Married At First Sight UK star Sophie Brown has opened up on her diagnosis that she received while taking part in the experiment. The 29-year-old, who married Johnathan Wileman during the 2022 series, received an ADHD diagnosis while filming for the E4 reality show.
Speaking to her new-found followers on Instagram, Sophie, who lives in Manchester, shared how she first began to notice symptoms while working from home during the height of the pandemic in 2020, commenting that she found herself becoming easily distracted. In an Instagram Story she later saved as a highlight, titled ‘ADHD & Me’, Sophie opened up about the diagnosis in the aim of ‘breaking the stigma’.
Talking about ‘the way it started’, Sophie said of working from home during lockdown: "I found it really difficult," before revealing that she spoke to her doctor and told him about her struggles. "I was like how are people doing this? How are they not getting distracted all the time? How are they getting tasks done?"
She continued: “I spoke to my doctor and said ‘look I never thought that I had this as a kid but a few people have said to me that they thought I might have, I show some of the signs, the way that I work’.” However, after taking an online test, Sophie was put on a waiting list and after a two-year waiting period, got a call from the Manchester mental health department which invited her for an in-person consultation.
"Mental health especially is put to the back sometimes," Sophie said, speaking about how the NHS are "understaffed". She continued: "If you’re a competent person at school or work you don’t always necessarily feel like you have ADHD because you’re still functioning, that’s called high functioning which is what I am.
"You live your day to day life but you have an internal battle with the things that are going on, so lack of focus, I get very easily distracted, I get major brain fog. When I’m trying to organise tasks procrastinate a lot. I still get things done but I have to battle with it. I’m still very competent and I get things done, but I have to battle with it."
Sophie added: "As an adult and as woman it can show itself in different ways,’ she added, sharing that she now has been prescribed medication to help her manage the condition. I’m still on the journey finding out what works for me,’ she added, saying she’s working to get rid of 'any stigmas.'"
Sophie was a latecomer to this year's Married At First Sight when she married Jonathan. But despite coming into the experiment later than most of the other couples, the pair made it to the final vows where they decided to stay together, despite carpenter Jonathan telling his wife that he was 'not attracted' to her, after sharing that there was 'something missing'.
However, earlier this week during the MAFS UK reunion, it was revealed that Sophie and Jonathan didn't last outside of the E4 marriage experiment. "We had our ups and downs, but we are very different people," Sophie said while Jonathan told co-star Lara: "I knew I couldn’t give Sophie what she wanted."
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