In an Instagram video message, Janie Van Halen, the widow of Eddie Van Halen, opened up about her PTSD diagnosis following his death.
“Hey everybody, happy Wednesday. It’s Janie and Pepper,” she began. “Yesterday I put a press release out for a new client, Garnish Music LA. They are offering free music classes to students 14 to 18 years of age that have been impacted by the recent wildfires here in Southern California.”
She went on to share her personal experience with Garnish Music, explaining how it had helped her during a difficult time in her life. “Several years ago, I was at the darkest point in time of my life. After experiencing a lot of significant loss in a very short amount of time, I was diagnosed with extreme and long-term PTSD and anxiety.”
“I was having all the emotions. I was pissed, I was mad, I was sad, I was depressed, angry,” she shared. “And by having to show up somewhere and actually focus on something besides everything that was going on in my head and to get lost in the music gave me a form of therapy I don’t think I could have gotten anywhere else.”
Janie continued, discussing the positive impact music had on her healing, “It really helped in the recovery of some of these things that I was experiencing.”
In 2021, Janie had shared that she was ‘doing the best’ she could five months after Eddie’s death. She had also lost her brother and mother. In an interview with NewsRadio 840 WHAS, via Blabbermouth, she said, “I’m doing the best I can. I have okay days; I have sad, bad days; but you just have to kind of keep moving.”
She added, “And the things that I post [on social media] as inspiration for other people, I actually post for myself as well to kind of keep going, keep moving forward. My dance partner also had two losses almost at the same time — his dad, and then his sister’s boyfriend. So we kind of support each other in our loss and our grief.”
Janie also mentioned, “And it helps — it definitely helps. And then, obviously, my family members and friends — close friends. I do the best I can. It’s not so easy, though.”
Besides Eddie, her brother, and her mother, Janie also faced the loss of her father in 2023 and her dog Kody.
