Chris Rock reveals what made him realize he had a nonverbal learning disorder
Chris Rock says a friend's offhand comment prompted him to seek an assessment that led to his diagnosis of nonverbal learning disorder.
Nonverbal learning disorder is a condition that can make it tricky to understand and interpret social clues unless they are laid out very plainly.
The comedian discussed the diagnosis in an interview with GQ.
"I'm not one for a hint," Rock said. "You got to tell me exactly what the fuck you want. You have to tell me exactly what the fuck you mean."
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He said a friend 'just kind of blurted it out one day', and Rock figured it was worth investigating.
The conversation took place while he was working on his Netflix special Tamborine back in 2018.
In the show he openly reflects on his personal failures and the messy downfall of his marriage, and says he did some deep soul searching which led to him quitting pornography.
Rock underwent an eight-hour cognitive assessment, which led to the diagnosis.
Asked whether the diagnosis explained earlier experiences, Rock said it changed how he viewed past interactions.
"It made me realize how insensitive a lot of my behavior was throughout the years," he said.
Rock said before his diagnosis he had often blamed fame on his difficulty in connecting with people on a personal level.
Being a celebrity had become an easy out for interactions that he could not make sense of.
Rock said he thought people reacted differently to him because of his public profile, rather than considering that he might be missing social signals.
He described believing he had a 'chronic unique-ism' and thinking he was unusually different.
The comedian said the condition can affect how he deals with tough conversations. He can sometimes pick up a cue but cannot work out its meaning immediately, with the realization arriving much later.
'I can pick up on a cue, but I can't make sense of it,' he added, saying that it might take him weeks for the pieces in the conversation to fall into place and make sense.
Rock said some traits associated with his experience have intersected with his work as a comedian. He pointed to black-and-white thinking and catastrophizing as tendencies that can be useful when building comedy material.
Later in the interview, Rock discussed how he was going through various types of therapy and support for nonverbal learning disorder.
He said that therapy made him 'cry like a bitch', adding that therapy is something continual rather than a process with a clear finish line.
Rock is currently promoting Misty Green, his fourth feature as a director and first since 2014's Top Five.
The film stars Rosalind Eleazar as an actress struggling to move forward in Hollywood, with Anna Kendrick also appearing.
Topics: Celebrity, Chris Rock, Health
Thomas Bamford
