Kathy Griffin has been diagnosed with an “extreme case” of complex post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and she still has all-day panic attacks more than five years after she made the fateful mistake of taking on President Donald Trump.
The comedian, 62, revealed Tuesday on TikTok that she believes her condition began five-and-a-half years ago, around the time she faced widespread criticism for a photo of her holding a grisly mask of former President Donald Trump covered in blood-red ketchup.
“Let’s talk about PTSD. Never talked about it publicly,” she said in the video. “If any of you know my story, you’ll understand that this really started for me about five and a half years ago. Wink,” said Griffin in reference to her spat with President Trump.
In another TikTok video posted Friday, Griffin detailed the panic attacks she has been suffering since the public backlash she received over five years ago.
“I had a freaking eight-hour attack yesterday. Eight hours of freaking writhing in pain in the bed,” Griffin said. “I felt like one might be coming on, so I started to feel a little iffy. So I’m on my walk now … which is helpful.”
Griffin said she has never talked about her struggles with PTSD publicly but detailed how her panic attacks affect her physically.
“It hits me in my chest first, like my chest starts to tingle. Then it goes right to my stomach,” she said in a third video. She wrote in the video’s caption: “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.”
Her professional and personal life has been going downhill since the infamous photo and Griffin has been open about the emotional toll the controversial photo shoot has taken on her. In 2021, she told ABC News’ “Nightline” about struggling with drug addiction and contemplating suicide in the years after the backlash.
“To be told by people in my own industry, ‘It’s over. Leave the country for five years. You’ve shamed our industry,’ on and on and on. It definitely got to me,” she said in the interview.
“And so, I got to the point where I kind of agreed. Like, maybe it is time for me to go, and I’ve had a great life, and I don’t think there’s a next chapter for me.”