Six-time Olympic medalist Aly Raisman is retired from gymnastics, but she’s still very much a part of the sport.
Aly is a commentator for ESPN and provides a lot of public insight into gymnastics. But the 30-year-old has also been an outspoken advocate for survivors of sexual abuse after revealing that she was a victim of Larry Nassar, the former U.S. women's national gymnastics team physician who sexually assaulted hundreds of young athletes.
Aly opened up on the Call Her Daddy podcast about being hospitalized twice for “stroke-like symptoms” tied to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from being one of Nassar’s victims.
Meet the Expert: Thea Gallagher, PsyD, is a clinical assistant professor at NYU Langone Health and a cohost of the Mind in View podcast.
PTSD, in case you’re not familiar with it, is a disorder that can develop in people who have experienced a shocking, scary, or dangerous event, per the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Symptoms can include flashbacks, trying to avoid certain situations, feeling tense or guarded, and physical signs of stress.
“If you don’t pick a day to rest, your body will pick it for you,” Aly said. She noted that she had two events where she was examined for stroke-like symptoms. “I can’t remember my name. I’m slurring my words. I can barely speak. Both times I was tested for a stroke because I literally couldn’t move my body,” she said.
Aly said that the experience was “so scary,” noting that the first time she experienced this was during the height of the pandemic, which made things even more terrifying.
“The first time it happened was during COVID. And so, they wouldn’t let my mom in the ambulance with me,” she said. “I was aware enough to know, ‘Oh my God, I have two men [with me], I can’t move my arms and my legs, I can’t move my body, I can’t speak. What if they take advantage of me?’”
“I was really still struggling a lot with PTSD,” she continued. “People don’t realize how much it still lives with you when you’ve been through something traumatic. So, that was really hard for me.”
A year and a half later, Aly said she went through this again but dealt with “complete body paralysis” and ended up hospitalized for three days.
“They wouldn’t release me because I couldn’t sit up on my own,” she said. “It took me so long. I needed help walking, going to the bathroom.” Aly said this was particularly tough since she is a former Olympic athlete.
Aly said she felt like her symptoms were originally “ignored” by doctors, before they figured out that she was famous.
“It’s appalling,” she said. “It wasn’t until they realized that I was a very high-level athlete, that they were very nice to me and taking care of me, which is also triggering for me because I already have trust issues with doctors.”
Unfortunately, symptoms of PTSD can manifest in this way, says Thea Gallagher, PsyD, a clinical assistant professor at NYU Langone Health and a cohost of the Mind in View podcast. “Our brains and bodies are very much connected and integrated,” she says. “Sometimes we have unprocessed trauma stored in the body. Our bodies can react and respond.”
When this happens, Gallagher says it’s a “good sign to take inventory and to deal with the cognitive and emotional element of the trauma.”
Gallagher also stresses this: “The idea of mind over matter doesn’t always work.”
Aly previously told People that she regularly goes to therapy and is working on prioritizing her personal life.
Aly will be an official hospitality ambassador alongside Michael Phelps at the Paris Olympic Games. But she said on the Call Her Daddy podcast that she expecting that there will be “a lot of triggers” in her role.
“I might see someone that maybe didn’t protect me in the past. So, it’s working on that. It’s very complicated,” she said.
