Former President Donald Trump actually did break comedian Kathy Griffin. The comedian took to TikTok to announce that she is suffering from a severe case of post-traumatic stress disorder that started, coincidentally, around the time she posed for a photo with a mock severed head of the former president.
“This is going to sound, whatever, you can laugh or whatever, but I’ve been diagnosed with complex PTSD,” the comedian said.
“They call it an extreme case,” she said. “Never talked about this publicly. I have lots of tools.
“But it is extremely intense. I’ve never experienced anything like this in my life.
“If you’re someone who also deals with this, I am sending you lots and lots of love,” the comedian said.
“If any of you know my story, you’ll understand that this really started for me about five and a half years ago. Wink,” she said, an apparent reference to the Trump photo incident.
“You know, the cancer didn’t help,” she said, referring to her lung cancer diagnosis from which she has recovered. “Today, I felt like one might be coming on.
“So, I’m on my walk now, and I’m outside and looking at the ocean, which is helpful,” the comedian said.
“And I’m sort of almost like mid-anxiety attack right now,” she said. “It feels good to be walking my way through it. I just keep telling myself it won’t last forever.”
Moving forward, she’s planning to get professional help by trying eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy, she said in the comments.
Per the Cleveland Clinic, “This method involves moving your eyes a specific way while you process traumatic memories. EMDR’s goal is to help you heal from trauma or other distressing life experiences.”
But in the meantime, Griffin said one big remedy is her four dogs, telling one user, “They are my healers.”
PTSD, depression and anxiety are serious conditions and we pray for healing for Griffin.
The comedian is no stranger to controversy as she had a run-in with Twitter CEO Elon Musk in November.
After suspending her the CEO gave Griffin a way to get her account back if she wants it after being banned for impersonating him, in violation of the platform’s rules.
Initially, in response to Griffin’s ban, Musk jokingly referred to her ‘offense’ being that she actually was “impersonating a comedian,” but then he added she could have her account back — if she paid the new $8 Twitter Blue monthly fee to be verified.
BREAKING: @KathyGriffin has been permanently suspended from Twitter for impersonating @ElonMusk pic.twitter.com/ust86DZHKj
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) November 6, 2022
“But if she really wants her account back, she can have it,” he continued, adding: “For $8.”
For $8
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 7, 2022
Musk then wrote: “Going forward, any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying ‘parody’ will be permanently suspended.”
Musk fired up his critics — mostly on the left — following one of his first official acts after taking over the struggling platform last week: Firing half the staff.
“Regarding Twitter’s reduction in force, unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day. Everyone [who] exited was offered 3 months of severance, which is 50% more than legally required,” he explained on the platform.
He further noted that “Twitter’s strong commitment to content moderation remains absolutely unchanged,” while noting that “hateful speech” on the platform had “declined below prior norms” since he acquired the platform, contrary to many expectations.
That came right after Musk took over the company and banned some popular accounts for impersonating him by using his name and photo.
Despite the mass layoffs, the platform’s 2000 content moderators were mostly “not impacted,” according to Twitter’s Head of Safety and Integrity Yoel Roth. He added that the daily volume of “moderation actions” is the same under Musk as it was under the previous leadership.
As the midterms approach, Roth also stated that combatting “harmful misinformation that can suppress the vote” remains Twitter’s “top priority.”