Fresh Meat star Kimberley Nixon reveals she's 'fighting a traumatising flare-up of OCD, ADHD and autism' that left her unable to move after attending premiere of new drama

Fresh Meat star Kimberley Nixon has revealed she is 'fighting as hard as I can' as she battles a major flare-up of OCD, ADHD and autism that left her unable to move. 

The actress, 40, shared an emotional update to Instagram on Thursday detailing a mental health setback that happened after attending the premiere of new Sky drama Under Salt Marsh in London earlier this week.

Kimberley, who has been diagnosed with autism, attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), looked happy at the BAFTA premiere alongside her co-stars Rafe Spall, Kelly Reilly and Jonathan Pryce.

But she later revealed the devastating impact it had had on her mental health.

'My OCD is really scratching at me to give in and to do all my compulsions - to ruminate, to obsess, to let it do its thing,' she said in a candid video on Instagram. 

'I'm fighting back as hard as I can.'

Kimberley, who is married to garden designer Cai Howells, the father of her five-year-old son, said the setback came unexpectedly after a 'glitzy star-studded start to the week'.

She wrote in an accompanying Instagram story: 'I almost physically couldn't move my body.'

Kimberley developed severe postnatal OCD following the traumatic birth of her son during the pandemic, which saw her experience terrifying intrusive thoughts and mental compulsions, fearing she would harm her baby.

In her video this week, she revealed she is working on a book about her mental health journey, which has sadly triggered difficult memories and contributed to her current setback.

'I'm doing the final edits of my book and I'm talking about a very traumatic time,' she said. 'I've been amazed - so far - how much that hasn't actually triggered me... but actually, it has brought stuff back and it's scary.

'It's scary to put stuff out into the world about the darkest parts of you. But I want to help people. I want to help mothers who have felt and will feel like me because other people don't talk about this stuff.'

She said her OCD flare-ups 'can be disturbing and traumatising' but added: 'I've learned so much stuff about how to cope with it, how to not let it take over... You can have a dip and still come back up. That's really important to show.'

Kimberley has previously described her postnatal OCD experience as feeling trapped in 'the Upside Down from Stranger Things'.

The actress has been candid about the lack of support available through the NHS for postnatal mental health conditions. She is now an ambassador for the Perinatal Mental Health Partnership and the National Autistic Society.

Her autism and ADHD diagnosis came last June bringing what she described as a 'huge weight lifted off my shoulders'. She said she finally understood why she had always felt like a 'square peg in a round hole'.

She added at the time: 'I've realised it's not that my brain is wrong - it's just different. I don't process or interpret things the same way others do.'

In her candid mental health update this week, Kimberley said it was important to be honest about mental health struggles.

'I've always thought that it was really important on here [Instagram] to show all sides of life,' she said. 'I think that's where we get a bit stuck when people are just putting up all the glossy, perfect stuff. It makes you feel inferior, it makes you feel constantly inadequate.'

She added: 'If you're pretending to yourself or to other people, that doesn't let you get better. It doesn't make other people feel like these are the people out there on the same road as them.'

The actress also acknowledged how far she has come since her darkest postpartum days: 'It doesn't have to be a total derailment. It can just be a stumble, and even thinking in that way is so far removed from those postpartum times when everything was ruined in my mind,' she reflected.