How Georgina Turned Years of Being Dismissed Into Life-Saving Work
In this episode, Angela speaks with Georgina Banks, Autistic founder of AuDHD UK, about the misdiagnosis, chronic burnout, and late discovery that led her to build a suicide-prevention charity.
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.
🎧 Listen to this episode:
🪑 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.
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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.
The pattern of chronic illness and sensory collapse being routed into “anxiety” shows how diagnostic language can obscure rather than clarify risk.
Powerful episode on the gap between experiencing burnout and being believed. The part about doctors dismissing sensory overwhelm and shutdowns as just anxiety is so frustratingly common, I've watched freinds go through nearly identical diagnostic odysseys where their bodies were screaming but systems kept labeling it wrong. Georgina's model with AuDHD UK addressing both access and validation simultaneously feels like addressing the actual problem instead of just symptom-chasing.