Celebrities With Autoimmune Diseases

It took country singer LeAnn Rimes 22 years to find a treatment for her psoriasis that actually worked, according to Health.com. It was incredibly traumatizing, she told the publication, and took a serious mental toll.

But however isolating her experience was, Rimes is not alone. Approximately one in five Americans is affected by an autoimmune disease, according to The American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association (ARDA), which cause your immune system to mistakenly attack healthy cells in your body. And celebrities are no exception.

These familiar faces can play an important role -- lending focus to this group of 80-plus diseases which the ARDA says are in desperate need of greater national focus, especially given how complicated diagnosis and treatment can be. Most autoimmune diseases do not go away, according to the National Institute of Health, but symptoms can be treated and people can learn to live with them.

For a look at 9 more celebs who, in addition to Rimes, are doing exactly that, read on.