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Kathy Griffin thanks fans for support after revealing ‘extreme’ health diagnosis
Comedian turned to social media for an open discussion about mental health
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Kelly Rissman
US News Reporter
Kathy Griffin has shared her gratitude for her fans’ kindness after sharing her diagnosis of complex PTSD.
The comedian posted about the condition for the first time earlier this week, having never addressed it publicly before.
“I think this is the place to do it because I've seen a lot of videos about it,” she said in a minute-long TikTok clip.
“I've been diagnosed with complex PTSD. They call it an extreme case.”
She added that feeding her dogs was a simple task that helped her deal with the effects of the condition.
After asking her followers to respond with their experiences of coping with depression and anxiety, Griffin, 63, added: “If any of you know my story, you'll understand that this really started for me about five-and-a-half years ago. Wink.”
It is assumed that Griffin is referring to the heavy backlash she received after posing with a bloodied mask of Donald Trump’s head for a photo shoot in 2017.
She was also diagnosed with stage one lung cancer in 2021 and had half of her left lung removed as part of the treatment – something, she adds, “didn’t help” with her complex PTSD experience.
In response to this post, Griffin’s fans chimed in with methods that they have found to be useful in dealing with various mental health diagnoses, including EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) therapy, spending time with friends and family, and self-care.
On Saturday (15 April), Griffin shared an additional clip that thanked people for their encouraging replies.
“I'm actually really grateful for this response of the video I made about my PTSD and my anxiety attacks,” she says to the camera, before adding that the effects of PTSD are worst when she wakes up in the morning.
In the caption for the post, Griffin wrote: “Thank you to the response about my #PTSD #Anxiety #PanicAttacks – this is all this is new to me.
“My life definitely changed five and a half years ago as you guys know, but this last year and a half has been plagued with PTSD stuff. It’s funny. I don’t have anxiety about performing, but I have anxiety about life.”
If you have been affected by this article, you can contact the following organisations for support: mind.org.uk, nhs.uk/livewell/mentalhealth, mentalhealth.org.uk.
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