Castles in the Sky — Rod's Story - Burnt Out Mums Club Special Guest

Ever wished you could just read in to the brain of your autistic partner? This is the place for you. Welcome to this week's meeting of the Burnt Out Mums Club.This week, Alison is joined by a very special guest: her husband Rod. And yes, her friends are going to be very jealous.Rod was diagnosed with autism and combined-type ADHD in early 2025 — later in life, and after a path that most late-diagnosed adults will recognise: years of masking, a childhood of being told he was "too much," and a growing suspicion that something was going on long before anyone put a name to it. In this episode, he talks openly about what that journey actually looked like from the inside.They dig into the moment a psychologist essentially told him he shouldn't be okay — and what that cracked open. How moving house became the unexpected trigger that unravelled everything. What it really means to spend a lifetime as someone else, and why being handed a Level 1 diagnosis after decades of white-knuckling it through the world can feel more like an insult than a relief.There's also a genuinely beautiful conversation about what it's like to be in a relationship with someone whose richest, most fascinating world mostly happens inside their own head — and what it costs both of them.Raw, funny, and unexpectedly moving. Rod builds castles in the sky and goes and lives in them — and this week, we finally get to go inside.