{"id":941727,"date":"2026-07-17T19:33:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T19:33:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/941727\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T19:33:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T19:33:17","slug":"a-san-diego-womans-journey-of-self-discovery-nbc-7-san-diego","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/941727\/","title":{"rendered":"A San Diego woman\u2019s journey of self-discovery \u2013 NBC 7 San Diego"},"content":{"rendered":"

A San Diego woman says receiving an autism diagnosis as an adult helped her better understand herself, build lasting friendships and embrace her identity.<\/p>\n

Katie Phelps, 43, was diagnosed with autism in 2022 after years of masking traits that went unrecognized while she was growing up.<\/p>\n

“I grew up highly masked,” Phelps said. “Growing up in the ’80s and ’90s, nobody really flagged it.”<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

Rather than changing who she was, Phelps said the diagnosis gave her the freedom to live more authentically.<\/p>\n

“It’s really freed me to be my truest self,” she said.<\/p>\n

The following year, Phelps joined the Autism Society of San Diego<\/a> through one of its social groups for autistic adults. She has since become a member of the organization’s board of directors<\/a>.<\/p>\n

She credits the nonprofit with helping her form meaningful relationships and expand her social circle.<\/p>\n

“There’s social groups, I’ve made new friends and I’ve got a lot of experiences through the different groups and stuff that I attend,” Phelps said.<\/p>\n

One of those friendships has become especially meaningful.<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

“I have a best friend, his name is Noah and I met him through the Autism Society, a social group for adults, and we do adventures all the time,” she said.<\/p>\n

Phelps also identifies as a member of the LGBTQ+ community. She said she has always been comfortable with that part of her identity.<\/p>\n

“I’ve always had pride in myself and who I am,” she said.<\/p>\n

Although she is not attending this year’s San Diego Pride Parade, Phelps said she appreciates what Pride represents and the decades-long fight for equality and acceptance.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s really important to have a Pride Month to show that we’re just humans, we just love different,” she said.<\/p>\n

She added that acceptance should extend to everyone.<\/p>\n

“We all deserve to be accepted for who we are,” Phelps said.<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

Research<\/a> has consistently found that autistic people are more likely to identify as LGBTQ+ than the general population, although researchers say the reasons for that association are not yet fully understood.<\/p>\n

Phelps said she does not define herself by the intersection of those identities. Instead, she hopes people recognize that every individual has their own unique experiences.<\/p>\n

“Everyone’s different. Everyone with autism is a different person than other people with autism,” she said.<\/p>\n

She also encourages others not to let anyone else define them.<\/p>\n

“You shouldn’t let anyone else try to say who you are, only you can,” Phelps said. “You don’t choose to be one way or the other, you just are.”<\/p>\n

Phelps credits much of her personal growth to the Autism Society of San Diego, which has served<\/a> the community since the 1960s. The nonprofit offers support groups, educational programs and other resources for autistic individuals and their families.<\/p>\n

This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC San Diego. AI tools helped convert the story to a digital article, and an NBC San Diego journalist edited the article for publication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A San Diego woman says receiving an autism diagnosis as an adult helped her better understand herself, build…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":941728,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,7720,3549,7264,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-941727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-america","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-hillcrest","tag-san-diego","tag-sandiego","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116936993028812177","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=941727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/941728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=941727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=941727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=941727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}