Adam Devine talks about his childhood injury that has led to years of medical challenges

(CNN) — Adam Devine is opening up about the “nightmare” he’s been living due to having been struck by a cement truck as a child.

During a recent conversation on the “In Depth With Graham Bensinger” podcast, the “Pitch Perfect” star said medical experts at first didn’t know what was causing him to experience “spasms all over” and extreme pain.

“They told me I was dying,” he said. “Literally, within this last year they told me that.”

Devine was hit by a cement truck as he tried to cross the road when he was 11. He said during the podcast that the pain he’s experienced more recently was initially misdiagnosed.

“They told me I had this disease called stiff person syndrome,” he said.

Singer Celine Dion has famously been battling the rare neurological condition.

The disorder is “a rare, progressive syndrome that affects the nervous system, specifically the brain and spinal cord,” according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

Devine said he was told that the average life expectancy for stiff person syndrome was six years, something he said he and his wife, actress Chloe Bridges, were told a month before their son, Beau, was born.

He said he eventually met with “the guy who coined the phrase stiff person syndrome” and was told that more than likely the problems he’s been having physically are tied to his childhood accident.

The actor said he believes some exercise he was doing during the pandemic, cycling and Cross Fit, may have also contributed to his pain and spasms.

“I think I just got so tight and so tightly wound, and my body has all these things that are a little wonky and a little wrong with it, that I just sort of snapped,” he said. “I think I’m still dealing with it, but it’s been three years now.”

Devine, who is currently appearing on HBO’s “The Righteous Gemstones,” said he’s getting better with the help of stem cell treatment.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.