Paris Hilton speaks out about her 'severe PTSD' while pushing for youth treatment center reform

Paris Hilton delivered emotional remarks in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday about experiencing "trauma and severe PTSD," as she advocated for a bill to fight abuse in troubled youth treatment centers.

Hilton has alleged she was subjected to abuse at youth facilities, and she spoke about her experiences during a press conference in support of a bill Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said would establish a "standard of care that cannot be violated with impunity" at facilities for troubled teens. Hilton said she was sent to four facilities over two years starting when she was 16 because her parents were promised "tough love would fix me," but she said that while there, she was "strangled, slapped across the face, watched in the shower by male staff, called vulgar names, forced to take medication without a diagnosis, not given a proper education, thrown into solitary confinement in a room covered in scratch marks and smeared in blood, and so much more."

Hilton alleged children were regularly physically and sexually abused at a Utah boarding school she attended, and she criticized "weak" oversight of the "troubled teen industry," calling her experiences not unique. She added that if this new bill, the Accountability for Congregate Care Act, had been in place when she was younger, "I would have been saved from over 20 years of trauma and severe PTSD," and she urged Congress and President Biden to ensure it becomes law.

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The bill is soon set to be introduced in Congress, and according to NBC News, it would ensure children at youth facilities have the "right to call their parents, be free from restraints, and have access to clean drinking water and nutritional meals." Schiff said the legislation aims to "break the cycle of trauma that has plagued these institutions for far too long," and he thanked Hilton for her "extraordinary leadership."