Credit: Getty
Lady Gaga has opened up to Oprah Winfrey about her mental health during the first 2020 Vision: Your Life In Focus tour date.
Lady Gaga has revealed she developed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) after being “raped repeatedly” at the age of 19.
The A Star Is Born actor spoke at length about her mental health during an hour-long discussion for Oprah Winfrey’s 2020 Vision: Your Life In Focus tour.
“I was raped repeatedly when I was 19 years old and I also developed PTSD as a result of being raped and also not processing that trauma,” Gaga told Oprah.
Gaga revealed her rapist was someone she knew. During that time, her swift rise to stardom meant she did not have time to process her trauma, she said.
“I all of a sudden became a star and was travelling the world going from hotel room to garage to limo to stage, and I never dealt with it, and then all of a sudden I started to experience this incredible intense pain throughout my entire body that mimicked the illness I felt after I was raped,” she said.
Gaga also spoke about dealing with fibromyalgia, a medical condition characterised by chronic widespread pain and a heightened pain response to pressure, telling Oprah that even during their interview she was in “head-to-toe pain” and that her condition was aided in part by mental health therapy.
Credit: Getty
“What’s interesting about it is that I’ve found through neuropsych research and my relationship with my doctors that fibromyalgia can be treated through mental health therapy,” she said. “And mental health is a medical condition, it should be treated as a medical condition. It should not be ignored.”
During the interview, the singer also addressed romance rumours surrounding her and her A Star Is Born co-star Bradley Cooper. “We did a really good job at fooling everyone,” Gaga said of their Oscars performance. “We created that.”
She continued, “It wouldn’t have worked if you didn’t believe they were in love.”
Oprah’s 2020 Vision tour is set to feature conversations with Tina Fey,Jennifer Lopez and Michelle Obama.
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