voices with early access, ad-free listening, and our full archive at AutisticCulturePlus.com

🌐 Visit www.autisticculturepodcast.com

📲 Follow us on Instagram: @autisticculturepodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How Mike Spent Five Lost Years Before Realising He’s Autistic

Fri, 05 Dec 2025 05:00:00 GMT

In this meeting of The Late Diagnosis Club, Dr Angela Kingdon welcomes Mike Matthews — a late-diagnosed Autistic dad, writer, music obsessive, and dry-witted survivor of misdiagnosis, medical gaslighting, and five years of unanswered burnout.

Together, Angela and Mike explore the messy middle between “something is wrong” and “oh — it’s autism,” the years lost to misunderstanding, the grief and relief of late self-discovery, and the unexpected joy of building a life that actually fits.

🪑 Attendees

Chair: Dr Angela Kingdon — Author, community-builder, and Autistic advocate

Guest: Mike Matthews — Autistic dad, writer, punk enthusiast & playlist archivist

You: The Listener!

🗒️ Meeting Agenda

Opening remarks from the Chair
Member introduction: Mike’s misdiagnosis journey
Discussion: Burnout, sensory life, stigma & spirals
Member spotlight: Autistic creativity, playlists & book writing
Key learnings
Club announcements

🧾 Minutes from the Meeting

1️⃣ Opening Remarks

Angela welcomes listeners into a story many late-diagnosed adults know too well: years of searching for answers, a system that keeps missing us, and the emotional cost of untreated Autistic burnout disguised as “depression.” Mike’s path began after becoming a parent — when suddenly the time he used for emotional regulation evaporated, and everything fell apart.

2️⃣ Member Introduction: Mike's story

From the very first doctor visit, Mike’s concerns were waved away, misread, or treated with trial-and-error medications that created new problems rather than solving the old ones.

3️⃣ Discussion Highlights

Five years of misdiagnosis: burnout mistaken for depression, sensory issues overlooked, and a formal evaluation that labelled him with the wrong disorder.
Medication mishaps: antidepressants causing side effects, withdrawal “brain zaps,” and treatments that obscured the real issue — autistic burnout.
Grief and relief: mourning the lost years while embracing clarity, self-knowledge, and a gentler relationship with himself and others.

4️⃣ Key Learnings

Autistic burnout is not depression — and treating it as such can prolong suffering.
Misdiagnosis is common, especially when sensory experiences are ignored.
Self-knowledge changes everything

📣 Club Announcements

🎧 The Late Diagnosis Club is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major platforms.

💬 Join our online meetups and community at latediagnosis.club.

📌 Check the LDC Notice Board for Member Contributions

💜 There is a small charge — but no one is turned away for lack of funds.

🌈 Celebrate autistic voices with early access, ad-free listening, and our full archive at AutisticCulturePlus.com

🌐 Visit www.autisticculturepodcast.com

📲 Follow us on Instagram: @autisticculturepodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How Amber Realised “Postpartum Anxiety” Was Autistic Burnout

Fri, 28 Nov 2025 05:00:00 GMT

In this meeting of The Late Diagnosis Club, Dr Angela Kingdon welcomes Amber Covucci — a late-diagnosed Autistic attorney, mother of two, and brilliant pattern-matcher who spent decades thinking she was “just sensitive” before discovering she was Autistic in her mid-30s.

Together, Angela and Amber explore Autistic motherhood, masking, sensory life, high-achieving burnout, and raising neurodivergent kids while still learning how to accommodate their own needs.

🪑 Attendees

Chair: Dr Angela Kingdon — Author, community-builder, and Autistic advocate

Guest: Amber Covucci — Autistic attorney, writer, and mother

You: The Listener!

🗒️ Meeting Agenda

Opening remarks from the Chair
Member introduction: Amber’s Autistic childhood & early masking
Discussion: Pregnancy, postpartum, sensory overwhelm & burnout
Key learnings
Club announcements

🧾 Minutes from the Meeting

1️⃣ Opening Remarks

Angela welcomes listeners into a conversation many Autistic mothers rarely hear reflected: what happens when your mask collapses under the sensory, emotional, and logistical weight of early parenthood.

2️⃣ Member Introduction: Amber’s story

From childhood, Amber felt different: intensely focused (“too much attention disorder”), deeply sensitive, academically exceptional, and physically overwhelmed by clothing, noise, and transitions.

Despite high achievement — gifted programs, top grades, law school — she also experienced chronic burnout, shutdowns, and sensory barriers nobody recognised as Autistic traits.

3️⃣ Discussion Highlights

Missed Signs: Sensory overwhelm, hyperfocus, and lifelong burnout are misunderstood.
Pregnancy & Postpartum: What looked like “postpartum anxiety” was Autistic burnout.
Birth & Autonomy: Sensory-safe support and control made labour manageable.
Work & Burnout: Deep-focus strengths paired with crash-level recovery needs.
Autistic Parenting: New language and compassion for her own and her children’s needs.

4️⃣ Key Learnings

Late diagnosis brings relief, not limitation
Sensory overwhelm is not weakness — it’s information
Autistic parents can be extraordinary caregivers
You can redesign your life once you understand your brain
Diagnosis isn’t necessary for belonging — self-knowledge is

📣 Club Announcements

🎧 The Late Diagnosis Club is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major platforms.

💬 Join our online meetups and community at latediagnosis.club.

📌 Check the LDC Notice Board for Member Contributions

💜 There is a small charge — but no one is turned away for lack of funds.

🌈 Celebrate autistic voices with early access, ad-free listening, and our full archive at AutisticCulturePlus.com

🌐 Visit www.autisticculturepodcast.com

📲 Follow us on Instagram: @autisticculturepodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How Bravo TV Erased Alethea’s AuDHD

Fri, 21 Nov 2025 05:00:00 GMT

In this meeting of The Late Diagnosis Club, Dr Angela Kingdon sits down with Aletha Shapiro, a mother of four, activist, costume designer, and creator of Autistic/ADHD pride, whose recent appearance on Bravo's Wife Swap: Housewives Edition became a masterclass in what happens when reality TV meets neurodivergent truth-telling.

Together, Angela and Aletha unpack late diagnosis, self-advocacy, reality TV ethics, gatekeeping, burnout, and the liberation that comes from finally understanding your neurodivergence. This one is a ride.

🪑 Attendees

Chair: Dr Angela Kingdon — Author, community-builder, and Autistic advocate

Guest: Aletha Shapiro — Autistic + ADHD activist, mother of four, and costume designer.

You: The Listener!

🗒️ Meeting Agenda

Opening remarks from the Chair
Member introduction: Aletha’s ADHD → Autism discovery
Discussion: Reality TV, erasure, burnout, boundaries, and activism
Key learnings from the meeting
Club announcements

🧾 Minutes from the Meeting

1️⃣ Opening Remarks

Angela opens by explaining why this week has been “epic” for Aletha — and why every late-diagnosed person will recognise the pattern:

boldness → vulnerability → erasure by non-autistic systems. Reality TV found a way to turn generosity into humiliation.

2️⃣ Member Introduction: Alethea’s story

Aletha discovered her ADHD first — and cried when she learned the truth. But once she understood it, everything clicked. When she later discovered she was Autistic, the whole picture made sense.

3️⃣ Discussion Highlights

Aletha wanted to represent neurodivergent moms on national TV — to model low-demand parenting, sensory regulation, special interests as self-care, and Autistic strengths.
Though producers reassured her it would be “feel-good TV,” the final cut removed every mention of her Autism and ADHD.
Aletha was blindsided by a confrontational setup not disclosed ahead of filming.
Animals, crocheting, crafts, concerts — all essential for emotional regulation.

4️⃣ Key Learnings

Late discovery brings clarity, boundaries, and liberation.
Neurodivergent people belong in media — without being erased.
Gatekeeping diagnosis causes harm and delays belonging.
Representation matters — especially for Autistic parents.

📣 Club Announcements

🎧 The Late Diagnosis Club is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major platforms.

💬 Join our online meetups and community at latediagnosis.club.

📌 Check the LDC Notice Board for Member Contributions

💜 There is a small charge — but no one is turned away for lack of funds.

🌈 Celebrate autistic voices with early access, ad-free listening, and our full archive at AutisticCulturePlus.com

🌐 Visit www.autisticculturepodcast.com

📲 Follow us on Instagram: @autisticculturepodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How Amy's Autism Discovery Ended Her Good-Girl Era

Fri, 14 Nov 2025 05:00:00 GMT

In this meeting of The Late Diagnosis Club, Dr Angela Kingdon welcomes Amy Permann, a writer and Substack creator who discovered she’s Autistic in her 50s after decades of burnout, people-pleasing, and perfectionism.

Together, Angela and Amy discuss self-diagnosis, trusting intuition, unlearning pressure, and why self-acceptance is a radical act of care.

🪑 Attendees

Chair: Dr Angela Kingdon — Author, community-builder, and Autistic advocate

Guest: Amy Permann — Autistic writer and creator of Seeking Authenticity

You: The Listener!

🗒️ Meeting Agenda

Opening remarks from the Chair
Member introduction: Amy’s journey from “good girl” to self-advocate
Discussion: Misdiagnosis, boundaries, and self-trust
Key learnings from the meeting
Club announcements🧾 Minutes from the Meeting

1️⃣ Opening Remarks

Angela opens by asking: What happens when your entire life is built around expectations that were never yours?

She welcomes Amy as a club member who’s learning to unlearn—redefining success, self-care, and what it means to live authentically.

2️⃣ Member Introduction: Amy’s Story

After years of therapy and being the “good daughter,” Amy learned she was Autistic — not broken, not oversensitive.

Her diagnosis followed her niece’s, sparking a journey through online communities, self-assessment, and finally, a validating experience.

3️⃣ Discussion Highlights

Parentified and People-Pleasing: How early responsibility shaped Amy’s self-image.
The Good Girl Mask: Why pressure isn’t a motivator — and why saying no is survival.
Trusting Your Own Intuition: Unlearning the habit of assuming others know best.
Medical Gaslighting & Boundaries: Why autistic women often stop seeking care — and how Amy’s learning to ask questions again.
Living Authentically: From checklist living to joyful presence — finding beauty in small moments, cats, and nature.

4️⃣ Key Learnings

You can’t heal by pleasing everyone.
Autistic women deserve support that trusts their self-knowledge.
Self-diagnosis and formal diagnosis are equally valid paths to clarity.
Living authentically means honouring your timing, your needs, and your truth.

📣 Club Announcements

🎧 The Late Diagnosis Club is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major platforms.

💬 Join our online meetups and community at latediagnosis.club.

📌 Check the LDC Notice Board for Member Contributions

💜 There is a small charge — but no one is turned away for lack of funds.

🌈 Celebrate autistic voices with early access, ad-free listening, and our full archive at AutisticCulturePlus.com

🌐 Visit www.autisticculturepodcast.com

📲 Follow us on Instagram: @autisticculturepodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How Phoenix Made “No” a Care Tool, Not a Crime

Fri, 07 Nov 2025 05:00:00 GMT

In this meeting of The Late Diagnosis Club, Dr Angela Kingdon welcomes artist and illustrator Phoenix Goodson, whose journey through misdiagnosis, hospitalisation, and burnout eventually led to a powerful late diagnosis of autism and ADHD.

Together, they explore how Phoenix rebuilt her life through art, self-advocacy, and community — turning survival into creativity, and chaos into colour.

🪑 Attendees

Chair: Dr Angela Kingdon — Author, community-builder, and Autistic advocate

Guest: Phoenix Goodson — Autistic/ADHD artist, illustrator, and memoirist from the UK

You: The Listener!

🗒️ Meeting Agenda

Opening remarks from the Chair
Member introduction: Phoenix’s 15-year road from misdiagnosis to discovery
Discussion: Healing, identity, and art as sanctuary
Key learnings from the meeting
Club announcements

🧾 Minutes from the Meeting

1️⃣ Opening Remarks

Angela welcomed attendees and introduced Phoenix as this week’s guest. Angela highlighted the importance of recognising misdiagnosis as a barrier to care and community connection.

2️⃣ Member Introduction: Phoenix's Story

Phoenix shares her experience of 15 years of psychiatric misdiagnosis before discovering she is AuDHD. She reflects on how art, writing, and structure became essential tools for healing and communication.

3️⃣ Discussion Highlights

The impact of repeated misdiagnosis on self-worth and identity.
The role of creativity in rebuilding trust in oneself.
How community spaces can offer safety and validation for AuDHD adults.
The importance of accessible language when talking about neurodivergence.

4️⃣ Key Learnings

Misdiagnosis can delay self-understanding, but doesn’t erase it.
Creative practice supports emotional regulation and belonging.
Autistic and ADHD experiences often overlap — support needs to reflect that.
Late discovery can mark the beginning of self-trust, not the end of struggle.

📌 Notice Board

Into The Light — by Phoenix Goodson

A luminous, textural piece exploring self-discovery, resilience, and the transition from survival to creative freedom.

💷 Price: £895 — Foil and acrylic paint on canvas board, includes professional framing and UK postage.

For purchase or exhibition enquiries, don't hesitate to get in touch with Phoenix directly: phoenixgoodsonart@gmail.com

📣 Club Announcements

🎧 The Late Diagnosis Club is available on all major podcast platforms.
💬 Join our online meetups and community at latediagnosis.club.
📌 Check the LDC Notice Board for Member Contributions
💜 There is a small charge — but no one is turned away for lack of funds.

🌈 Celebrate autistic voices with early access, ad-free listening, and our full archive at AutisticCulturePlus.com

🌐 Visit www.autisticculturepodcast.com

📲 Follow us on Instagram: @autisticculturepodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How Sarah Claimed the Title of Neurodivergent Baddie

Fri, 31 Oct 2025 05:00:00 GMT

Welcome to the first official meeting of The Late Diagnosis Club — the podcast for anyone who discovered their neurodivergence later in life.

Hosted by Dr. Angela Kingdon, this episode features artist and activist Sarah Davies, who shares how she went from a dyslexia diagnosis in childhood to discovering her autism at 34.

Together, Angela and Sarah discuss identity, unmasking, self-advocacy, and what it means to call yourself a “neurodivergent baddie.”

🪑 Attendees

Chair: Dr. Angela Kingdon — Author, community-builder, and Autistic advocate

Guest: Sarah Davies — Autistic and Dyslexic artist, campaigner, and community organiser from Wales

You: The Listener!

🗒️ Meeting Agenda

Opening remarks from the Chair
Member introduction: Sarah’s late diagnosis story
Discussion: Life before and after diagnosis
Key learnings from the meeting
Club announcements

🧾 Minutes from the Meeting

1️⃣ Opening Remarks

Angela welcomed listeners to The Late Diagnosis Club — a space where Autistic and Neurodivergent adults can find community, connection, and conversation.

“We’re not here to fix ourselves — we’re here to find each other.”

2️⃣ Member Introduction: Sarah’s Story

Sarah shared how she first identified as Dyslexic in school, but didn’t receive her autism diagnosis until age 34. She described years of masking, burnout, and finally, the relief of understanding her neurotype.

“It wasn’t that I was too much — I was just trying to fit into the wrong room.”

3️⃣ Discussion Highlights

Dopamine Dressing: Using bright colours and creative expression as self-regulation and joy.
Hyperfocus for Healing: How her curiosity about GLP-1 science helped her reconnect with her body.
Activism & Advocacy: From campaigning against the UK “bedroom tax” to founding Wrexham’s local Autistic meetup group.
Community as Medicine: Why Autistic friendships feel grounding, not draining.

4️⃣ Key Learnings

Late diagnosis is an act of self-compassion, not correction.
Autistic joy thrives in community, not conformity.
Humour and authenticity are radical tools for survival.
Self-advocacy begins with knowing what you need — and believing you deserve it.

🔗 Links

Wrexham Adults Autism Group: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1JjoEtEwcg/?mibextid=wwXIfr%0A

📣 Club Announcements

🎧 The Late Diagnosis Club is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major platforms.
💬 Join our online meetups and community at latediagnosis.club.
💜 There is a small charge — but no one is turned away for lack of funds.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How Derek Put ‘Autistic, ADHD’ In His Email Signature And Thrived

Fri, 31 Oct 2025 05:00:00 GMT

In this meeting of The Late Diagnosis Club, Dr. Angela Kingdon welcomes technologist and advocate Derek Crager, who discovered he was Autistic and ADHD at age 50 — after decades of burnout, masking, and surviving unsafe workplaces.

Derek shares how that late diagnosis changed everything: his relationships, his leadership at Amazon, and his mission to build Pocket Mentor, a voice-based AI tool that helps real humans — not “ideal employees” — get the support they need in the moment they need it.

🪑 Attendees

Chair: Dr. Angela Kingdon — Author, community-builder, and Autistic advocate

Guest: Derek Crager — Autistic/ADHD technologist, founder of Pocket Mentor, and author of Human First AI

You: The Listener!

🗒️ Meeting Agenda

Opening remarks from the Chair
Member introduction: Derek’s 10-year road to diagnosis
Discussion: Work, masking, and Autistic safety
Key learnings from the meeting
Club announcements

🧾 Minutes from the Meeting

1️⃣ Opening Remarks

Angela opens the meeting by reminding listeners:

“You’re allowed to take ten years to get here. We saved you a seat.”

2️⃣ Member Introduction: Derek’s Story

Derek describes decades of dangerous job sites and social isolation before finally receiving his autism and ADHD diagnoses at 50. Realising his brain wasn’t broken — just wired for depth and precision — gave him permission to stop apologising for his curiosity.

3️⃣ Discussion Highlights

From Surviving to Designing: How Derek turned his late diagnosis into an advantage at work.
Human-First AI: Building tech that adapts to people, not the other way around.
Autistic Belonging: Creating relationships and workplaces that honour honesty and safety.

4️⃣ Key Learnings

Late diagnosis brings clarity, not limitation.
Autistic design principles benefit everyone.
Authenticity at work is psychological safety in action.

🔗 Links

Web: https://www.practicalai.app
New Book: https://www.humanfirstai.net (Free Chapter)

📣 Club Announcements

🎧 The Late Diagnosis Club is available on all major podcast platforms.
💬 Join our online meetups and community at latediagnosis.club.
💜 There is a small charge — but no one is turned away for lack of funds.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How Lily’s Late Diagnosis Helps Her Support Others

Fri, 31 Oct 2025 05:00:00 GMT

In this meeting of The Late Diagnosis Club, Dr. Angela Kingdon welcomes Lily George, a 25-year-old Autistic mental health worker who was first misdiagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder before realising she is Autistic.

Lily shares what it’s like to work inside the psychiatric system as an Autistic person — supporting others while still learning to support herself. Together, Angela and Lily discuss late diagnosis, unmasking, accommodations, and what happens when you finally start to live as your authentic self.

🪑 Attendees

Chair: Dr. Angela Kingdon — Author, community-builder, and Autistic advocate

Guest: Lily George — Autistic mental health worker and late-diagnosed self-advocate

You: The Listener!

🗒️ Meeting Agenda

Opening remarks from the Chair
Member introduction: Lily’s path from misdiagnosis to clarity
Discussion: Mental health, masking, and self-advocacy at work
Key learnings from the meeting
Club announcements

🧾 Minutes from the Meeting

1️⃣ Opening Remarks

Angela opens the meeting by acknowledging how often Autistic women and AFAB people are misdiagnosed before finding the right language for who they are.

“Sometimes it’s not that we missed the signs — it’s that the system wasn’t built to see us.”

2️⃣ Member Introduction: Lily’s Story

Lily was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder in her teens and spent years believing she was “too emotional” or “too much.” When a therapist suggested she might be Autistic, everything shifted. She began exploring her neurotype, pursuing formal diagnosis for workplace accommodations, and finding self-acceptance through Autistic community.

3️⃣ Discussion Highlights

From Misdiagnosis to Understanding: Why BPD and autism are often confused — especially for women and AFAB people.
The Autistic Worker in a Psychiatric System: Supporting others while masking your own needs.
Unmasking and Regression: Why things you used to force yourself to do may feel impossible once you stop masking.
Self-Advocacy: Asking for adjustments and understanding in a clinical workplace.
Autistic Joy: Pattern-matching, special interests, and rediscovering comfort in authenticity.

4️⃣ Key Learnings

Misdiagnosis delays belonging, not identity.
Self-identification can be just as valid as formal diagnosis.
Autistic people make better systems when they’re allowed to be themselves.
You don’t have to be fully “figured out” to start helping others.

🔗 Links

Follow Lily at her Life with Lily YouTube channel

📣 Club Announcements

🎧 The Late Diagnosis Club is available on all major podcast platforms.
💬 Join our online meetups and community at latediagnosis.club.
💜 There is a small charge — but no one is turned away for lack of funds.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Introducing the Autistic Culture Podcast Network

Fri, 24 Oct 2025 13:52:53 GMT

🎉 Introducing the Autistic Culture Podcast Network

What started as one show — The Autistic Culture Podcast — has grown into something bigger: the Autistic Culture Podcast Network, the first podcast network created by and for autistic people.

Across our shows, we celebrate autistic voices, stories, and culture — because being autistic isn’t just a diagnosis, it’s a community, a worldview, and something worth celebrating.

🎙️ Current Shows:

Autistic Culture (OG)
Autistic Advocacy (OG Fridays)
Neurodivergent Narratives
Autistic Culture 101
Late Diagnosis Club — launching Halloween 🎃

And that’s just the beginning. In January 2026, a new edition of The Autistic Culture Podcast premieres — exploring the creativity, history, and heart of autistic culture.

💫 Support Autistic-Led Media

Join Autistic Culture Plus for ad-free listening, early access, and an exclusive archive of ~100 classic episodes.

Every membership helps:

🎧 Fund neurodivergent creators

🌍 Amplify autistic voices

💡 Build culture, not pathology

🤝 Support accessible, sensory-friendly storytelling

For less than the price of a coffee, you can help sustain a growing network that’s 100% by and for neurodivergent people.

🎙️ Pitch Your Show

Have a podcast — or an idea for one — that celebrates autistic or neurodivergent life?

We’re now accepting pitches for new and established shows created by autistic and neurodivergent people.

Whether you’re an experienced podcaster or just starting out, we’ll help you bring your vision to life with technical support, mentorship, and promotion through the network.

📩 Pitch your show: info@autisticculturepodcast.com

💜 With Gratitude

A huge thank-you to our founding supporters of Autistic Culture Plus, who believed in this network before it even launched.

Our Executive Producers make this work possible — funding neurodivergent creators, amplifying autistic voices, and helping build a media ecosystem rooted in pride, creativity, and community.

These members form the foundation of the Autistic Culture Podcast Network, and you’ll see their names credited at the end of our shows and on our website.

Executive Producers:

Amy Burns, Anamaria B Call, Andrew Banner, Anna Goodson, Ashley Apelzin, Audrea Volker, Ben Coulson, Brian Churcek, Cappy Hamper, Carley Biblin, Charlene Deva, Chloe Cross, Clay Duhigg, Clayton Oliver, Danny Dunn, Daria Brown, David Garrido, Emily Burgess, Eric Crane, Erik Stenerud, Fiona Baker, Grace Norman, Helen Shaddock, Jaimie Collins, Jason Killian, Jen Unruh, Jennifer Carpenter, Julia Tretter, Kathie Watson-Gray, Kenneth Knowles, Kira Cotter, Kristine Lang, Kyle Raney, Llew P Williams, Laura Alvarado, Laura De Vito, Laura Provonsha, Lily George, Nelly Darmi, Nigel Rogers, Rachel Miller, Tim Scott, Tyler Kunz, Victoria Steed, Yanina Wood.

💫 Join now to be credited as a Producer on our shows — and help fund autistic-led media that celebrates our voices, stories, and culture.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Late Diagnosis Club - Coming October 31!

Fri, 17 Oct 2025 12:19:23 GMT

Welcome to The Late Diagnosis Club, a brand new show from the Autistic Culture Podcast Network!

The Late Diagnosis Club is a podcast by and for adults who found they were neurodivergent later-in-life. Hosted by Story Steward Dr. Angela Kingdon, this show features honest conversations with neurodivergent guests navigating the identity shock of late diagnosis or self-identification. Each episode explores neurodivergent traits through a cultural lens, debunks stereotypes, and offers solidarity for those processing family dynamics, unmasking, and reclaiming long-buried SPINs. Whether you’re self-identified or medically diagnosed, this club has been saving you a seat and helps you feel at home in your neurodivergent self.

Autistic Culture is now the Autistic Culture Podcast Network — five shows live, more on the way — all created by and for neurodivergent people.

We’re also launching Autistic Culture Plus on Supercast, where you can listen ad-free, get early access, binge full series, and unlock our exclusive archive of earlier episodes.

Founding Listener Offer:

Join now for £0.99/month (80% off) and be listed as an Executive Producer on our site and show credits. You’ll keep that price as long as you stay subscribed!
On 24 Oct, the price moves to £2.50, and on 31 Oct (Halloween) the standard rate begins: £5/month or £50/year.

Included with Autistic Culture Plus:

• Ad-free listening (sensory-friendly)

• Early access to every episode

• Binge-able themed series

• Exclusive archive of ~100 classic episodes

• Executive Producer credit for founding members

Key Dates:

🗓️ Now — Founding offer live (£0.99)

🗓️ 24 Oct — Trailer drops, price rises to £2.50

🗓️ 31 Oct — Virtual Halloween launch + Late Diagnosis Club premiere

🗓️ Jan 2026 — New Autistic Culture series launches (members binge early!)

Current Shows:

Autistic Culture (OG)
Autistic Advocacy (OG Fridays)
Neurodivergent Narrative
Autistic Culture 101
Late Diagnosis Club - Interview show launching Halloween

🎉 Join Autistic Culture Plus: autisticculture.supercast.com

🎃 RSVP to the Halloween party: autisticculture.substack.com

📧 Pitch us your show: info@autisticculturepodcast.com

Thanks for supporting independent, neurodivergent-affirming media. We’re saving you a seat. 💜

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.