Riley Keough, Bella Hadid, and 9 Other Celebs Who've Spoken Up About Lyme Disease

Mark Ruffalo first spoke out about his experience with Lyme disease in 2017, sharing on Twitter: "Lyme disease sucks, I know." One Twitter user commented, "I'm finally treating my Lyme after more than a decade. It has altered my entire life," to which he replied, "Me too."

Now, the "Incredible Hulk" is raising awareness about Lyme disease as a hidden public health crisis by promoting a new documentary, "The Quiet Epidemic." The film looks at the hidden epidemic of Lyme disease and the US healthcare system. Ruffalo recently shared his endorsement across social media, in addition to describing his experience with Lyme disease as "brutal, persistent, and misdiagnosed."

"The Quiet Epidemic" is now available to stream on AppleTV/iTunes, Amazon Prime Video, and Vimeo On Demand.

Yolanda Hadid, reality-TV star and mother to models Bella and Gigi Hadid, often refers to her Lyme disease as an "invisible disability." In 2018, after a year in remission, she discovered that her Lyme disease was active again after six years of consistent treatment. That same year, she published a memoir, titled, "Believe Me: My Battle With the Invisible Disability of Lyme Disease."

In 2015, the Global Lyme Alliance presented her with the Power of One award, where she revealed that Bella and son Anwar also suffer from the disease.

"When my two youngest children, Bella and Anwar, were diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease in early 2012, watching my babies struggle in silence in order to support me in my journey, struck the deepest core of hopelessness inside of me," she said in her acceptance speech. "This is my token and my promise to you that I will not allow you to live a life of pain and suffering. I will walk to the end of the earth to find a cure so that you can live a healthy life that you deserve."

Ben Stiller was initially diagnosed with Lyme disease in 2010 while in Nantucket, MA, but thankfully, it was detected early.

"My knee became inflamed and they couldn't figure out what it was, then they found out it was Lyme," he told The Hollywood Reporter in 2011. "I'm symptom-free now, but Lyme doesn't ever leave your system. It's a really tough thing."

Alec Baldwin told People in a 2017 interview that he believed he had chronic Lyme disease when he was bitten almost two decades before. When he was bitten again a few years later, he started to experience symptoms every year.

"I got the classic Lyme disease (symptoms) for each successive summer, for five years, every August, like this black lung, flu-like symptoms, sweating to death in my bed," Baldwin said. "The first round (was the worst), and then it diminished, at least that's how I perceived it."

The first time was the worst of all. "I really thought this is it, I'm not going to live. I was alone, I wasn't married at the time, I was divorced from my first wife. I was lying in bed saying, 'I'm going to die of Lyme disease' in my bed and 'I hope someone finds me and I'm not here for too long.'"

Now he and his wife, Hilaria Baldwin, are vigilant about the disease. "I want my kids to grow up riding horses and bikes and enjoying themselves every day and not have to spend every day with us going over them with a magnifying glass to make sure they don't have any ticks on their body or their dogs, but that is part of the lifestyle," he said.

Justin Bieber broke his silence in an Instagram post that has since been removed. "While a lot of people kept saying Justin Bieber looks like sh*t, on meth etc. they failed to realize I've been recently diagnosed with Lyme disease, not only that but had a serious case of chronic mono which affected my, skin, brain function, energy, and overall health," he wrote, per People.

He continued, "It's been a rough couple years but getting the right treatment that will help treat this so far incurable disease and I will be back and better than ever."

This year, he was diagnosed with facial paralysis and Ramsay Hunt syndrome, which recent studies have shown can be linked to Lyme disease.

In 2004, reality star Kelly Osbourne was bitten by a tick while attending her dad Ozzy Osbourne's outdoor birthday party. For a decade after, she suffered from a sore throat, stomachaches, and eventually a seizure that led to an epilepsy diagnosis.

"The doctors kept changing my prescription, trying to get the dosage right, and it turned me into a zombie," she wrote in her book excerpt published in US Weekly. "You know in movies where a mental patient sits in a rocking chair in a cardigan and nightgown and stares at a wall all day? That was me."

At her wit's end, she turned to an alternative practitioner. "I had started entering my symptoms into online quizzes, and the results kept coming back Lyme disease," she wrote, adding that for the first time, she felt someone listened to her. "I got tested. The results were positive: I had stage III neurological Lyme disease. I was relieved to finally know what was going on, but I was also scared s—tless."

From the experience, Osbourne shared some takeaways: "I've learned to advocate for myself when it comes to my health, and I trust my intuition. If I think something is wrong, I refuse to let anyone dismiss it."