Former Emmerdale star Charley Webb has opened up about getting an early diagnosis for autism and ADHD, and has spoken about why she thinks it’s important for herself and for people in general to know.

The actor, who played Debbie Dingle between 2002 and 2021, was speaking on the podcast Girls Next Door where she said that it’s still early days, but doctors do believe she is on the spectrum.

“I’ve sort of just been diagnosed with that. I don’t want to confirm it because I’m only at the initial stages,” she said. “More autism, autistic-ADHD. I’m like ‘whaaaat?!’ I’ve just started the process [with the doctors].

“I think ADHD, it’s such a big subject now and I think everyone is probably on the spectrum somewhere, like, it’s how deep you go into it, but it does make a lot of sense for me for things like people thinking that I’m really cold.

“I think that could just be, like, a little bit of the autistic side of me if it is true. I’ve got to do way more investigations but I just think, maybe that doesn’t shock me that much. There’s so many different levels to it as well. It’s interesting. It’s such an interesting topic.”

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“It’s so important for people to understand themselves and I think as we’re getting older it’s becoming more of a thing now,” she continued.

“Years and years ago, nobody talked about it. There was never a discussion about ADHD or any of that sort of stuff but now it’s like everywhere, isn’t it?

“But I think it is really important to understand that. And noise for me — the trigger of noise. I go from 0 to 60 in like one second. All those loud noises, if I go somewhere really busy, I find it so overwhelming. So I will be interested to look further into that.”

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Webb also talked about how she’s loving working on a new project called Adultery for ITV, written by Brassic’s Danny Brocklehurst.

“It’s so funny, it’s just brilliant,” she said, praising the “really great cast” that includes Dominic Cooper and Matthew McNulty.