Ellen DeGeneres Discusses Three Medical Diagnoses She's Received
Ellen DeGeneres is opening up about her health.
The 66-year-old comedian revealed three medical diagnoses that she’s received during her new Netflix special For Your Approval.
She shared some specifics about each of them and what doctors and health experts have told her.
Keep reading to find out more…
According to reporting by People, Ellen was diagnosed with “full-on osteoporosis,” which affects a person’s bones. She added that she “may have OCD” and has ADD.
“I don’t even know how I’m standing up right now. I’m like a human sandcastle. I could disintegrate in the shower,” said in reference to her osteoporosis. “It’s hard to be honest about aging and seem cool.”
She explained that she went to a doctor after experiencing “excruciating pain.”
“I thought I tore a ligament or something and I got an MRI and they said, ‘No, it’s just arthritis,’” she recalled. “I said, ‘How did I get that?’ And he said, ‘Oh it just happens at your age.’”
Ellen said that a therapist mentioned she might have OCD during a session.
“I may have OCD because a therapist said so and I said, ‘Yes I am very organized,’ because I thought that was the O,” she said. “I didn’t know what OCD was. I was raised in a religion, Christian Science, that doesn’t acknowledge diseases or disorders. So when I was growing up, nobody talked about anything. There was no discussion of anything.”
The comedian said that her dad “for sure” had undiagnosed OCD, recalling, “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.”
“My ADD makes it really hard to sit down and focus on anything at all,” she said during the special. “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 continued, joking, “So, I have ADD, 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,” she concluded.
For Your Approval premiered on Netflix on September 24. Check out the trailer.