Actor Simon Pegg has revealed that he has been diagnosed with ADHD following years of struggling with issues he had previously attributed to his character.
The 56-year-old star opened up about his diagnosis on the podcast I'm ADHD! No You're Not, explaining that he decided to seek answers because he “just wanted to know”.
Simon Pegg. Photo credit: Fred Duval, Shutterstock
He said the diagnosis helped him make sense of difficulties he had been dealing with for years.
“It confirmed a lot of stuff I'd been wrestling with and that I'd been attributing to just character fault,” he explained.
Speaking about his ADHD, Pegg said he initially thought the condition had developed later in life because he had not been a particularly disruptive child.
“I felt like it was something that had come on in later life because I wasn't a naughty child,” he said.
“I've had bouts of depression in my adult life since 18 and I thought maybe it had come on with that.”
Simon Pegg with wife Matilda Pegg. Photo credit: Fred Duval, Shutterstock
The actor admitted that his understanding of ADHD had previously been shaped by the stereotype that children with the condition were chaotic, disruptive and struggled to pay attention in school.
However, reflecting on his childhood, he began to recognise behaviours that could have been signs of the condition.
“But there were things I did do as a kid - fidget or whatever - that made me think, 'Maybe I've had this longer than I thought',” he said.
Pegg also explained how learning about his diagnosis helped him look back on his childhood differently and understand feelings he had struggled to explain.
“I did feel different in a way I might not be able to put my finger on. Maybe everybody feels that way,” he said.
