American actress Gabrielle Union has opened up on battling PTSD ( Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) for 30 years after she was sexually assaulted as a teenager.

The 49 year old super star and mother of two narrated how she feels in an emotional post on her Instagram page while sharing a video clip of herself and her husband, Dwayne Wade on the 2022 Met Gala red carpet.

In the video, she created a meme capturing her emotion using herself, her husband, Dwayne Wade and the red carpet’s photographers and tagging each with ‘me, my anxiety and my triggers’ respectively.

Gabrielle Union and her husband Dwayne Wade at the Met Gala 2022 red carpet

She wrote “As a rape survivor, I have battled PTSD for 30 years. 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.”

She described how PTSD influences the way she feels about social events, like the Met Gala and her everyday life after she was sexually assaulted when she was 19. “Anxiety can turn my anticipation about a party or fun event I’ve been excited about attending (Met Ball) into pure agony”, she said.

Gabrielle Union and her husband, Dwayne Wade in a loved-up pose

Detailing her feelings, Gabrielle Union admonished fans to believe her and other celebrities suffering from PTSD when they open up about it. According to her, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is different from nervousness and she is not sharing the post so she might be ‘fix’ but to encourage other people living with anxiety to know that they are not alone.

Gabrielle Union, her husband Dwayne Wade, daughters Zaya and Kaavia

“When we tell y’all what we are experiencing, please believe us the 1st time we mention it. 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. 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”, she wrote.

Gabrielle Union’s post on Instagram about her PTSD

In a book excerpt published by Glamour in 2017, Gabrielle Union spoke about how she has been raped when she was 19 years old at gunpoint while working at a payless shoe store. She has since then been trying to ‘embrace’ being a survivor of sexual assault.