Jimmy Kimmel will always have support from Kathy Griffin.

When Kimmel’s ABC late-night show was taken off the air for a week in September due to the comments he’d made about the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Griffin, 64, tells PEOPLE she reached out to him on “day one.”

“It’s been really triggering for me because Jimmy was the only one who would have me on his show during all those years I was canceled,” says Griffin, referencing the firestorm of controversy that followed the infamous 2017 photoshoot depicting her holding President Donald Trump’s severed head. “I know what it’s like to have the bigwigs and head honchos say, ‘She’s too dangerous.’” (Kimmel’s show has since returned.)

In her new YouTube comedy special,  My Life on the PTSD List, Griffin opens up about her life since the photo scandal. In the past eight years, she’s gone through some intense personal struggles, including a pill addiction, a suicide attempt, a lung cancer diagnosis and a divorce from her second husband Randy Bick.

“I talk about some heavy stuff, but I got so much feedback from my audiences saying, ‘I’m glad you went there,’” she says. “I have had a bit of a deluge of difficulties since the Trump photo, but one thing after another taught me, okay, you may not see the comedy when you’re living it, but at some point, it will be funny. There’s comedy in everything.”

When she first started doing stand-up in the 1990s, the Chicago-area native was inspired by Joan Rivers’ brand of “outrageous” comedy but “never set out to be a lightning rod,” she says. “If anything, I was criticized in my early career for being shallow. I mostly talked about pop culture.”

That all changed with the photo scandal, after which Griffin says she was investigated by the Justice Department and placed on the No-Fly List. The experience also had an impact on her relationships.

“So many of my friends dumped me,” she says.

While losing friends and job offers in the wake of the scandal, Griffin fell into a deep depression and became addicted to OxyContin and benzodiazepines. After a suicide attempt, she was placed on a psychiatric hold.

Her life turned around when she joined a 12-Step program. In June, she celebrated five years of sobriety.

“I go to AA meetings, and I go to women’s only meetings because I don’t want to start sleeping with guys at the meetings, and I don’t trust myself,” she jokes. “So many of my newer friends since the Trump scandal are from the 12-step program.”

In 2021, Griffin faced another setback when she was diagnosed with stage 1 lung cancer.

During surgery to have half of her left lung removed, Griffin says her left vocal cord was permanently paralyzed by an intubation tube. It left Griffin — who said she was cancer-free months after her lung surgery — with a higher-pitched voice that “sounded like Minnie Mouse.”

Griffin’s friend, the singer Sia, recommended Los Angeles-based Dr. Anca Barbu for vocal cord surgery.

“I felt like I got my life back overnight,” she says. “I am so grateful that I found her. Shout-out Sia.”

That joy faded two years later when Griffin filed for divorce from Bick after three years. Their divorce was finalized in January. “I was down for the count,” she says.

After spending three weeks dabbling on dating apps, she’s since taken herself off them.

“I went on a date with a guy who told me if he wanted to, he could kill me with his thumb in under two seconds,” she says. “Welcome to dating over 60.”

On Nov. 8, Griffin will kick off her new comedy tour, New Face, New Tour – a reference to her recent facelift — in Las Vegas. She’ll continue touring through May 2026 and promises nothing is off limits.

“I change my act every night, and I start with local material,” she says. “One time I had to run out of the theater after a show because I thought it would be funny to read aloud the names and addresses of the sex offender list in that town. I called Cher after, and she just said, ‘Get home, bitch. Get back to Malibu.’”

Still, Griffin feels many people have softened their opinions about her.

“I think people are feeling like, ‘Okay, the photo was offensive, but it’s now been eight years, and she wasn’t ruined by it,’” Griffin says. “I get a lot of people that come into my comments saying I’ve risen from the ashes, and that’s the best compliment I can get. I’m proud of the fact I’m still here.”