Gabrielle Union Describes “Agony” of Anxiousness & PTSD After Being Raped

Content material warning: This story discusses sexual assault.

Thirty years later, Gabrielle Union is constant to navigate life after a traumatic occasion.

The Cheaper by the Dozen actress provided a glimpse into a few of her private struggles in an Instagram submit on June 7, explaining how posttraumatic stress dysfunction (PTSD) and anxiousness have an effect on her day-to-day life within the highlight after she was raped at age 19. 

“As a rape survivor, I’ve battled PTSD for 30 years,” she started in her submit. “Dwelling with anxiousness and panic assaults all these years has by no means been straightforward. There’s occasions the anxiousness is so dangerous it shrinks my life.” 

Union stated that leaving her home and even making an unprotected left flip at a visitors sign can “fill me with terror.” Her anxiousness may flip her pleasure about going to a celebration, such because the Met Gala, into “pure agony.” 

“After we inform y’all what we’re experiencing, please consider us the first time we point out it,” she wrote. “No, it isn’t like being nervous and everybody experiences and offers with anxiousness otherwise, and that is OK.”