Kathy Griffin opens up about complex PTSD diagnosis

Kathy Griffin is known for her humor and for keeping it real. More recently, the actress and comedian opened up about her mental and physical health struggles in the past couple of years.

In a recent Tik Tok video, Kathy Griffin revealed that she has recently been diagnosed with complex PTSD. The 62-year-old even asked her followers for coping mechanisms to help her deal with anxiety and depression.

What is complex PTSD?

According to Mind, complex post-traumatic stress disorder is defined as “a condition where you experience some symptoms of PTSD along with some additional symptoms, such as difficulty controlling your emotions, feeling very angry or distrustful towards the world.”

What did Griffin say?

“Let’s talk about PTSD,” Griffin said in her video. “Never talked about it publicly. You can laugh or whatever, but I’ve been diagnosed with complex PTSD, and it’s called an extreme case.”

“If any of you know my story, you’ll understand that this really started for me about 5 and a half years ago, Wink.”

Griffin was likely referring to the incident in 2017 when she posed for a photo with a bloodied replica of former U.S. President Donald Trump’s head. She suffered a major fallout both professionally and personally from this event.

This included being fired from co-hosting CNN’s New Year’s Eve special, put on a ‘No-Fly’ list, investigated by the Secret Service, and lost several stand-up gigs and television opportunities.

This marked an extremely difficult time in Griffin’s life as she referred to the above consequences as an “erasure” and sought out drugs to cope with the stress.

Griffin also stated that her stage one diagnosis of lung cancer, which she received in August 2021, “didn’t help.” She underwent surgery that month to remove part of her left lung before declaring that she was cancer free on Jimmy Kimmel Live that December.

A visit to the hospital

During the Easter weekend, Griffin posted a picture to Instagram of herself in a hospital, wrapped in a blanket, and revealed that she just had an MRI done.

“Happy Easter???” she wrote. “Getting an MRI.”

Griffin did not specify the reason for the MRI.