Autistic Culture Presents...

In this meeting of The Late Diagnosis Club, Dr Angela Kingdon welcomes Katharine Gates, a writer, artist, and long-time creative who identified as Autistic and ADHD after a lifetime of questioning herself.

Katharine shares how she spent decades feeling like the “odd one out” — academically gifted, outwardly successful, yet constantly struggling with everyday life, relationships, and a persistent sense that something didn’t quite fit.

After 40 years of therapy, misdiagnoses, and searching for answers, it was a period of Autistic burnout that finally led her to recognise her neurodivergence and begin to reframe her life.

This is a conversation about being misunderstood for decades — and what changes when you finally understand yourself.

🪑 Attendees

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

Guest: Katharine Gates — writer, artist, and Autistic + ADHD creator

You: The Listener!

🗒️ Meeting Agenda

• Opening remarks from the Chair
• Member introduction: Gifted child, lifelong difference
• Discussion: Masking, achievement, and burnout
• Privilege and hidden accommodations
• ADHD + Autism dual identification
• Alexithymia and emotional processing
• Special interests and bottom-up thinking
• Family patterns and generational neurodivergence
• Self-compassion and dropping shame
• Key learnings
• Club announcements

🧾 Minutes from the Meeting

1️⃣ Opening Remarks

Angela introduces Katharine Gates, whose story reflects a common Late Diagnosis Club experience — decades of feeling different, capable, and confused all at once.

2️⃣ Member Introduction: Katharine’s Story

Katharine describes herself as an “exceedingly odd child,” growing up academically gifted but struggling to translate that success into everyday life.

She became highly skilled at masking — orienting her life around achievement and external validation — while privately questioning why basic things felt so difficult.

Over time, this led to cycles of burnout, misdiagnosis, and self-blame, with labels such as depression, anxiety, substance use, and personality disorder used to explain her experiences.

It wasn’t until a major burnout in adulthood that Katharine encountered the concept of autistic burnout and began recognising herself in Autistic narratives.

3️⃣ Discussion Highlights

• Gifted but struggling: Academic success masking real challenges
• Hyper masking: Performing competence at the cost of burnout
• Burnout trigger: Brain “stopping” rather than emotional collapse
• Therapist dismissal: Being told she “just wanted to feel special”
• ADHD alongside Autism: Dual identification later in the process
• Alexithymia: Difficulty identifying and processing emotions
• Masking as performance: Life experienced as “putting on a show”
• Parenting moment: Struggles with empathy prompting deeper reflection
• Generational patterns: Neurodivergence, trauma, and coping across family lines
• Special interests: Deep dives into systems, patterns, and categorisation

4️⃣ Key Learnings

• You can be highly capable and still struggle deeply.
• Masking can delay recognition for decades.
• Privilege can both hide support needs and meet them.
• Burnout can be the turning point toward understanding.
• Emotional processing differences are often overlooked.
• Special interests can shape identity, career, and meaning.
• Self-compassion can be one of the most powerful outcomes of a diagnosis.

📣 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

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🎙️ 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.