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
🧾 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
4️⃣ Key Learnings
📌 Notice Board
📣 Club Announcements
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📌 Check the LDC Notice Board for Member Contributions
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