Ashley Judd 'suffered unnecessarily' for 'eight miserable years' amid private health battle

Actress Ashley Judd has revealed she's suffered from "epic headaches" for "years".

The High Crimes star, 56, shared a candid post on Instagram with her fans, opening up on her private health battle.

Judd, the daughter of late country music star Naomi Judd, said she's finally found a treatment that works for her after "suffering unnecessarily" for "eight miserable years" and being misdiagnosed.

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"What happened was that I discovered, through an auspicious friendship, that my headaches had been misdiagnosed for eight years," she wrote in her post, which was shared for world mental health day.

"Which meant that for those eight miserable years I had been treated, at some of our finest medical institutions, with medications for a type of headache that I do not have."

"What a staggering revelation! To know that I had gone through all that suffering unnecessarily because all the solutions prescribed were doomed to fail, has been profoundly disillusioning."

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"Since September 14th, my body has felt well — the 'pain burden' has lifted," she added.

"My hope is renewed."

She said she had support from her sister, aunt and partner for helping her with her "chronic pain".

It comes after Judd revealed she broke her leg from grief-induced clumsiness after the loss of her mother.

"Clumsiness is associated with grief, and there were other people in our family, after mom died, who fell down stairs and had accidents, and that's just what mine happened to look like," she said at an Open Mind lecture series to UCLA professor Dr. Jonathan Flint.

"It really allowed me to grieve. It really allowed me to stop what I was working on at that moment and to grieve."

Naomi Judd died in April 2022 by suicide at the age of 76.

If you or anyone you know needs immediate support, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or via lifeline.org.au. In an emergency, call 000.

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