Lady Gaga Reveals PTSD To LGBT Teens, Shares Chronic Pain Struggles And Coping Secrets


Lady Gaga is famous for her music, but she’s also beloved by her fans for her honesty and kindness. Gaga exhibited both on a recent visit to a shelter for homeless LGBT youth, where she revealed her battle with PTSD. And that’s not her only health concern: Lady Gaga also just opened up about her previously secret struggle with chronic pain.

Known as an activist as well as a soaring superstar singer, Gaga emphasizes kindness above all, sharing that through acts of kindness, she finds peace, reported MSN.

“I’ve been searching for ways to help myself. And I found that kindness is the best way.”

Visiting Harlem’s Ali Forney Center to provide a surprise for the homeless LGBT teens there, Lady Gaga shared that she had never revealed her PTSD struggles until she met with the youth.

Lady Gaga reveals her battle with PTSD. [Image by Anthony Harvey/Getty Images]

“I told the kids today, ‘I suffer from PTSD.’ I’ve never told anyone that before,” she admitted. “But the kindness that’s shown to me by doctors as well as my family, and my friends, it’s really saved my life.”

Lady Gaga guided the teenagers through a short meditation exercise as part of her visit, revealing that meditation helps her to “calm down.” And while she noted that she recognizes she does not have “the same kind of issues” as those teens, she also was candid about her own struggle.

“I have a mental illness and I struggle with that everyday so I need my mantra to help keep me relaxed.”

In addition, Lady Gaga turned to social media to get candid about her struggles with chronic pain.

Lady Gaga is known for her glamor, but she’s also secretly struggled with chronic pain. [Image by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images for Victoria’s Secret]

Today reported that “behind her glamorous facade,” the winner of a Golden Globe for her American Horror Story role and six Grammy Awards has been fighting chronic pain.

“Having a frustrating day with chronic pain,” Lady Gaga shared on Instagram recently. “But I find myself feeling so blessed to have such strong intelligent female doctors.”

In response to her confession, the singer’s post earned more than 189,000 likes and thousands of comments, with many of her fans revealing their own struggles.

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke defines chronic pain as “pain signals that keep firing in the nervous system for weeks, months and even years,” according to Today, which reported that the Institute of Medicine of The National Academies discovered that 100 million Americans suffer from chronic pain.

“Chronic pain is simply pain that will never go away,” explained Dr. Stephen Anderson, an American College of Emergency Physicians board member and pain management expert.

Overwhelmed by so many responses, Lady Gaga also shared how she copes in another Instagram post, including her appreciation for all the comments.

“I was so overwhelmed by the empathy, confessions & personal stories of chronic pain.”

Gaga continued to share some of her “personal remedies” that she has tried during the last five years.

“When my body goes into a spasm, one thing I find really helps is infrared sauna,” wrote Lady Gaga. “I’ve invested in one…I combine this treatment with marley silver emergency blankets…”

Also, Gaga described her use of other techniques to cope. She also thanked her fans for their support.

“Hope this helps some of you, it helps me to keep doing my passion, job and the things I love even on days when I feel like I can’t get out of bed,” wrote Lady Gaga. “Love you and thank you for all your positive messages.”

As for whether it’s worth trying Gaga’s remedies, Anderson cautioned the importance of choosing a remedy that works for your own body, and noted that there are some possible side effects to her method.

“Those are shock treatments that overwhelm all of the nerves and (it) distracts them for a while,” he clarified. “If it works for you, I’m all for it… Though some of these treatments can have side effects: in a sauna, you can overheat and ice baths can give you frostbite. So you just have to be careful.”

[Featured Image by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images]

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