Avril Lavigne is back with her new album 'Head Above Water'; reveals she had 'accepted death'

Avril shares an open letter to her fans announcing the impending release of comeback single Head Above Water later this month, Lavigne explains that her well-publicised battle with infectious tick-borne Lyme disease caused her body to completely shut down.

“I had accepted death,” she writes.

“Five years have gone by since I released my last album. I spent the last few years at home sick fighting Lyme disease. Those were the worst years of my life as I went through both physical and emotional battles,” she writes, saying she recorded much of her new album during the time when she was sick in bed.

Describing Lyme disease as “the battle of my lifetime,” she explains that she wrote her new single “during one of the scariest moments of my life”.

“I had accepted death and could feel my body shutting down. I felt like I was drowning. Like I was going under water and I just needed to come up for air. Like I was in a river being pulled in a current. Unable to breathe. Praying to God for Him to help me just keep my head above the water. To help me see through the stormy weather. I grew closer to Him. My mother held me. In her arms, I wrote the first song that I am releasing to tell my story.”

“I will do EVERYTHING I can to get back up on stage, to travel, to sing to you, to work again. But I have to always listen to my body and keep a healthy balance, so please be patient as we go,” she says.

“I wrote and recorded this album and to me, this is a victorious moment. A huge accomplishment. I am very proud and thankful to everyone who waited so patiently and lovingly with me to support this process for me.”

I wrote a letter to my fans on my website. https://t.co/R2PuqcKx0d pic.twitter.com/xbmS0WifO1

— Avril Lavigne (@AvrilLavigne) September 6, 2018

“I wrote and recorded this album and to me, this is a victorious moment. A huge accomplishment. I am very proud and thankful to everyone who waited so patiently and lovingly with me to support this process for me.”

“I have decided to be truthful about my struggle, open and more vulnerable than ever before. And to be honest, part of me doesn’t want to talk about being sick because I want it to all be behind me, but I know I have to. Because not only is it a part of my life, I need to bring awareness to the severity of Lyme Disease. A single bug bite can fuck you up hard. People aren’t aware that Lyme must be treated almost immediately. Often if they are aware, they go untreated simply because they can’t get a Lyme diagnosis! And even when they do get a diagnosis, a lot of times they simply can’t afford the treatment.”

Lavigne goes on to write, “I want more than ANYTHING to be back up on stage. To be holding my guitars and running around. To sing my heart out and travel around the world to see all of my fans. I will do EVERYTHING I can to get back up on stage, to travel, to sing to you, to work again.”

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