Ellen DeGeneres has opened up about being diagnosed with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), while also revealing she’s grappling with several other health conditions.
The former TV host, 66, shared her litany of problems in her new Netflix comedy special, For Your Approval, in which she also admitted that she went to therapy to deal with ‘all the hatred’ following allegations she fostered a toxic work environment on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
During the special, Ellen explained she had no prior knowledge of OCD, but said that with her ADHD it made her ‘well adjusted.’
She began: ‘I may have OCD because a therapist said so and I said, “Yes I am very organized,” because I thought that was the O.
‘I didn’t know what OCD was. I raised in a religion, Christian Science, that doesn’t acknowledge diseases or disorders. So when I was growing up, nobody talked about anything.
Ellen DeGeneres opened up having OCD and ADHD in her newly released Netflix special
Ellen revealed that she had no prior knowledge of OCD before her therapist diagnosed her
‘There was no discussion of anything. I look back now and I realize my dad for sure had OCD.
‘He would check the doorknob 15 times before we’d leave, he’d check the faucet 15 times, he would unplug all the appliances before we left the house because lightning could strike and it could catch fire.
‘They say it could be hereditary.’
Ellen revealed that she asked her wife of 15 years, Portia de Rossi, if she believed she had OCD, to which she said yes.
She continued: ‘It’s funny, I never thought of myself as obsessive. I think of myself as careful and everyone else careless and out of control.’
Obsessive compulsive disorder, usually known as OCD, is a common mental health condition which makes people obsess over thoughts and develop behavior they struggle to control.
According to the NHS, it can affect anyone at any age but normally develops during young adulthood.
It can cause people to have repetitive unwanted or unpleasant thoughts.
Speaking in her special, For Your Approval, Ellen also divulged that her ADHD makes it difficult for her to focus
She shared that her wife Portia de Rossi agreed with her therapist about an OCD diagnosis
People may also develop compulsive behavior – a physical action or something mental – which they do over and over to try to relieve the obsessive thoughts.
The condition can be controlled, and treatment usually involves psychological therapy or medication.
Turning her attention to her ADHD, a chronic disorder that affects a person’s behavior and is characterized by ongoing symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity, Ellen explained that she struggled to prevent herself from getting distracted.
She said: ‘My ADD (sic) makes it really hard to sit down and focus on anything at all.
‘I mean, do you know how hard it was for me to put this together? Of course you don’t. Why would I ask that question? It’s hard for me to focus.’
Ellen added: ‘So, I have ADD (sic), I have OCD, I’m losing my memory. But I think I’m well-adjusted because I obsess on things, but I don’t have the attention span to stick with it, and I quickly forget what I was obsessing about in the first place.
‘So, it takes me all the way around to being well adjusted, I think.’
Elsewhere in the special, Ellen revealed she had ‘full on’ osteoporosis, a bone disease that causes bones to become brittle and break easily.
She divulged that she learned of her condition after her doctor advised her to get a bone density exam.
Ellen joked that her bones were like sand and added: ‘I don’t even know how I’m standing up right now. I’m like a human sandcastle. I could disintegrate in the shower.’
The comic also shared that she had been diagnosed with arthritis, a chronic condition that causes joint inflammation, pain, stiffness, and swelling.
‘It’s hard to be honest about aging and seem cool,’ she said.
‘I had excruciating pain one day and I thought I tore a ligament or something and I got an MRI and they said, “No, it’s just arthritis.”
‘I said, “How did I get that? And he said, Oh it just happens at your age.”‘