Shepton Mallet mum shares late autism diagnosis experience

A young mother recently diagnosed with autism admits she was never able to present her true self to her mother.

Flo Bennett from Shepton Mallet was diagnosed with autism five years ago, when she was 24 years old.

She shared her experience on a BBC documentary Inside Our Autistic Minds and said it had helped her to open up to her family.

In the film she told her mother: "I am ready to be myself. I hope you won't be disappointed".

"I knew from a very young age that I was different," she said.

"The way I would sort my toys, that I would insist on different plates for different foods, birthday parties made me anxious."

She said her diagnosis disappointed her at first.

"I wanted to fix it with medicine or therapy. I felt wrong at the time, but I don't anymore."

Ms Bennett said since filming the documentary she had stopped masking her behaviour in front of her mother, which had made them "a lot closer".

Since then Flo Bennett has also became a mother herself of four-month-old Dot.

She said if Dot turned out to be autistic, she would have nothing to fear because she would be surrounded by people "who are either autistic or love someone who is autistic".

Her mother Ruth said when she heard her daughter speak about her experiences, she felt emotional.

"Any parent would want to know if their child was feeling isolated or lonely," she said.

"But I also feel very proud of Flo as the young woman she is."

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