‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Star Reveals Upsetting Health Diagnosis
The 40 year old star who plays Dr. Josephine ‘Jo’ Wilson on ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ revealed that she has tinnitus.
According to Mayo Clinic, “Tinnitus is when you experience ringing or other noises in one or both of your ears. The noise you hear when you have tinnitus isn’t caused by an external sound, and other people usually can’t hear it. Tinnitus is a common problem. It affects about 15% to 20% of people, and is especially common in older adults.”
The condition can be caused by an “underlying condition.” The condition can get better with treatment of the “underlying cause” or other ways to reduce symptoms.
Luddington described when she became aware of her condition
“I’m going to talk about something I haven’t really talked about before, definitely have not talked about in detail,” she said on the podcast.
“Two-ish, three, maybe two-ish years ago I was watching Ghostbusters and there are a lot of silent parts in it and I turned to Matt and I said, ‘Is, is the TV buzzing?’ I was very confused and he was like ‘No,’ and I’m like, ‘Do you hear that ringing in your ear?’ and he was like ‘No I don’t,'” she added.
“And, long story short, I realized I had something called tinnitus, which is — and I still have it to this day — which is a constant noise.”
Luddington said the tinnitus is only in her right area. She also experienced a little bit of hearing loss.
“I have to say that I was really devastated over it. I heard it very loudly, a lot, I found it very hard to parent, I was so self-conscious, I felt like I was going a little crazy and I ended up doing a hearing test and finding out I also had some hearing loss,” the actor said.
“Apparently I have the hearing of someone who is more, like, 60 years old, and I found that news very distressing and I was told tinnitus was some kind of hearing loss. Right now, right now I don’t need a hearing aid, although I’m sure I’ll need one at some point, maybe in my 40s, and I’m going to rock that by the way everyone.”
She then had to learn that this wasn’t something that was going to go away and she has to live with it, which she said has “taken me some time” to process.
Camilla Luddington is a British-American actress best known for her role as Dr. Jo Wilson on the long-running TV series “Grey’s Anatomy.” She joined the show in season nine and quickly became a fan favorite. In addition to her work on “Grey’s Anatomy,” Luddington is also known for voicing the character Lara Croft in the “Tomb Raider” video game series, starting in 2013.
