Singer Avril Lagivne opened up about her battle with lyme disease in an interview this morning on "Good Morning America."
"I believe that I will come out of this healthier and stronger than I was before," Lavigne said. "I’ve gained a lot of perspective on my life."
Lavigne, 30, began feeling ill while on tour last April. Doctors told her it was just dehydration and exhaustion, but she says she knew it was more than that.
Avril Lavigne Reveals She Has Lyme Disease Avril Lavigne on How Lyme Disease Has Affected Her Life, CareerThe singer called the search for her diagnosis "unacceptable" and "frustrating."
"I went from doctor to doctor for about eight months until I found somebody that had the knowledge of Lyme disease and the experience of treating it," Lavigne said. "I actually knew I had it the whole time, probably since the summer, and was just up against a lot of doctors telling me, ‘You’re crazy, some of them were like, ‘It doesn’t exist.'"
"I was like, ‘But this is happening to me,'" she said.
After getting the diagnosis of Lyme disease, which Lavigne believes she got from a tick bite last spring, the singer was bedridden for five months in her Ontario home.
"I’ve never had so much down time in my life, so it’s been good in that sense," she said.
Lavigne kept a low profile during her recovery, sending a tweet to a concerned fan on Twitter in December and then publicly revealing her Lyme disease in an interview that was published earlier this month in People magazine.
Now Lavigne is back on the music scene with her song "Fly," which will be featured during the 2015 Special Olympics World Games.
"It’s just about inner strength and courage," Lavigne said of the song, which she wrote a few years ago before partnering with the Special Olympics. "This song took on a whole new meaning for me while I was sick, which was pretty magical."
Lavigne debuted the music video for “Fly” today on “GMA." The song is available now on iTunes and all the net proceeds of "Fly" will go to Special Olympics, according to Lavigne.
"I wanted the athletes to be the stars of the video and, just like the message of the song, to show the world that they can overcome the challenges and that everyone is meant to shine," Lavigne said.