Celebrities and Famous People With PTSD

For people coping with post-traumatic stress disorder, it’s

reassuring to know they are not alone and many
celebrities with PTSD and be able to overcome the
symptoms and continue to live productive lives. Here are 7
of them
Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg is a famous actor with PTSD who
witnessed two planes collide in midair as a child.
As a comedienne, actress, and talk show host, she’s
required to travel frequently and has dealt with severe
panic attacks when boarding planes due to the traumatic
event she experienced.
Goldberg has made it public that she receives therapy for
her condition and has found it helped her get through it.
Mick Jagger

Mick Jagger is the lead singer of the iconic rock band The Rolling
Stones. Jagger has said he developed PTSD after his girlfriend,
L’Wren Scott died by suicide in their home.

Doctors ordered the grief-stricken musician to avoid performing

for 30 days to prevent his symptoms from deteriorating further.
Fortunately for all of his, he overcame his struggle with PTSD and
continued with his prolific career.

4. Darrell Hammond
Darrell Hammond is a famous Saturday Night Live comedian
and impressionist who has spoken publicly about his diagnosis of
PTSD.

Severely abused as a child, Hammond dealt with years of alcohol

and drug abuse and self-harming.

He has since become an advocate for treatment and therapy and

is living a sober lifestyle.

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was the first lady to President

John F. Kennedy when she experienced her husband’s
assassination firsthand.

While she was never officially diagnosed with PTSD, a recent

biography about her life detailed her obsessive retelling of the
event to anyone who would listen, her troubles sleeping, and the
ongoing and crippling fear that she, too, would be a target like her
husband.

Alanis Morissette

Alanis Morissette is a famous singer and songwriter who

suffered from PTSD due to her quick rise to fame for the album
Jagged Little Pill.

“It was an intense, constant, chronic over-stimulation and invasion

of energetic and physical literal space,” she said in an interview.
Alanis claims that she’s still coping with these issues to this
day but ha

Ariana Grande

While it’s unclear if the pop star Ariana Grande has been

diagnosed with PTSD, but she has been very open about a the

trauma caused by a terrorist attack at her concert in Manchester,

England, in 2017 that claimed the lives of 23 people.

“Music is supposed to be the safest thing in the world,” Grande

said in an interview. “I think that’s why it’s still so heavy on my
heart every single day s found a way to manage working through
her issues.

A nationwide lockdown may have prevented the COVID-19

pandemic curve from peaking earlier but it certainly has shown
adverse impact on the psychological profile of people in the
form of rise in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), said a
dip-test, pan-India, web-based survey conducted via Google
form during the last week of April 2020 when the nation had
completed four weeks of lockdown. The survey was conducted
by the Department of Community Medicine, Vardhman
Mahavir Medical College and Safdarjung Hospital.
My Story of Survival: Battling
PTSD
by P.K. Philips
It is a continuous challenge living with posttraumatic stress
disorder (PTSD), and I've suffered from it for most of my
life. I can look back now and gently laugh at all the people
who thought I had the perfect life. I was young, beautiful,
and talented, but unbeknownst to them, I was terrorized by
an undiagnosed debilitating mental illness.
Having been properly diagnosed with PTSD at age 35, I
know that there is not one aspect of my life that has gone
untouched by this mental illness. My PTSD was triggered
by several traumas, including a childhood laced with
physical, mental, and sexual abuse, as well as an attack at
knifepoint that left me thinking I would die. I would never
be the same after that attack. For me there was no safe
place in the world, not even my home. I went to the police
and filed a report. Rape counselors came to see me while
I was in the hospital, but I declined their help, convinced
that I didn't need it. This would be the most damaging
decision of my life.
For months after the attack, I couldn't close my eyes
without envisioning the face of my attacker. I suffered
horrific flashbacks and nightmares. For four years after the
attack I was unable to sleep alone in my house. I
obsessively checked windows, doors, and locks. By age
17, I'd suffered my first panic attack. Soon I became
unable to leave my apartment for weeks at a time, ending
my modeling career abruptly. This just became a way of
life. Years passed when I had few or no symptoms at all,
and I led what I thought was a fairly normal life, just
thinking I had a "panic problem."

Then another traumatic event re-triggered the PTSD. It

was as if the past had evaporated, and I was back in the
place of my attack, only now I had uncontrollable thoughts
of someone entering my house and harming my daughter.
I saw violent images every time I closed my eyes. I lost all
ability to concentrate or even complete simple tasks.
Normally social, I stopped trying to make friends or get
involved in my community. I often felt disoriented,
forgetting where, or who, I was. I would panic on the
freeway and became unable to drive, again ending a
career. I felt as if I had completely lost my mind. For a
time, I managed to keep it together on the outside, but
then I became unable to leave my house again.
Around this time I was diagnosed with PTSD. I cannot
express to you the enormous relief I felt when I discovered
my condition was real and treatable. I felt safe for the first
time in 32 years. Taking medication and undergoing
behavioral therapy marked the turning point in my
regaining control of my lifeI'm rebuilding a satisfying career
as an artist, and I am enjoying my life. The world is new to
me and not limited by the restrictive vision of anxiety. It
amazes me to think back to what my life was like only a
year ago, and just how far I've come.
For me there is no cure, no final healing. But there are
things I can do to ensure that I never have to suffer as I
did before being diagnosed with PTSD. I'm no longer at
the mercy of my disorder and I would not be here today
had I not had the proper diagnosis and treatment. The
most important thing to know is that it's never too late to
seek help.

Tom Nevill, 29, is studying an apprenticeship degree in

Business Management and Social Change

He suffers from PTSD following the death of his father when

he was 12. Tom uses running as a coping mechanism, so
when he found himself unable to run due to physical effects
of PTSD he struggled to cope. Talking about his problems
helped him on a road to recovery. Here he shares his story.
“I lost my father when I was 12 after he was diagnosed with stage
4 terminal brain cancer in 2000. He was given six months to live
and after he passed away in 2003, I experienced PTSD as a
result. It’s something I live with every day. I love running and
when I’ve struggled with my mental health in the past, it’s been
the thing that’s helped me focus and cope with my anxiety.
“Running has always been part of my life, but my PTSD has
caused some physical health problems in the past, which meant
that I wasn’t able to run. This led to a decline in my mental
health, and I found myself struggling to cope.
“At the time, and it sounds so simple, talking to someone about
how I was feeling really helped. PTSD is an ongoing battle, but I
rebuilt my physical and mental health and decided to train for a
marathon. When I found myself in lockdown and I realised that I
would not be running a marathon any time soon, I knew it was
time to ramp my training up and use my running to help with my
mental health."
“He ran a lot of marathons and achieved his PB at the 1999
London Marathon, which is remarkable considering he could have
possibly been in the early stages of cancer.
“My dad has inspired me to run which has really helped me over
the years, but particularly the last few months as I took on
Samarathon in July. I decided that instead of running one
marathon distance, I would do the equivalent of ten, so a total of
262 miles. I used this focus to get me through lockdown and the
training helped with getting my time down, as I really want to be fit
enough to beat my dad’s marathon PB of three hours and twenty-
six minutes when I get the chance to run the marathon.
"My advice to other men who are struggling is that talking to
people around you genuinely helps. The release of getting it out
and off your chest is often all you need, which is why Samaritans
is such a great service as they are there to listen.
"I met Resilience Coach, Josh Connolly through a family friend
and could relate to him as we’d had a similar experience of
substance abuse. I found support in someone who had also lost
his father when he was young. We had had a similar experience
of spending a lot of our lives putting on a tough guy front, but
that’s not sustainable. We spoke a lot about how we had
developed coping mechanisms to deal with our anxiety and I
learnt how to be kinder to myself.”