About Us

Hi, I'm Katie

I'm Katie, and I'm the whole shop. I'm autistic and ADHD (AuDHD, if you know, you know), a creative, and a chronically ill, burnt-out girlie who is stubbornly passionate about building a life I actually love. Dopamine Warehouse is me sharing the products and ideas I'm obsessed with, in the hope they light something up for you too.

Most brand stories get tidied up until they shine. Mine won't, because the mess is sort of the point.

It started with jewellery

Before any of this, I fell completely in love with jewellery. Not sensible jewellery. The fun stuff. The loud, silly, joyful pieces from indie brands I adore, the kind that light up the part of you that never quite got to be a kid. Wearing it felt like permission. Permission to play, to be a bit much, to unmask and actually look like myself.

I wanted that for other neurodivergent people too. So the first version of Dopamine Warehouse was exactly that: a little jewellery shop for brains like mine.

Then life did what life does

It stalled. I got pulled back into work, and then I got so burnt out I couldn't face much of anything. Not my hobbies, not my friends, not the shop. The spark just went quiet.

And the stretch that followed was one of the hardest of my life. A traumatic pregnancy loss. Health scares. A tonne of medical gaslighting on top, being told I was fine when I knew I wasn't. I won't go into all of it here. Just know it was a lot, and for a long time everything was survival. The shop sat in a drawer. So did most of me.

Finding my way back

Creativity came back for me before anything else did. Small hobbies. Making things again. Little hits of joy that reminded me I was still in here somewhere. That's honestly how I climbed out, not with a five step morning routine or a wellness hack, but by letting myself play again.

Dopamine Warehouse grew out of that. It's the shop I needed on the days I couldn't get off the floor, a place that runs on joy and play and being understood, made by someone who knows exactly how far away those things can feel.

Where it is now

So this is a shop that stocks dopamine, built by someone still recovering and done pretending otherwise. It started with jewellery that helps you unmask, and then my brain did what my brain does and fell for everything else too.

These days the shelves hold whatever I'm currently obsessed with. Stationery I do not need and cannot stop buying. Planners for the fantasy version of me who has her life perfectly together. Colouring things, because doing something with my hands quiets the noise. Random pop culture and internet references that only the right people will clock. Homeware and decor for making a space actually feel like yours. Sensory pieces made for grown-ups, because you don't grow out of needing to stim and regulate, even though everything else out there is built for kids. Little collectibles and deeply unnecessary delights. And a healthy dose of witchy woo, not because it fixes anything, but because it feels good, and feeling good is reason enough.

The shelves change with my brain. That is not a bug, it is the whole format. You are basically shopping the inside of a neurodivergent brain, one hyperfixation at a time.

I'm still healing. That's allowed. And if you are too, you're exactly who this is for.

Katie x