Actress Denise Welch details how her ADHD diagnosis almost caused her to lose her sobriety after more than a decade.
The 66-year-old appeared on the November 18 episode ADHD rant podcast alongside host Alex Partridge, where she opened up about being diagnosed with late-onset ADHD two years ago.
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders and can lead to difficulty paying attention and controlling impulsive behavior or overactivity, according to the CDC.
Welch admitted that the diagnosis caught her off guard because she thought clinical depression was her only mental health problem. She has struggled with postpartum depression since 1989 when her son Matty Healy was born.
“Because depression has always been my illness … I’ve never thought about anything else,” she said on the show. “[Depression] was always my thing.”
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Denise Welch.
ADHD Chatter Podcast/YouTube
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Welch was eventually prescribed medication to treat ADHD. She recalled telling her husband, Lincoln Townley, that she didn’t “feel the need” to take medication because she didn’t want to “change who I am.” She said he reminded her that he was in favor of anti-depressants when needed and told her it was a similar situation. She agreed to try.
“Lincoln said to me, ‘If someone else was diagnosed with something and advised to take medication, you would tell them to take it,’ because I’m a big believer in anti-depressants when they’re prescribed for the right reasons.”
The Relaxed women The panelist said she first took the drug in January 2023 before attending one of her son’s plays. Healy is the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of the group The 1975.
“I honestly thought, because of the way it was described to me, that my head would be clearer. I would be much more focused. I wouldn’t be trying to do a million things at once, I wouldn’t have problems in my head,” explained Welch.
“I took the pill and an hour later I wanted a drink and a cigarette for the first time in 11 years,” she said. “And it was horrible how it affected me. If I hadn’t been so old and so confident and able to manage my sobriety, that would have been a very very very dangerous tipping point for me.”
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Welch said she wishes she had known about the potential side effect. “It was really quite scary,” she added. I made the decision, literally the day after, that I would not take it. My sobriety is too important to me to ever risk that.”
The star mentioned that she hid her desire for alcohol all night, but her husband noticed it anyway.
“Lincoln, he said the next day, ‘I don’t want you to ever take it again … because your energy was like when you were drinking.’ He felt the old energy coming back,” she recalled. “His observation about me was, ‘This is scary.'”
Despite not having a positive experience herself, Welch emphasized that medication can be extremely helpful for many people with ADHD.
“One of the things I’m always happy to tell people is that ADHD medication changes a lot of people’s lives for the better, but there are some people that it’s not good for, and I’m absolutely one of them,” she said.
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Source: HIS Education