Getting a diagnosis after years of struggling with symptoms is often a relief for affected patients. Such was the case with singer and actress Lily Allen. After a doctor had already made the assumption, Allen got the result: “I was just diagnosed with ADHD in adults,” she explains in an interview with The Times.
The abbreviation ADHD stands for an attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, which is often characterized by symptoms such as inattention, hyperactivity or impulsivity. She has often thought about the fact that she might have ADHD. “It kind of runs in my family,” she says. But the British only got the diagnosis in the USA, “where these things are taken a little more seriously than in England”. If people are not diagnosed correctly, this can lead to far-reaching problems, as journalist Angelina Boerger explained in the stern podcast “Today important”: “For example, depression, anxiety disorders or addictions, which often overlay the undiscovered ADHD disease.”
Allen took a first consequence after the diagnosis in relation to her mobile phone behavior. “I had to turn off social media completely because as soon as I look at it, hours of my day can be gone,” reveals the singer. In the past, before she knew about her ADHD, Allen was already taking Adderall. The drug is prescribed to ADHD sufferers to keep symptoms at bay. However, Allen took it to lose weight faster. And she took too much. “I got addicted to this drug because it made me invincible and I could work really late,” she revealed on a podcast in 2021.
Allen has repeatedly attracted attention in the past with drug headlines. She now lives in seclusion in New York with her husband, “Stranger Things” star David Harbour, and their two daughters. “Now that I’m here in America, I live a pretty separate life from everyone. I’m a little bit of a loner, a little bit of an isolationist,” she explains to The Times. She also turned her back on the music industry. “It’s a patriarchal industry, it’s misogynistic and awful,” she says. From now on she will concentrate on her acting career.
Quellen: “The Times” / “The Recovery” Podcast
