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Gabrielle Union On PTSD Amid COVID-19 Crisis, Black Lives Matter Protests

“There’s just terror in my body.”

Admitting to being overwhelmed just like many of us, Gabrielle Union is trying her best to keep it together amid the current climate of America. Sitting down with Women’s Health, the actress revealed that she is currently coping with post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests.

“The combination of a pandemic and this racial reckoning, alongside being inundated with (images of) the brutalization of Black bodies, has sent my PTSD into overdrive,” said the 47-year-old actress. “There’s just terror in my body.”

RELATED: Gabrielle Union Describes 'Hardest Part' Of Her Twenty Year Hollywood Career

Grappling with living America today as a Black woman in the midst of the coronavirus crisis and endlessly police brutality protests nationwide, Union says it is extremely challenging. 

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“I break out my emotional fix-me toolkit, and I try to run through all the situations,” she explains. “I call it my ’what’s the likelihood of X happening?’ method.”

Trying to remain optimistic during the trying times and unprecedented events, Union says that although she can see racial equality achieved in the years to come, she still needs to see more active change. 

“For the most part, across all industries, you see the same power structure that existed before George Floyd,” Union said. “All of these initiatives that people are so excited about — if the people at the top haven’t changed, and they’re not interested in creating more space up here, how far are these people that we’re bringing in going?”

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