Johnny Vegas has opened up about being diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
ADHD is a condition that includes symptoms such as being restless and having trouble concentrating. Symptoms can also include a short attention span, constant fidgeting, or acting without thinking.
The stand-up comedian appeared on BBC Breakfast on Wednesday (11 January), when he said that he’d been diagnosed “just before Christmas” and has begun his journey to receiving medication.
“I think it was always kicked around as a notion,” Vegas, 52, said, before clarifying that he was always “very careful about things like this and discussing it”.
“Eventually, I bit the bullet and went in. I’ve had good friends who have been diagnosed. So I’m in the very early stages of working through meds and things like that.”
Vegas said that learning he has ADHD “answers a lot of questions about behavioural issues”.
“A lot of things make sense,” he continued. “There’s that sense of disorganisation and doing basic tasks... Everybody has an element of it, it’s how strong your filter is, I think, and when you don’t have a filter at all, very simple things can become very time consuming.
“It’s like, ‘I’ll shift that cup’ and then you’ll have 10 other ideas and you haven’t shifted that cup and three weeks later, that’s still there... I suppose it’s how your brain organises itself. I always knew I was disorganised, but that was the kind of joke, that ‘I am as they made me’.”
Vegas said that it had been suggested he may have ADHD or a similar condition while he was at school, but that it had never been properly investigated.
“I’m only just on the verge of learning about it,” the comic said. “It was more a discussion of, ‘You’ve probably got something,’ so it is very different to saying, ‘No, you have.’”
Earlier this week, fellow stand-up comic Sue Perkins made similar comments as she revealed that she too had been diagnosed with ADHD.
“Once I had the diagnosis, suddenly everything made sense - to me and those who love me,” she tweeted.
