Debby Ryan suffered 'life-altering brain injury' and had to spend six months in neurological rehab
Debby Ryan has opened up about how she spent months recovering after sustaining a life-altering injury to her brain.
The actor and singer, 33, who is known for her work on the Disney Channel, revealed that she had suffered from five concussions on the Mythical Kitchen’s Last Meals on 15 September, with one of them resulting in a 'life-altering' injury.
She explained that she had started to suffer from 'sustained shaking over a minute of time' in the aftermath.
“I had a pretty crazy life-altering brain injury a few years ago, and I was out of commission for like six months," she said. "I went to this neurological rehab for like six months."
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The injury was so bad that she has even taken to referring to herself as 'pre-incident Debby' and 'post-incident Debby' as her health changed so much afterwards.
Ryan, who stars in the Netflix series Insatiable, explained that she had to have some cutting edge medical treatment to help with her recovery, describing it as 'fringe science treatment' which would help her to get 'back online'.
“I feel really fortunate that I have an amazing team of people around me who 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,” she said.
Nonetheless, she said that despite recovering some thing 'just did not come back' after her injury, such as sometimes needing to shut her eyes in order to be able to focus on something and think clearly.
While this was the biggest injury that she has sustained, Ryan said that she has also had four other concussions, which she said were the result of individual 'incidents'.
Ryan said that she frequently suffers from migraine, referring to herself as a 'migraine warrior', and saying that she can become overwhelmed due to how strong the 'hellish' migraines are.
“Quite often the world is really loud,” she said, explaining how her migraines can affect her daily life, “It’s really too bright, it’s too - there’s a lot going on.”
Ryan had her breakthrough roles in 2008 playing Bailey Pickett in The Suite Life on Deck with her co-stars Dylan and Cole Sprouse.
She would go on to land the title role in Jessie, playing nanny and aspiring actor Jessie Prescott on the show.
In addition to that, she has also had appearances on a number of films, such as 16 Wishes and Radio Rebel, as well as the lead in the Netflix series Insatiable.
More recently, she has taken on the role of Lindsay in the 2026 drama The Sun Never Sets, co-starring with Dakota Fanning.
As a child Ryan had a TV role in Barney & Friends, yes Barney the dinosaur. She also had roles in Hannah Montana, where she played Bailey Pickett in two episodes, as well as a role in American Horror Stories, where she featured in the episode The Thing Under the Bed.
Kit Roberts