Avril Lavigne Opens Up About Lyme Disease Struggles: ‘I Had Accepted That I Was Dying’

Like Yolanda Hadid, singer Avril Lavigne is coming clean about her hard and lengthy battle with Lyme disease.

This month, Lavigne appears on the cover of Billboard Magazine where she talks about a number of topics, including her health. According to the singer, her battle with the dreaded Lyme Disease began in 2014 when she was on tour. The singer says that she just was not feeling herself and she lacked the energy that she was so used to having.

After feeling achy, fatigued, and like she couldn’t get out of bed, Lavigne went to a few doctors to try and figure out what was going on with her health. Luckily, a friend ended up noticing Avril’s symptoms and pointed out to her that she may have Lyme disease. It was then that Lavigne got in touch with Yolanda Hadid, who gave her the name of her specialist. At her lowest low, things became so bad for the 34-year-old that she said she actually thought she was dying.

“I had accepted that I was dying. And I felt in that moment like I was underwater and drowning, and I was trying to come up to gasp for air. And literally under my breath, I was like, ‘God, help me keep my head above the water.'”

Lavigne also told the publication that she basically stayed in bed for two years because she felt so sick. She’s currently getting treatment for the disease and does feel like she is getting a lot of her strength back but it’s not very easy to treat as Lyme shifts and adapts to treatment.

“It’s a bug — a spirochete — so you take these antibiotics, and they start killing it,” Lavigne explained. “But it’s a smart bug: It morphs into a cystic form, so you have to take other antibiotics at the same time. It went undiagnosed for so long that I was kind of f*****.”

And Avril’s battle with Lyme has been something that has inspired her in her career. The 34-year-old’s new song “Head Above Water” was written about Lavigne’s illness and her battle with it.

“God, keep my head above water, Don’t let me drown, it gets harder,” the chorus says.

And like Hadid, Lavigne has become somewhat of a spokesperson for the dreaded disease since she has such a big platform to tell her story. She even started the Avril Lavigne Foundation to help people who are battling illnesses and Lavigne said that it is the “silver lining” of the disease. But still, the singer says that it’s hard to have to deal with it.

“I don’t want to talk about it. I don’t want to relive it. But it’s my responsibility.”

What a brave woman!