Opposite to fashionable perception, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) doesn’t simply have an effect on veterans. PTSD can stem from traumas of all types — which is why a rising variety of celebrities who’ve this situation are talking out and demystifying it.
Based on the American Psychiatric Association, PTSD is a psychiatric dysfunction which will happen in individuals who witness or expertise a traumatic event, from an accident or pure catastrophe, to sexual assault, to bullying or intimate accomplice violence. It impacts an estimated 3 to five % of American adults every year.
Individuals who have PTSD might relive their trauma by harrowing flashbacks or expertise disturbing ideas or emotions concerning the occasion lengthy after it has ended. This could trigger them to have extremely emotional reactions to abnormal issues — for example, a loud noise might set off an argument or a full-blown nervousness assault. PTSD signs can disrupt an individual’s skill to perform usually, particularly in conditions which will set off recollections of their trauma.
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Advanced PTSD (CPTSD) is a associated however distinct situation. Per Mayo Clinic, CPTSD stems from extended publicity to a traumatic state of affairs, reminiscent of youngster abuse or home violence. Its signs — together with nervousness, flashbacks or nightmares, heightened emotional reactions, points in relationships, and bother with id or sense of self — are equally disruptive.
Each PTSD and CPTSD are handled with psychotherapy protocols like trauma-focused CBT, publicity remedy, or eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR). These instruments might be transformative for individuals whose lives are clouded by traumas they skilled years and even many years in the past.
So, sure, many veterans do develop PTSD, however they aren’t the one individuals impacted by this situation. Due to outspoken superstar mental-health advocates like Girl Gaga and Travis Barker, extra persons are changing into conscious of the nuances of PTSD and CPTSD.
Preserve studying to be taught extra about 9 celebrities who’ve spoken out about having PTSD or CPTSD.
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Lindsay Lohan
Picture Credit score: Stephanie Augello/Selection Lindsay Lohan opened up about coping with PTSD in 2025.
“I don’t ever need my household to expertise being chased by the paparazzi the best way I used to be. They had been terrifying moments I had in my life—I’ve PTSD to the intense from these issues,” she mentioned to The Times about her early days of fame. “Probably the most invasive conditions. Actually scary. And I pray stuff like that by no means comes again. It’s not protected. It’s not truthful.”
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Girl Gaga
Picture Credit score: Getty Photographs In a candid 2020 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Lady Gaga opened up about her harrowing expertise with PTSD. She first revealed her analysis in 2016.
“I […] developed PTSD on account of being raped [at 19] and likewise not processing that trauma,” the Chromatica songstress instructed Winfrey, per Healthline. “I impulsively turned a star and was touring the world going from lodge room to storage to limo to stage, and I by no means handled it, after which impulsively I began to expertise this unbelievable intense ache all through my whole physique that mimicked the sickness I felt after I used to be raped.”
Gaga has since sought remedy for her signs. She’s additionally used her platform to lift consciousness about PTSD and dispel misconceptions concerning the dysfunction.
“Historically, many affiliate PTSD as a situation confronted by courageous women and men that serve nations all around the world,” she wrote in a 2016 letter for The Born This Way Foundation, her psychological well being nonprofit. “Whereas that is true, I search to lift consciousness that this psychological sickness impacts all types of individuals, together with our youth.”
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Travis Barker
Picture Credit score: Getty Photographs for Common Studi Travis Barker survived a lethal aircraft crash in 2008, however the expertise nonetheless left him bodily and emotionally scarred. The Blink-182 drummer spent weeks within the hospital afterward coping with third-degree burns and intense survivor’s guilt.
For years, Barker harbored an intense concern of flying. Nonetheless, he’s been capable of overcome it extra lately with the help of his spouse, Kourtney Kardashian.
“She’s been all over the place lovely on this planet… [places] that I’ve by no means even heard of,” he told GQ in 2022. “I used to be like, ‘Should you ever need me to fly with you, simply inform me 8 to 10 hours earlier than.’” Kardashian took him up on the supply — and when he “tried to get out of it,” she held him by it.
“She simply knew, and she or he caught by me and toughed it out,” Barker added. “And it was the perfect flight. And I wasn’t scared as soon as.”
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Whoopi Goldberg
Picture Credit score: Getty Photographs for FLC Whoopi Goldberg is greatest referred to as a hilarious comic, actress, and TV persona, however her plane-related PTSD is not any laughing matter. Within the ’70s, she witnessed a midair collision between two planes that left her traumatized and terrified of flying for many years. She has since sought remedy.
Come 2009, Goldberg additionally partnered with Virgin Atlantic to overcome her fear of airplane travel as soon as and for all. The airline provided a program known as Flying With out Concern, which makes use of schooling, sensible expertise, and therapeutic methods to assist individuals face their plane-related phobias or traumas.
The expertise was extremely intense, she recalled in an episode of The View: “I’m sweating rather a lot. My thoughts is doing dangerous stuff to me….I’m not a great flyer. I don’t prefer it. I don’t wanna do it.”
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Ariana Grande
Picture Credit score: Getty Photographs After a 2017 terrorist assault at certainly one of her live shows that claimed the lives of twenty-two individuals, Ariana Grande was left utterly traumatized. In 2018, she told British Vogue that she wasn’t certain if she’d ever be capable of discuss concerning the horrific incident “and never cry.”
“I do know these households and my followers, and everybody there skilled an incredible quantity of [PTSD] as properly,” Grande mentioned on the time. “I really feel like I shouldn’t even be speaking about my very own expertise — like I shouldn’t even say something.”
A 12 months later, the singer additionally shared photos of her brain scans to Instagram Tales. Based on Grande, the scans point out the extent of her PTSD.
“[It’s] not a joke,” she captioned the photograph.
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Kathy Griffin
Picture Credit score: Getty Photographs Kathy Griffin developed complicated PTSD after a controversial 2017 tweet derailed her profession. The comic opened up about her experience with the situation on Tiktok earlier this 12 months.
“Since I’ve been speaking on right here about PTSD, I had a freaking eight-hour assault yesterday,” she shared. “Eight hours of freaking writhing in ache within the mattress.”
“Typically they final just a few hours, or extra sometimes, they final not less than a full day, if not a number of days in a row,” Griffin continued. “I really feel foolish even telling you this, as a result of I all the time thought PTSD was only for veterans and stuff.”
She went on to clarify how methods like strolling throughout her panic assaults and assuring herself that they “gained’t final ceaselessly” have helped her cope.
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Alanis Morissette
Picture Credit score: Getty Photographs for CMT Though Alanis Morissette turned a family title due to her 1995 album Jagged Little Capsule, these years of her life weren’t all constructive.
“Fame turned a terrific instrument. However I nonetheless have PTSD from the Jagged Little Capsule period,” the singer-songwriter told The Guardian in 2012. “It was a profound violation. It felt like each millisecond I used to be trying to set a boundary and say no, and folks had been breaking into my lodge rooms and going by my suitcase and pulling my hair and leaping on my automobile.”
Over time, Morissette has additionally opened up about her struggles with dependancy and postpartum suicidal ideation.
“With out remedy,” she mentioned in a 2020 interview, “I don’t suppose I’d nonetheless be right here.”
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Barbra Streisand
Picture Credit score: Getty Photographs for Netflix Barbra Streisand developed extreme stagefright and PTSD within the late Sixties after she forgot the phrases to 3 of her songs whereas acting at Central Park. The legendary actress and singer opened up about her wrestle between songs in a live performance throughout her 2000 farewell tour.
“I used to be so traumatized, I couldn’t carry out in entrance of a paying viewers for near 30 years,” she instructed the viewers, per ABC News.
Fortunately for Babs and her followers, she clearly labored by her stage fright since she was capable of carry out dwell once more.
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Monica Seles
Picture Credit score: Getty Photographs for AYS Sports activities Mark Tennis star Monica Seles developed PTSD after she was stabbed by one other participant at a match in Germany in 1993. She was simply 19 years outdated on the time.
“I had quite a lot of feelings,” Seles recalled in a 1995 interview with the Los Angeles Times. “Once I stepped on the court docket, that’s after I’d get offended. Tennis by no means did something dangerous to me. The tennis court docket was my place. … I felt the most secure there. All my worries had been gone. I didn’t have to consider something after I was there. All of a sudden, that was taken away.”
Seles was capable of work by her trauma and return to the game she beloved after being handled for PTSD by a psychotherapist.
“You need to admit ache or that you’ve an issue with one thing. It’s a part of any restoration,” she mentioned of her therapeutic journey.
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Darrell Hammond
Picture Credit score: Getty Photographs Saturday Night time Dwell veteran Darrell Hammond has complicated PTSD on account of his traumatic childhood in an abusive house. Nonetheless, it took years for the actor and comic to get an correct analysis for the psychological well being points he was experiencing.
“I turned offered on the concept the best way I used to be behaving was greatest described as a psychological damage moderately than a psychological sickness,” he told The New York Post in 2018. “That’s the ‘Hallelujah’ refrain of my complete life.”
Hammond makes use of cognitive remedy and a 12-step program to assist handle his CPTSD. He additionally chronicled his therapeutic journey in his 2018 documentary Cracked Up.
