Kimberley Nixon feels ‘lighter’ after ADHD and autism analysis

A Welsh actress says a “big weight has been lifted off my shoulders” after being recognized with autism and ADHD.

Kimberley Nixon, star of Channel 4’s Contemporary Meat, developed perinatal obsessive compulsive dysfunction (OCD), after giving beginning to her son throughout the 2020 pandemic.

She mentioned her worries about her child’s wellbeing escalated into intense anxiousness, with signs lasting round two and a half years.

As she started to get well, different lifelong patterns began to make sense, prompting her to hunt a analysis.

Following a collection of in-depth assessments and commonplace diagnostic exams, she was formally recognized with autism and ADHD on Wednesday.

In an interview with BBC Radio Wales, Nixon instructed presenter Behnaz Akhgar: “Everyone knows what the NHS is like in relation to ready lists, so it is taken some time.

“The assessments are extremely thorough – they dig into each little nook and cranny of your life and your previous.”

The actress, from Pontypridd, Rhondda Cynon Taf, identified for her roles in Wild Youngster and Angus, Thongs and Excellent Snogging, mentioned she now feels “lighter” and is “kinder” to herself, which she described as “actually beautiful”.

Reflecting on the analysis, she mentioned: “It is that sq. peg in a spherical gap feeling.

“I’ve realised it isn’t that my mind is flawed – it is simply totally different.

“I do not course of or interpret issues the identical method others do.

“That all the time felt like an issue.

“However now, it simply looks like a distinction.”

Nixon additionally spoke about her expertise of being recognized with perinatal OCD, which is if you expertise OCD throughout being pregnant or within the first yr after giving beginning.

OCD is a psychological well being situation characterised by intrusive ideas and compulsive behaviours.

After years of IVF, she gave beginning to her son throughout the 2020 pandemic, which she described because the “massive catalyst” for her struggles.

“I went via a extremely powerful time postpartum,” she mentioned.

“Ultimately, I used to be recognized with perinatal OCD – which I did not even know was a factor.

“When you begin wanting into it, you realise it is really fairly frequent.”

Nixon mentioned the situation didn’t current within the typical methods individuals affiliate with OCD.

“I am not a neat freak, I do not tick the same old packing containers – however with perinatal OCD, I completely did,” she mentioned.

“It concerned actually distressing intrusive ideas, repetitive considering, and punishing compulsions – simply to alleviate the anxiousness.”

Final yr, she instructed BBC Radio Wales’ Books That Made Me with Lucy Owen: “I used to be simply satisfied that I wasn’t doing issues proper.

“I wasn’t feeding him proper. What temperature is he alleged to be?

“Each time he cried I used to be simply type of shaking – I simply obtained actually hyper vigilant and terrified.”

Since studying extra in regards to the situation, Nixon has made it a precedence to talk overtly about it, saying it is “not as extensively recognised as postnatal despair”.

In Thursday’s interview, Nixon additionally spoke about her newest position within the ITV collection Shardlake.

She performs the character Joan within the four-part drama, which relies on CJ Sansom’s historic thriller novels.

The primary season adapts the e-book Dissolution.

The story follows lawyer Matthew Shardlake as he investigates a homicide at a distant monastery throughout the reign of Henry VIII.

Nixon, a graduate of the Royal Welsh Faculty of Music & Drama, mentioned the collection was filmed in Budapest and it felt like “slightly Hungarian Welsh school reunion”, as fellow forged members Arthur Hughes and Anthony Boyle additionally skilled on the identical establishment.