Debby Ryan revealed she suffered a "life-altering" brain injury several years ago, and she still copes with the effects today.
The former Disney Channel star, best known for playing an aspiring actress turned nanny on "Jessie," opened up in a Sept. 15 appearance on the food-centric interview YouTube show "Mythical Kitchen." She talked about the "hellish" migraines she experiences.
"I'm a migraine warrior, and quite often the world is really loud. It's really too bright. It's too, there's a lot going on," Ryan said. "Specifically, I would say after the fifth concussion, the brain injuries make things significantly worse."
She continued: "I had a pretty crazy, life-altering brain injury a few years ago, and I was out of commission for six months.
And I went to this neurological rehab for six months, went and did this fringe science treatment that was really sci-fi and crazy, and I've done it a couple times and it kind of got me back online."
Ryan admitted that despite all the treatments, "there are some things that just did not come back."
She shared that she's suffered from a total of five concussions, four of which she described as "incident" based while the other was from "sustained shaking" that took place over the course of a minute.
"There's sort of pre-incident Debby and post-incident Debby..." Ryan said. "The brain of it all is that quite often I can just see better or think better with my eyes closed. The visual data that I'm taking in can be so distracting and so loud."
Ryan, who said her migraines "significantly worsened" after the series of injuries, said that it all became "too much."
Debby Ryan says she 'couldn't imagine' being in her loved ones' shoes
Ryan said that while she "couldn't imagine" being in her loved ones' shoes, especially her husband, Twenty One Pilots drummer Josh Dun, she feels "really fortunate" to have had (and still have) an "amazing team of people around me."
She added that her loved ones "sort of reminded me who I am, and was, and also held a lot of space for that to change, potentially permanently, and love me through that."
Ryan added: "And I couldn't imagine doing it, and also, I couldn't imagine being on the other side of it, going like 'Wow, I guess that looks like my wife, and she's talking like my wife. And then suddenly, behaviors completely different, and this doesn't fit the pattern.'"
Ryan rose to fame in 2008 when she played Bailey Pickett in Disney Channel's "The Suite Life on Deck" alongside Dylan and Cole Sprouse before landing the role of Jessie Prescott on "Jessie".
She's appeared in other projects across film and television over the years, including "16 Wishes", "Radio Rebel", "Insatiable" and most recently "The Sun Never Sets".
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Debby Ryan reveals lingering effects of 'life-altering' brain injury
