Tallulah Willis has opened up for the first time about her autism diagnosis after hearing the news ‘this summer’.
The 30-year-old actress and daughter of Bruce Willis shared her health discovery on Instagram this weekend with her 402,000 followers.
She posted a throwback video of her and her father, who is currently battling frontotemporal dementia and aphasia, on the red carpet at the premiere of his 2004 film The Whole Ten Yards, which also starred then-10-year-old Tallulah.
She captioned the post: “Tell me you’re autistic without saying you’re autistic.”
Tallulah Willis, 30, has opened up about her autism diagnosis as an adult after sharing a throwback video from 2004 with her father, Bruce
She spoke about it for the first time, saying she was diagnosed “this summer.” She was pictured with her father in 2004. In the clip, she rubs his head and plays with his ears
The video shows a young Tallulah being held by Bruce as he answers a journalist’s questions, fiddling with his ears and repeatedly rubbing his bald head with her hands.
Her post prompted one follower to ask about her diagnosis.
The actress replied, “Actually, this is the first time I’ve ever shared my diagnosis publicly. I found out this summer and it changed my life.”
Her sister, Scout LaRue, also wrote, “She’s stimulating,” while Tallulah replied, “Dude, the ear curl. I wish we had stronger audio.”
According to the Cleveland Clinicstimming ‘is when a person makes the same movements or sounds repeatedly.’
It’s a way for people to regulate their emotions and it is “often (but not always) associated with autism spectrum disorder and other neurodevelopmental disorders.”
Previously, the Stars On Mars personality has opened up about her battle with body dysmorphia and an eating disorder, as well as her ADHD diagnosis.
“For the past four years I have suffered from anorexia nervosa, which I have been reluctant to talk about because restricting food after I got sober at age 20 felt like the last vice I could cling to,” Tallulah prescribed Fashion in May 2023.
She captioned the post: “Tell me you’re autistic without telling me you’re autistic.”
Responding to a fan who asked her about her autism, she revealed for the ‘first time’ that she was diagnosed ‘this summer’, adding: ‘It has changed my life’
Her father (pictured with her in 2004) suffers from frontotemporal dementia and aphasia
She said she went to an assisted living facility in Malibu at the age of 25 to deal with both the eating disorder and the depression she was struggling with.
“It was a largely therapeutic experience; for the first time I grieved for the 15-year-old misfit, the ugly duckling,” she said.
‘I was also diagnosed with ADHD and started taking stimulant medication, which was transformative.
‘I felt smart for the first time, but I also started to enjoy the appetite suppressant side effect of the drugs. I saw a way to banish the clumsy teenager in favor of a flighty fairy.”
Tallulah said that “like many people with eating disorders, (her) sense of myself became confused.”
She said that “the onset of rapid weight loss” leads to a feeling of “unhealthy elation.”
Tallulah said: ‘People say, “Oh wow!” And then it quickly turns into, “Are you okay?” My friends and family were terrified and I turned it down. They said, “Is this the ADHD drug?”
She said she was “very protective” of her medication and “rationalized it” by reminding herself how it improved her focus.
“An eating disorder therapist later told me: the smaller you are, the bigger you feel,” the actress wrote. “How fucked up is that?”
She said she weighed 84 pounds in the spring of 2022 and faced significant health complications as a result.
“I was always freezing,” she said. “I called mobile IV teams to come to my house, but I couldn’t walk in my Los Angeles neighborhood because I was afraid I wouldn’t have a place to sit down and catch my breath.”
It’s been almost two years since Tallulah’s stepmother Emma Heming, 45, released a joint statement via Instagram with her two daughters and Willis’ ex-wife Demi Moore, 61, and daughters Rumer, 35, Scout, 32, Tallulah, 30 , in which they announced that the actor was stepping back from acting amid his aphasia diagnosis.
In the statement dated March 30, 2022, they said Willis had “experienced a number of health issues and was recently diagnosed with aphasia, which is impacting his cognitive skills.”
It continued: ‘As a result of this and with much consideration, Bruce is stepping away from the career that has meant so much to him. This is a very challenging time for our family and we are extremely grateful for your continued love, compassion and support.
“We are going through this as a strong family unit and wanted to include his fans because we know how much he means to you, just as you mean to him. As Bruce always says, ‘Live it up’ and together we plan to do just that.”
