14 DAY TRIAL // Avril Lavigne has been absent from the spotlight for almost a year. She was never much for drawing unnecessary attention to herself when she wasn’t promoting new music, but she was particularly quiet even for her.
That’s because she contracted Lyme Disease sometime in the second half of 2014, but it took her a few more months before she got the diagnosis, because the specialists she was seeing simply didn’t know what was wrong with her.
She opens up about the painful experience in an interview for Good Morning America on ABC, an excerpt of which is also available below.
“Literally the worst time of my life”
That something was wrong with Avril became clear when she DM’ed one fan on Twitter asking her to pray for her because she was not well. She didn’t say what she had, but confirmation that something was wrong was all was needed, since she’d already been MIA from the public eye for months.
The message went viral, prompting intense speculation on what could possibly ail her. In April 2015, the star finally broke her silence: she had been diagnosed with Lyme Disease and had been going through hell.
She tells GMA that she started feeling ill while on tour and that, by October, she was completely bedridden. Feeling sick wasn’t even the worst part: worse than this was seeing so many specialists and being told that there was nothing wrong with her and that, at best, she was “crazy.”
She describes the experience as “literally the worst time of [her] life” and explains that it took her time to finally find someone who understood that what she was experiencing were symptoms of Lyme Disease and not Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
The fans helped her get through it all, she says. She would spend her days in bed, watching videos of support fans were sending her, urging her to stay strong and fight it, even though they had no idea what “it” was at the time.
Life after hell
Lyme Disease is a bacterial infection contracted from a tick bite. Symptoms include fever and extreme fatigue, rashes and headaches; left untreated, it can spread to the heart and nervous system.
Avril says she’s halfway through her treatment with antibiotics and she’s already seeing remarkable progress. She’s also getting a lot of rest, but she is eager for the next stage in her life.
“Lyme disease does exist. And you can get better,” she says. “I think for me it’s like a second chance at life. I want to go out there and truly do what I love. I’m excited for life after this.”
