NEED TO KNOW
When Lady Gaga filmed A Star Is Born in 2017, she was on the brink of a psychotic break.
In a cover story interview with Rolling Stone on Thursday, Nov. 13, the Mayhem songstress got candid about her mental health — and revealed she filmed A Star Is Born on lithium (a medication used as a mood stabilizer, often to treat the mania that is part of bipolar disorder, according to Mayo Clinic).
After filming A Star Is Born, Gaga, 39, embarked on the Joanne World Tour in August 2017. In February 2018, Gaga — who was struggling with chronic pain disorder fibromyalgia — announced she was canceling the remainder of the dates to focus on her well-being.
Speaking with Rolling Stone, the “Bad Romance” singer — born Stefani Germanotta — said she had experienced a psychotic break.
Greg Swales
“There was one day that my sister said to me, ‘I don’t see my sister anymore,'” she said.
“And I canceled the tour. There was one day I went to the hospital for psychiatric care. I needed to take a break. I couldn’t do anything… I completely crashed. It was really scary,” she said. “There was a time where I didn’t think I could get better.”
Now, Gaga said, “I feel really lucky to be alive,” adding, “I know that might sound dramatic, but we know how this can go.”
In her 2017 documentary Gaga: Five Foot Two, the singer-songwriter opened up about her health struggles and was shown undergoing treatments to help ease muscle spasms.
“Do I look pathetic?” she asks in one scene, putting her hands over her face to cover her tears. “I’m so embarrassed.”
Greg Swales
Months after she canceled the Joanne World Tour, Gaga was honored at the SAG-AFTRA Patron of the Artists Award fundraiser, and she used her acceptance speech to speak openly about her “debilitating mental spirals” that led her to seek help.
“After years and years of saying yes to jobs, interviews, events — all opportunities, of course that I am so humbled and grateful to have had, because I know that there are so many who have not — and after working as hard as I possibly could to achieve my dreams, slowly but surely the word yes — ‘Yes, sure’ — became too automatic and my inner voice shutdown, which I have learned now is very unhealthy,” she said. “I was not empowered to say no.”
“There were also symptoms, symptoms of dissociation and PTSD, and I did not have a team that included mental health support,” she added. “This later morphed into physical chronic pain, fibromyalgia, panic attacks, acute trauma responses, and debilitating mental spirals that have included the suicidal ideation and masochistic behavior. Okay. I’m done with my list, but that list changed my life. And it changed my life not in a good way.”
Greg Swales
The “Just Dance” singer said “it was too late” by the time she got help — and she hoped it could be different for others.
“I needed help earlier. I needed mental health care. I needed someone to see not through me or see the star that I’d become but rather see the darkness inside that I was struggling with,” she said.
