Debby Ryan has spent years dealing with migraines, but she says one brain injury fundamentally changed the way she experiences everyday life.
The 33-year-old former Disney Channel star revealed that she has suffered five concussions, with the fifth leaving a dramatically different aftermath. During a September 15th appearance on Mythical Kitchen’s Last Meals, Ryan said the injury happened several years ago and left her “out of commission” for roughly six months.
Her recovery included approximately six months of neurological rehabilitation as well as another treatment Ryan herself described as “fringe science” and “really sci-fi and crazy.” She said it helped get her “back online,” but not everything returned. Ryan now separates her life into what she called “pre-incident Debby and post-incident Debby.”
Ryan did not explain the circumstances that caused the fifth injury. She said only that it involved “sustained shaking over a minute of time”.
Ryan Says Her Fifth Concussion Was Different From the First Four
The subject came up while Ryan was explaining why sensory experiences can become overwhelming for her. She described a long history of migraines before explaining that her brain injuries, particularly the fifth, had made those symptoms considerably harder to manage.
Ryan told host Josh Scherer that she had experienced five concussions. She described the first four as blunt-force “incidents,” while distinguishing the fifth as a much more consequential injury involving sustained shaking for more than a minute.
She did not say where the injury happened, who else was present or what caused the shaking, according to The Hollywood Reporter. What she did describe was the aftermath. Ryan called it a “pretty crazy, life-altering brain injury” and said the consequences were measured in months.
Months of Neurological Rehab Did Not Bring Everything Back
Ryan said she was “out of commission” for about six months and also spent approximately six months in neurological rehabilitation. Ryan later underwent another treatment that she described as being on the fringe of conventional science and compared to something out of science fiction.
She said she has undergone the treatment more than once and credited it with helping get her “back online.” Even so, Ryan acknowledged that “some things just did not come back.”
Migraines Can Make Everyday Sights and Sounds Overwhelming
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One of the ongoing effects Ryan described involves the way she processes her surroundings. The Jessie alum said she had migraines before the fifth concussion, but that the brain injury made them “significantly worse.” “Quite often the world is really loud,” she explained. “It’s really too bright. It’s too, there’s a lot going on.”
Ryan said closing her eyes can sometimes make it easier to think because it reduces the amount of visual information she is trying to process at once. When a migraine adds another layer of sensory overload, she said simplifying what is coming in can help her focus.
She described herself as already living with them and said the later brain injury intensified the problem.Ryan described adapting to changes that remain part of her daily life.
Ryan Says Her Loved Ones Made Space for Her to Change
“I feel really fortunate that I have an amazing team of people around me who sort of reminded me who I am and was,” she said, while adding that they also left room for those things to change “potentially permanently.”
She then considered what the experience may have looked like from the other side of a marriage. Ryan imagined someone looking at a spouse who still appeared and sounded familiar while suddenly behaving in ways that no longer followed the same patterns.
Ryan has been married to Twenty One Pilots drummer Josh Dun since New Year’s Eve 2019. The couple’s family has changed again since the period she was describing, they welcomed their first child, daughter Felix Winter Dun, in December 2025.
Dun spoke publicly about becoming a father earlier this year, describing the experience of watching Felix begin to understand the world around her.
Ryan Is Back Onscreen in The Sun Never Sets
Ryan discussed the injury while appearing on Last Meals to promote The Sun Never Sets, Joe Swanberg’s romantic drama released in theaters on August 28th.
The film stars Dakota Fanning, Jake Johnson and Cory Michael Smith, with Ryan playing Lindsay alongside Anna Konkle, Lamorne Morris and Karley Sciortino. It premiered at SXSW in March before Independent Film Company and Sapan Studio acquired its U.S. distribution rights.
She later led Netflix’s Insatiable and continued working across film and television without making the brain injury a major part of her public story.