‘It would have saved my parents tuition money’: Chen Yixin on her ADHD and what it means to go public about it

There are some possible pitfalls when a celebrity shares something deeply personal but local actress Chen Yixin decided that the pros outweigh the cons.

At the press conference for Mediacorp drama series All That Glitters on Monday (Sept 11), AsiaOne spoke to Yixin about her going public about having attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in an interview with Pin Prestige in August, and she shared with us her regrets, concerns and significance of it.

The 23-year-old talked about her main regrets about not knowing her condition earlier, as she only found out two years ago when she was studying psychology: “I was grateful to have had kind and patient tutors, but it would have been nice to be more aware of ADHD.

“When I grew up, I associated ADHD with uncontrollable children who caused trouble and it never crossed my mind that I had the condition myself.

“It would have been nice to cope with my focus better, and it would have saved my parents tuition money. Tuition is really expensive!”

However, her parents, former actor Edmund Chen and veteran actress Xiang Yun, did not have any big responses when Yixin revealed her condition to them.

She elaborated: “They always knew that I was more physically active, but they knew it more as a personality trait. They were not surprised when they found out.”

She added that her father is an active person by disposition and in general he is just “glad to have someone to bounce off energy with”.

‘I have always been a bit suspicious of my lack of focus’

Yixin also elaborated on what drove her to seek diagnosis and how ADHD affected her life.

Having studied psychology in school, Yixin saw similarities between ADHD and her own condition, thus she “wanted to get confirmation and medical support”.

She said: “Ever since I started schooling, I have always been a bit suspicious of my lack of focus. I was such a headache to my tutors. I could not sit still and always found excuses to visit the washroom, so that I could move a little.

“I was confused that some people could focus on the entire lesson. I would rather zone out than focus.”

It also affects her driving and conversations, which has improved with medication that she started last year.

She explained: “Driving made me want to get medical intervention as I am sometimes affected by intrusive thoughts and get distracted, like, my hand will twitch.

“I don’t want to become a road hazard.”

She admitted that even in conversations, she needed to “jump around topics” in order to keep her attention.

‘It’s not an excuse for anything’

Yixin is aware that as a celebrity, people may misunderstand her intentions of going public with her condition, but she has her own reasons.

She clarified: “I am not trying to promote medication or glorify or sensationalise certain medical conditions, that’s one thing I am particularly sensitive with.

“I am also not trying to label myself and be included as part of a community. It was more for myself.”

More specifically, she does not need others to treat her differently, saying: “It’s not a feature, just a part of me. I can cope with it on my own, it’s not an excuse for anything… So there is no need to walk on eggshells. It’s good to be aware of it.”

While she is aware that going public with it could be seen as attention-seeking and labelling oneself, ultimately Yixin hopes that the act of admitting having ADHD can be normalised.

On a closing note, Yixin concluded: “I am not seeking pity or emphasising how much I have overcome to get to where I am now, I’m just being public with a fact.

“I went public with it because it is stigmatised, but in reality it’s more common than most people think… I wanted my followers to be comfortable having flaws too.”

‘My brain cannot translate my excitement as quickly in Mandarin’

In the upcoming Mediacorp drama series All That Glitters, Yixin plays Mo Xuemin, the daughter of villain Mo Yicong (Guo Liang) and sister of Richard Mo (Zhang Zetong). She tries to help out Lin Musen (Desmond Tan), whom she sees as an older brother as they got acquainted when she was a kid.

Musen, He Jianzhi (Ayden Sng) and Huang Jintiao (Jeremy Chan) are childhood friends who aspire to go from rags to riches, but later lose their way and betray each other.

The series also stars Chantalle Ng, Hong Ling and Gavin Teo, who is Yixin’s boyfriend in real life.

Yixin also admitted that her biggest struggle in the drama was her Mandarin lines.

As her character Xuemin wants to sound impressive sometimes, there are “many flowery and fluffy words” in her lines, and Yixin had issues saying them naturally as “her brain cannot translate her excitement as quickly in Mandarin”.

She added: “I was comfortable acting alongside Gavin, and he was able to point out my weaknesses and give advice. He helps me with the Mandarin lines, just like how I helped him out with his English lines in Teenage Textbook: The Series.”

Yixin and Gavin met on the set of the short musical film Rhythm of Our Youth in 2019, and worked together on drama series Teenage Textbook: The Series (2021). They went public with their relationship in March 2021.