Aimee Lou Wood was "almost mute" and "very socially anxious" as a child before being diagnosed with ADHD

She told the Sunday Times newspaper: "I was almost mute, very socially anxious. I couldn't sit down and eat a meal. My mum had to leave food around the house and I'd have to snack around. Now I know it was neurodivergence ... "

She added of her diagnosis: "I got diagnosed a few years ago with ADHD with autistic traits. But then it's been advised that I should go for an autism assessment.

"They think that maybe it's autism that's leading the charge, and the ADHD is almost a by-product of the masking."

Aimee embraced acting when she was at school and later landed her big break in Netflix series 'Sex Education', but fame left her struggling with old body image issues.

She added: "When I was younger and I was dealing with my eating stuff, it was my worst nightmare to get my body out. But I'd worked through that stuff - and then I was back to covering up.

"I look back and there was so much in the way that I started to desexualise myself. Sometimes you just want to put on a sexy dress and be a siren, but I denied myself that."

The 31-year-old actress has had to film a number of intimate scenes during her television career but previously admitted it was "scarier" to have to don a bikini for her role in HBO series 'The White Lotus'.

She told The Sun newspaper: "I was more nervous about bikinis than sex scenes. "I was more worried about just being around the pool because I feel like that's when you're thinking more about how you look. Whereas?.?.?.?in an intimate scene, it's about the intimacy.

"But then you just, kind of, have to forget that. You just have to let it go. But that [the bikini scenes] was way scarier to me, actually."