Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder caused by your experience with a traumatic event. These events may include near death experiences, sexual assault, participation in war activities, and serious injuries. People with PTSD usually experience selective amnesia regarding the event, disturbing nightmares, and high levels of anxiety long after the event. PTSD does not just happen among regular people. Famous people also suffer from PTSD. Read on to find out more.
Famous People with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Whoopi Goldberg
After witnessing two planes collide in midair, the life was never the same for Whoopi Goldberg. She is a talk show host, actress, and comedienne and has to travel around the world for shows. Every time she boards planes, she has panic attacks. She is now receiving therapy to overcome this problem.
Monica Seles
After being stabbed during a tennis match in 1993, ace tennis player Monica Seles developed PTSD. She explained everything in her autobiography and mentioned how difficult it was for her to overcome her fear, return to the court and play.
Mick Jagger
The lead singer of the rock band "The Rolling Stones" suffered PTSD after his girlfriend committed suicide. That traumatic event kept him from performing again for a month.
Darrell Hammond
Hammond, one of the famous people with PTSD, is an impressionist and Saturday Night Live comedian. He has made it public that he suffered from PTSD after being abused as a child. This led him to be an alcohol and drug addict and even self-harming but he is now living a sober lifestyle.
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
The first lady to President J. F. Kennedy developed PTSD after the assassination of her husband. She never made it public but mentioned in a recent biography she obsessively retold this event and how difficult it became for her to sleep at night thinking someone would kill her too.
Alanis Morissette
Singer and songwriter Morissette developed PTSD after her quick rise to fame. It was intense over-stimulation because she shot to fame when she was just 20. Her album "Jagged Little Pill" has sold over 33 million copies. She has mentioned that she still has PTSD and feels as if people will break into her hotel room, pull her hair, or jump on her car.
Barbra Streisand
Iconic actress and singer Barbra Streisand develop PTSD after she forgot the lyrics while performing in New York's Central Park. This kept her out of singing for 30 long years. She had to receive therapy and medication to overcome her intense fear of performance.
Charlize Theron
The next name on the list of famous people with PTSD is Charlize Theron. Among the most beautiful actresses in Hollywood, Charlize Theron had a problematic childhood with her father getting drunk and beating her and her mother. She hid the facts for years and said that her father died in a car accident. She was actually trying to forget the night when her mother killed her father while trying to protect herself and her daughter.
Demi Moore
She may be a wealthy individual with loads of talent, but she has suffered from depression, anorexia, and seizure due to drug use. She did not respond to her divorce because she was in a state of denial which is a symptom of PTSD. She has been in rehab after the breakup of her marriage.
Audie Murphy
Audie Murphy was a combat solider turned actor who had a 21-year acting career after returning from World War II. He suffered from PTSD and slept with a handgun under his pillow. He also became addicted to sleeping pills to forget about traumatic events from the past.
Abraham Lincoln
Former US President had that too. His life was quite traumatic – he nearly drowned when he was seven, his mother died 2 years later, and his older sister died 10 years after her mother's death. He could not marry the girl he loved so much and lost three of his children in their childhood. He developed clinical depression and had symptoms associated with PTSD when he was murdered in 1956.
Spike Milligan
Traumatized in WWII, British comedian Spike Milligan has suffered from PTSD as well. He fought in a number of campaigns in Italy and even sustained serious injuries in the war. An officer refused to acknowledge that Milligan had PTSD and demoted him. He developed bipolar disorder after the war and even had many breakdowns.
Oprah Winfrey
Author and TV show host, Oprah Winfrey, is another name on the list of famous people with PTSD. She did a show on sexual abuse in 1986 and revealed that a relative raped her when she was only 9 and was later abused by many people for several years. She had a baby who died early. She now advocates sexual abuse survivors.
Major General John Cantwell
In his autobiography Exit Wounds, John Cantwell talked about how he did not reveal about his PTSD for 20 long years to serve in the army. He developed a fear that his car might have bombs and this made him avoid cars as much as possible. He felt survivor guilt and became suicidal. He retired after being admitted to a psychiatric ward for a week.
Chris Brown
A rehab facility has recently confirmed that the famous singer Chris Brown had a history of aggression mainly due to PSTD and bipolar disorder. He was reported to assault his ex-girlfriend, throw a brick through the car, and partake in a brawl. His aggression was also due to inappropriate self-medicating, severe sleep deprivation, and untreated PTSD.
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