In this meeting of The Late Diagnosis Club, Dr Angela Kingdon welcomes Carolyn Kiel, host of the award-winning podcast Beyond 6 Seconds, who discovered she was Autistic not before, but through her podcasting journey.

Together, Angela and Carolyn explore late discovery through connection, the limits of traditional narratives around autism, workplace misunderstandings, and how language and self-understanding can transform everyday life.

🪑 Attendees

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

Guest: Carolyn Kiel — Host of the Beyond 6 Seconds Podcast

You: The Listener!

🗒️ Meeting Agenda

• Opening remarks from the Chair
• Member introduction: Discovering autism through podcasting
• Discussion: Representation, stereotypes, and lived experience
• Late diagnosis and identity integration
• Self-identification vs formal diagnosis
• Post-diagnosis adjustments and accommodations
• Autistic joy and special interests
• Key learnings
• Club announcements

🧾 Minutes from the Meeting

1️⃣ Opening Remarks

Angela introduces Carolyn Kiel, host of Beyond 6 Seconds, a long-running podcast exploring human experiences and neurodiversity. Carolyn shares how her podcasting journey began as a creative outlet, and unexpectedly became the pathway to discovering her own Autistic identity.

2️⃣ Member Introduction: Carolyn’s Story

Carolyn began podcasting in 2018 to build creative expression and practise one-on-one conversations. As an introverted and self-described shy person, interviewing others about their passions offered a structured way to connect.

Through her podcast, she encountered members of the disability and neurodivergent community, including Autistic creators. Hearing their experiences, particularly how autism felt rather than how it was externally described, led to a growing sense of recognition.

After further research, particularly around how autism presents in women, Carolyn began to question whether she might be Autistic. She later pursued a formal diagnosis in her mid-40s, which confirmed her understanding and led her to pivot her podcast toward neurodivergent voices and intersectional experiences.

3️⃣ Discussion Highlights

• Discovery through others: Recognising yourself in the lived experiences of others
• Beyond stereotypes: Moving past narrow 80s/90s definitions of autism
• Self-identification vs diagnosis: Barriers, access, and validity of both paths
• Social confusion: Difficulty navigating conversations, timing, and group dynamics
• Communication shifts: Learning to verbalise internal processing needs
• Accommodations: Fidgets, earplugs, sunglasses, and sensory awareness
• Podcasting as control: Creative ownership, structure, and autonomy
• Intersectionality: Exploring neurodivergence across race, gender, and identity
• Corporate navigation: Developing “scripts” to survive workplace culture

4️⃣ Key Learnings

• Late diagnosis can emerge through connection and shared stories, not just clinical pathways.
• Understanding internal experience is often more powerful than external definitions.
• Self-identification is valid, particularly where diagnostic barriers exist.
• Giftedness and competence can mask significant support needs.
• Small accommodations can meaningfully improve daily life.
• Workplace challenges are often rooted in misunderstanding, not inability.
• Identity integration is an ongoing process, not a single moment of clarity.

📌 Notice Board

• Beyond 6 Seconds: Neurodiversity stories from neurodivergent people
• Recommended Episode: Interview with Tiffany Hammond (A Day With No Words)

📣 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.

In this meeting of The Late Diagnosis Club, Dr Angela Kingdon welcomes Michael Kelly, a late-diagnosed Autistic artist and recent PhD graduate in design whose work explores how art can help us think about thinking.

Michael’s path to diagnosis began unexpectedly during his wife Susie’s autism assessment. After sitting in on several sessions as her carer, the clinician suggested that Michael pursue an assessment as well, leading to his own diagnosis a year later.

Together, Angela and Michael explore childhood solitude and special interests, creative practice as a way of understanding the mind, and how art can disrupt the systems that shape our thinking.

🪑 Attendees

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

Guest: Michael Kelly — Autistic artist, designer, and researcher

You: The Listener!

🗒️ Meeting Agenda

• Opening remarks from the Chair
• Member introduction: Growing up as the “weird kid” and finding refuge in books and ideas
• Discussion: Philosophy, art practice, and early adult burnout
• Psychosis, misdiagnosis, and years labelled as anxiety
• Autistic masking, sensory overwhelm, and family patterns
• Art as inquiry: performance, sculpture, and metacognition
• Artificial intelligence, normativity, and the role of artists
• Key learnings
• Club announcements

🧾 Minutes from the Meeting

1️⃣ Opening Remarks

Angela introduces Michael Kelly, a late-diagnosed Autistic artist and newly minted PhD graduate whose research explores how art can help us understand thinking itself, particularly in the context of emerging technologies and artificial intelligence.

2️⃣ Member Introduction: Michael’s Story

Michael describes growing up as “the weird kid,” finding comfort in solitary interests like books, dinosaurs, comics, and drawing. As an only child, he often retreated into imagination and reflection. Experiences that, in hindsight, align with Autistic ways of engaging with the world.

After studying philosophy at Durham University in the UK, Michael pursued creative work and eventually a career in advertising before experiencing severe burnout and psychosis in his mid-20s. For years afterwards, he lived under an anxiety diagnosis without understanding the deeper neurodivergent context behind his experiences.

3️⃣ Discussion Highlights

• Only-child solitude: Safe space for imagination, reading, and deep thinking
• Early interests: Dinosaurs, comics, drawing, theology, and philosophy
• Advertising burnout: Workplace pressure and sensory overload leading to psychosis
• Misdiagnosis: Years labelled with anxiety before autism was considered
• Partner recognition: Sitting in on Susie’s autism assessment sparked Michael’s own
• Masking and sensory overwhelm: Eye contact, social performance, and inherited patterns
• Art as inquiry: Performance art, sculpture, and artistic experiments exploring the mind
• Metacognition: Using art to examine how humans think about thinking
• AI and normativity: Concerns about artificial intelligence reinforcing “average” thinking

4️⃣ Key Learnings

• Late discovery often begins with recognition by someone close to us.
• Years of anxiety or other diagnoses can obscure underlying neurodivergence.
• Creative practice can become a powerful tool for understanding internal experience.
• Masking and sensory overwhelm often shape lifelong coping strategies.
• Artists may play an important role in questioning the systems and technologies shaping our future.

📌 Notice Board

• Michael’s 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

🎙️ 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.

In this meeting of The Late Diagnosis Club, Dr Angela Kingdon welcomes Tigz Rice, an empowerment photographer whose work centres on helping people feel truly seen in their own bodies.

Diagnosed with ADHD and autism in her late 30s, Tigz reflects on the subtle signs that were present throughout childhood — from early hyperfocus on computers and photography to lifelong curiosity about how things work. What began as a casual exploration of ADHD eventually led to a dual diagnosis that reframed decades of experience and self-understanding.

Together, Angela and Tigz explore late discovery, high masking, creative hyperfocus, and how learning her neurodivergent “user manual” has changed how she treats herself.

🪑 Attendees

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

Guest: Tigz Rice — Empowerment photographer, podcaster, and late-identified Autistic ADHDer

You: The Listener!

🗒️ Meeting Agenda

• Opening remarks from the Chair
• Member introduction: Creativity, photography, and late neurodivergent discovery
• Discussion: ADHD first, autism later, and the long path to diagnosis
• Hyperfocus, masking, and childhood signs
• Creative communities, burlesque, and neurodivergent overlap
• Learning self-compassion after diagnosis
• Key learnings
• Club announcements

🧾 Minutes from the Meeting

1️⃣ Opening Remarks

Angela welcomes listeners to the meeting and introduces photographer Tigz Rice, whose work focuses on helping people feel comfortable being seen in their bodies. Through photography, Tigz creates spaces where authenticity and vulnerability are welcomed rather than hidden.

2️⃣ Member Introduction: Tigz’s Story

Tigz did not suspect she was neurodivergent until her 30s. The idea first emerged when several friends in her social circle began receiving ADHD and autism diagnoses.

What began as curiosity became a deeper investigation. Her ADHD diagnosis arrived first, followed by an autism diagnosis only a few months later at age 38. Rather than shock or shame, the experience felt largely validating — like finally gaining access to the “user manual” for her brain.

3️⃣ Discussion Highlights

• Friendship pattern: Entire social circle gradually discovering neurodivergence
• ADHD pathway: Diagnosis first revealed lifelong dopamine-seeking and shifting interests
• Autism clarity: ADHD medication made Autistic traits more visible
• Childhood signs: Fascination with computers, photography, and how systems work
• Creative hyperfocus: Photoshop, illustration, and photography as enduring interests
• Performance worlds: Theatre and burlesque communities with strong neurodivergent presence
• Masking awareness: Realising later how much effort social performance required
• Autistic glimmers: Full-body sensory moments of joy and alignment
• Self-compassion: Learning to honour limits and support her own needs

4️⃣ Key Learnings

• Late diagnosis can bring validation rather than crisis.
• ADHD and autism can mask each other until one becomes clearer.
• Creative communities often offer safer spaces for neurodivergent expression.
• Understanding your neurodivergence can lead to greater self-compassion.
• Trusting your intuition and pattern recognition can guide self-discovery.

📌 Notice Board

• Tigz Website
• Tigz Podcast
• If anyone wants to be photographed by Tigz, you can find the details at https://www.tigzrice.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

🎙️ 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.

In this meeting of The Late Diagnosis Club, Dr Angela Kingdon welcomes Jenna Goldstein, a late-diagnosed Autistic school psychologist who left the public education system after recognising its incompatibility with neurodiversity-affirming practice.

Jenna first recognised her own autism after her three-year-old daughter was identified. As she turned to Autistic voices for understanding, what began as advocacy for her child became a deeper self-recognition. Within months, she self-identified, and years later sought a formal diagnosis from an Autistic evaluator to connect more dots and model an Autistic identity for her children.

This is a conversation about human rights, blueprint-building, leaving systems that harm, and crafting lives that actually work for autistic nervous systems.

🪑 Attendees

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

Guest: Jenna Goldstein — late-diagnosed Autistic school psychologist; founder of ND3

You: The Listener!

🗒️ Meeting Agenda

• Opening remarks from the Chair
• Member introduction: Daughter’s diagnosis and late self-recognition
• Discussion: School psychology training and harmful autism narratives
• Unspoken agendas: Budgets, bias, and gatekeeping in public schools
• “Developmental delay” and the myth of the model child
• Leaving public schools and building ND3
• Neurodiversity-affirming family support
• Designing sustainable neurodivergent homes

🧾 Minutes from the Meeting

1️⃣ Opening Remarks

Angela introduces Jenna as a late-diagnosed Autistic school psychologist who recognised her own neurodivergence through parenting, and who ultimately left the public school system after concluding it was structurally incompatible with neurodiversity-affirming values.

2️⃣ Member Introduction: Jenna’s Story

Jenna first encountered autism when her three-year-old daughter was identified. Dissatisfied with deficit-based descriptions, she sought understanding directly from Autistic adults. As she read first hand accounts, she recognised herself.

She self-identified within six months and later pursued a formal diagnosis with autism, not out of doubt, but to deepen understanding and model Autistic identity for her children.

3️⃣ Discussion Highlights

• Autistic recognition: Learning from Autistic voices instead of textbooks
• Medical model critique: Rejecting “defective human” narratives
• Unspoken pressures: Budget constraints influencing eligibility decisions
• Gatekeeping language: “Developmental delay” as catch-all category
• System limits: Realising change from within has ceilings
• Private practice shift: Leaving public schools for ND3
• Human rights lens: Equal dignity for neurodivergent children
• Family sustainability: Peaks, valleys, flexibility, and regulation planning
• Blueprint building: Co-creating neurodivergent life models

4️⃣ Key Learnings

• Listening to autistic voices changes everything
• Training does not guarantee understanding
• Systems can be well-intentioned and still harmful
• Budget pressures quietly shape access to support
• Neutral framing reduces shame and blame
• Autistic pride is pride in humanity, not productivity
• Not all systems can be changed from within
• Sustainable lives require intentional design
• You are allowed to leave what harms you

📌 Notice Board

ND3 Instagram

ND3 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

🎙️ 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.

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

• Amy Kriewaldt Instagram
• Kriewaldt Academy Instagram
• PDA USA

📣 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.

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

• Loud Hands: Autistic People, Speaking
• Autistic Self-Advocacy Network
• Autism Society of Washington
• Thurston County Inclusion
• Therapeutic Beginnings 

📣 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.

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

• Inkulsion Guide
• Someone Like Me Anthology
• Julie’s Website
• Wintering by Katherine May

📣 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.

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

• ArtED Website
• Helen’s 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

🎙️ 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.

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

🎙️ 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.

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

• Abbey’s Instagram
• Mediocre Arts & Crafts Club

📣 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.

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

🎙️ 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.