Avril Gets Emotional Talking About Lyme Disease

After suffering through the toughest year of her life, singer Avril Lavigne's Lyme disease nightmare is almost over — thank God. The 30-year-old "Sk8er Boi" singer was diagnosed with Lyme and revealed to the world last April that her road to recovery has been really rough. The star, who has access to top doctors and specialists, revealed on Good Morning America Monday that several experts suggested she had chronic fatigue syndrome or was suffering from depression and that all she really needed to do was "get out of bed" and "go play the piano." But after visiting a Lyme disease specialist, she finally had confirmed what she says she knew all along. As she told the morning show, she is "doing a lot better" and is halfway through her treatments, which include a series of antibiotics.

Lavigne told GMA she had to become her own health advocate because she was given the "run-around" by so many doctors. But where health experts may have failed her, the star's young fans from around the world stepped up in a major way — and Lavigne even credits them with carrying her through her diagnosis. As she broke into tears during her GMA interview, the singer revealed,

I sat there in my bed and I watched videos and, like, did exactly what I'm doing right now. I cried through the whole thing and I honestly, I felt very, very loved, and it sounds silly saying it but I really, truly did feel my fans through the process.

The outpouring of love from Lavigne's fans truly is inspiring. Here's but a glimpse of what she gets to see, thanks to the power of social media:

In case you're wondering, Lavigne noticed the #FuckLyme hashtag and was only too happy to jump on board that bandwagon:

I can't imagine the hell this woman is going through, but it seems like the one positive thing to come out of this is that she seems to have gained a great depth of emotion, love, and appreciation for life and the people around her since battling Lyme disease. This is no doubt a horrible way to be forced to become an even more layered person, but you want to believe the struggle isn't all for nothing. Lavigne, who is married to Nickelback lead singer and fellow Canadian Chad Kroeger, seems wiser and stronger than ever before in this video:

I'm thrilled for her that she expects to make a "100 percent recovery" and look forward to hearing how she expresses her experience, pain, and newfound joy in her music.