Fans Rally Around Gabrielle Union After She Gets Candid About Surviving Sexual Assault
Gabrielle Union shared a raw video picturing how it feels to live with PTSD and anxiety as a rape survivor.
“There’s times the anxiety is so bad it shrinks my life,” she wrote.
Fans and followers rallied around the actress in support.
There are moments when Gabrielle Union might be smiling and happy on the red carpet, but the star recently revealed that on the inside things can be a bit less serene. That’s the reality of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and panic attacks, which the actress has lived with for the last 30 years as a sexual assault survivor.
In a new Instagram, the 49-year-old opened up about how the anxiety impacts her daily life and made a conscious effort to validate her fellow folks with PTSD. “As a rape survivor, I have battled PTSD for 30 years,” she captioned a video of her walking the Met Gala red carpet, swarmed by paparazzi yelling her name. She used the clip to visualize how the panic can be all-consuming—labeling herself, “me,” the paparazzi, “my triggers,” and her husband Dwayne Wade approaching from behind, “my anxiety.”
The caption continued: “Living with anxiety and panic attacks all these years has never been easy. There are times the anxiety is so bad it shrinks my life. Leaving the house or making a left hand turn at an uncontrolled light can fill me with terror. Anxiety can turn my anticipation about a party or fun event I’ve been excited about attending (Met Ball) into pure agony.”
With that, she encouraged followers who may not relate, to approach her and other survivors with understanding and support. “When we tell y’all what we are experiencing, please believe us the 1st time we mention it,” Union wrote. “No, it’s not like being nervous and everyone experiences and deals with anxiety differently, and that’s OK. I don’t need you to try to ‘fix’ me. I share this as I hope everyone living with anxiety knows they aren’t alone or ‘being extra.’ I see you, I FEEL you and there is so much love for you. Always. Love and light good people. Be good to each other out there 🖤.”
Fans and followers rallied around Union in support. “This is powerful, thank you for sharing ❤️❤️❤️,” one person commented. “💛 you vulnerability amazes and inspires us ✨,” another added. “We see and feel you too 💜,” someone else wrote.
The Bring it On star has previously opened up about being raped at age 19. She’s determined to use her fame to destigmatize her story. In a 2016 press Q&A for her film The Birth of a Nation, per People, she recalled the moment, laying on a Payless Shoes floor after her assault, that she committed to speaking out. “I decided never again,” she said. “I decided I was going to use my celebrity, my platform … to talk about the horrors of sexual violence and what it does to your soul and to your psyche and to your sanity and to your family and to your relationships.”
In 2019, she made a video in partnership with the Child Mind Institute that reached out to survivors. “I’m here to tell you that I am a PTSD survivor, thriver, badass MFer,” she said. “I was diagnosed with PTSD at 19 after I was raped at gunpoint—and I didn’t let it stop me. I didn’t want it to define my whole life, and it doesn’t have to. Asking for help, needing help doesn’t make you weak or less worthy of love or support or success.”
If you or someone you know needs help or has been affected by sexual assault, call 800.656.HOPE (4673) to be connected with a trained staff member from a sexual assault service provider in your area.
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