Lady Gaga Opened Up About Her "Mental Health Crisis"

Lady Gaga is so brave. 

The 32-year-old singer/actress opened up about her personal experiences with mental health, including a dark period of time where she experienced suicidal ideation. Gaga was honored at the SAG-AFTRA Patron of the Artists Award Fundraiser on Thursday (Nov. 8) and she used the time allotted for her acceptance speech to speak about the need for strong mental health support in the industry.

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. I was not empowered to say no.

This unhealthy behavior lead Gaga to have what she described as "debilitating mental spirals," which caused her a great deal of both mental and physical pain.  

There were also symptoms, symptoms of dissociation and PTSD, and I did not have a team that included mental health support. she said. 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.

Speaking out about her own struggles is important to Gaga because she wants others to get the help she didn't. "I’m telling you this because for me it was too late," she explained. "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."

As Gaga went on to point, getting help as soon as possible is critically important. Often times, though, people don't have the resources to help them get better. 

"I wish I had mental health resources then because although what I have is treatable and can hopefully and will get better over time, if there was preventative mental healthcare accessible to me earlier, I believe it might not have gotten as bad as it did. I wish there had been a system in place to protect and guide me. A system in place to empower me to say no to things I felt I had to do. A system in place to empower me to stay away from toxic working environments or working with people that were of seriously questionable character.

Gaga doesn't want others to experience the pain she went through. "I don’t want that for other artists, or for anyone, so what I’m really trying to say it is I wish that I had you when I was 19," she said. "Not only because I wished I had a SAG card, but that I also would have a mental health program within the industry that could have prevented some of the trauma that I experienced."

Thank you for this honesty, Lady Gaga. 

If you or anyone you know is struggling with their mental health or suicidal ideation, The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is a national network of local crisis centers that provides free and confidential emotional support to people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Call: 1-800-273-8255 to get the help you need. 

Photo: Getty