Gabrielle Union has been very open about her experiences as a rape survivor. It happened well before her fame — when she was a 19-year-old college student — and Gabrielle has spoken about it over the years, with the most detail being in her first memoir We’re Going to Need More Wine. Listening to the audiobook, in her voice, as she described the events and her feelings and how the case was treated and publicized at the time, was powerful. Gabrielle makes clear it’s something she’s still dealing with in a recent Instagram post where she explained how her PTSD as a rape survivor affects her anxiety and daily life.
Gabrielle Union is getting candid about her day-to-day struggles with anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
The Being Mary Jane actress, 49, shared a video on Instagram and detailed issues with her mental health after being sexually assaulted when she was 19 years old.
“As a rape survivor, I have battled PTSD for 30 years,” she wrote. “Living with anxiety and panic attacks all these years has never been easy. There’s 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,” she added, sharing a video of herself standing on the red carpet at the 2022 Met Gala.
“When we tell y’all what we are experiencing, please believe us the 1st time we mention it,” the actress said. “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.”
Union continued, “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 🖤.”
I think even in her concise post Gabrielle really shines a light on the nuances of PTSD and anxiety. Popular media portrayals seem to lean toward big, obvious triggers for PTSD and related panic attacks, but I think Gabrielle’s examples show how small daily things can be triggering at some times and not others. For instance, the anxiety of an uncontrolled environment, even just at a stoplight, when the initial incident was something that was completely out of her control, makes perfect sense. I have anxiety with a pretty specific trigger and I try to control my surroundings as much as reasonably possible to minimize how it affects me. Like Gabrielle says, everyone experiences and deals with anxiety differently. People with anxiety have their own coping mechanisms that work for them and they don’t need others to try and fix them. After 30 years, Gabrielle knows how to manage her own anxiety and she’s sharing her thoughts and experience in general terms to help others.
Photos credit: Avalon.red, Backgrid, Instar and via Instagram
I feel so sad for her. Her speaking out will help many people. I’m glad she’s surrounded by her loving family. Her bond with her little daughter is a joy to see.
I’ve had PTSD since I was 17 when my older brother and I found our dad after he died by suicide using a shotgun. In 2013, our younger half brother died the same way. I moved in with my mom to care for her and had so much anxiety that she would die heartbroken. It’s awful, but therapy and learning coping skills has helped. Hugs to all who deal with these things…
Hugs. I’m so sorry for your losses.
Love her honesty. Still mad at him for that break baby…
So mad on her behalf! She is a GODDESS for her grace in that situation, not to mention her being such a strong and proud voice for both sexual assault survivors and fertility struggles. I adore her.
I have anxiety and what I’ve self diagnosed as mild PTSD from some childhood incidents, and what she said about turning left was such a little thing that hit me HARD. I hate turning left if its not at a light. I plan my drives around not having to do it. I also don’t like driving on highways, it gives me anxiety attacks. When I’m driving I need to know where my exit or turn is and I get in the lane 5 miles before so I’m ready. I’ve always just thought it was a quirk on my part and that i needed to suck it up. But now I’m wondering if its a direct result of my anxiety and PTSD. Hmmm.
Anyway, I love Gabrielle Union. To me she is a celebrity who is very open and honest and I appreciate that – she never comes across as oversharing to me for some reason. Maybe because I feel like while she shares a lot of things like “here is our vacation” she also shares things like this, about anxiety etc that can really helpful to so many people.
If you don’t mind my asking, how are you on bridges? Driving on bridges is almost next-to-impossible for me & I do my best to avoid them, but sometimes there’s just no other way to get to the other side. I never linked it to my anxiety (recently diagnosed, but with me since birth). That gives me something to think about.
I am okay-ish on bridges. I’m actually better at driving on on them then being a car passenger. When I’m the passenger, I think constantly of what I would do if we went over, how would I get out of my seat (I have the hammer of life in my car, lol), how deep is the water, would the fall kill me, etc. When I’m driving, I just focus on the cars around me. I also do a lot better if I can’t see through them – one bridge near me has guardrails where you can see the water through them (so there is nothing solid between you and the water, just the split guardrails) and that freaks me out.
I live in Maryland though and I have to drive over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge a LOT, so I’ve kind of had to get used to it. But the way I manage is just by not really thinking about it.
Tunnels are really hard for me though.
Tunnels are the worst for me. I am convinced I’m going to die the entire time I’m in one.
Another get over to the right extremely early to exit the freeway person here. Lately being on the freeway at all is stressful in a way it wasn’t before.
I’ve had full on panic attacks before and I’ve been to the doctor for heart testing convinced something had to be wrong there, it wasn’t.
Now when my anxiety peaks, my face goes numb. This started a couple of years ago. Totally freaked me out the first few times.
I knew panic attacks were not normal but the constant loop in my head and worry about every last thing, I thought that was just life but I was the only one who couldn’t deal with it in a functional way.
Driving anxiety is the worst! I used to get panicky if I got stuck in traffic jams, I think because of my claustrophobia. Then I suddenly started having panic attacks about driving at speed on highways. (I think this was caused by a bad experience having my eyes dilated for an exam, but who knows?) Anyway, for a while it seemed like I would only feel comfortable driving at about 30 mph on a country road! Living outside a major city, this is seldom possible. I tried to be gentle with myself and allow myself to take alternate routes if available, but I also tried not to let it prevent me from going anywhere I needed or wanted to go. I tried everything to deal with it – books on anxiety, meditation, distraction…but I think it just gradually got better on its own, and I haven’t had a panic attack on the road for a few years, knock on wood. But I’m with all of you who hate tunnels – the Big Dig tunnels in Boston – ugh! Also, I hate driving on highways when there is construction and very little shoulder, just Jersey barriers. Thanks for letting me vent and feel less alone in this!
I’m glad she shared her anxiety story publicly. We are inundated with the images of happy, smiling, fun celebrities making social appearances look so easy. Once again, it’s not always what it looks like. My anxiety is mostly genetic, but it has intensified as I’ve gotten older. Mr. Smith is very understanding and supportive, but he is a social butterfly and sometimes gets annoyed that I do not want to go out or go to a party or whatever. I even had a panic attack on the way to a party recently. It sucks. Medication and meditation help a lot, but I have to respect my limits and if I start feeling uneasy, I listen to and take of myself. Good for Gabby for sharing. It helps lots of people feel a little more normal about their anxiety struggles.
Hubby in the blue leather shorts outfit and the white suit. Man knows how to dress. I’ll say no more.
I didn’t think a leather shorts outfit would look good on any guy, but he makes it work. He makes it work real well.
Love her post. I still deal with anxiety from a rape in young adulthood and already had complex PTSD from childhood trauma. It’s gotten so bad recently and it helps so much to hear someone else’s perspective. I have a therapist and have done tons of various healing modalities but sometimes small things really mess me up. We live in a country with a culture of trauma and lately something happens every day that spooks me. It’s exhausting and sometimes debilitating.
She seems like a wonderful person, not only is she dealing with this herself she’s willing to share publicly and help others. The more we hear about people’s experiences the more we can understand when we’ve not had to deal with something in that space.
I have had PTSD since I was three years-old, when I was raped by my older brother and then beaten by my mother when she found out. Subsequently, I was molested by men my mother brought in. I didn’t realize from ages 3 to 40 that I was suffering with symptoms of PTSD or even that I was innocent in the situation, until at age 40, a particularly violent attack from my mother made it very clear that my family of origin is completely abusive and toxic, and were not looking out for me or my safety at all.
Although I have a wonderful therapist and continue to process decades of trauma through EMDR, I do wonder everyday if there will ever be a time where I am completely free of the fallout from 40 years of trauma. I have reclaimed so much of my life and dreams, but PTSD lurks.
I appreciate Gabrielle Union speaking out about all the ways big and small that trauma’s impact frames a person’s life.
Oh, my goodness, Survivor. May you continue to heal & find strength. Be proud of yourself for seeking help.
Survivor, my sincere wish is for you to be able to live the life that you deserve, despite so many others trying to rob you of it. Hugs to you.
Survivor, thanks for sharing your story. Healing energy coming your way!
Thank you, @BeanieBean, @Thisgal, and @Call_Me_Al.
@Survivor as a survivor myself following sexual abuse by a step father and with long term PTSD I stand with you. I’ve been in therapy for 27 years and have done everything I feel I possibly can. I continue to do so. I was told the suffering wasn’t just mine but “everyone’s”, and had small half-siblings who I protected and a broken mother. But my needs were never put first, even second. It’s a fairly peaceable situation now but the failure of all the adults around me when I was a young teen has had long lasting effects. I operate in a reasonable and loving way to my family, the younger half siblings aren’t to blame and I would never put my sh*t on them. And I don’t. One day my mum said “isn’t it great we’re all finally doing well?” And I felt crushed inwardly. They were all thriving and I wasn’t. I had a lot of promise (law school, blah blah), and 26 years of therapy later I see a lot of loss in my life. It’s not anyone else’s fault but the long term PTSD effects are real. In my waking moments I don’t think about anything negative but every night I have intrusive nightmares which leave me lost for words the next day. Same themes, over and over. For the life (ha!) of me I’m lost for words for why I have to have these warped versions of the family that haunt me. I go about like a zombie for the day. I take care of myself. I’m responsible. I engage with people. But it’s relentless.
Lola, you are my damn hero.
Thanks. I’ve never put this in public. Hope it’s balanced and reasonable. Don’t know if it will help anyone. I moved away 7 years ago but a recent family reunion of sorts has really triggered a lot. Being a good big sister and watching my mum come over to spend 5 months with my sister who has had a baby, when that was (kind of, in a way, trying to be fair) robbed of me. PTSD is real, and I’ve had friends and family wish so much it wasn’t. Watching someone suffer isn’t fun, but where is there to go when a person has so much pain it’s like tentacles reaching out for any air anywhere? One can do all they can. Therapy, medication, CBT… but when you have those nightmares every night it feels so unfair. You’re out there trying to be the best you can, despite pain, trauma and lost dreams (and yes blah blah let’s move ahead and go get what you’re worth, grrrl/boyyyyy), sometimes it’s just about surviving and being happy you feel nice smiling at someone on the tube or helping someone across the street.
Thank you for your message x
@Lola I so completely relate to what you are enduring right now. I tried very hard for many years to have a relationship with my family, but it was a betrayal to myself to proceed for their sake as though everything was fine, and I was the one wounded in the process, day after day. I made a promise to myself to never again betray myself. I cleared out all the toxicity from my life (telling the truth tends to remove enablers and abusers) and it has made all the difference in reclaiming my life and dreams. I highly recommend checking out the instagram of nate_postlethwait. I wish you all the best.