Lady Gaga is currently promoting her new movie A Star Is Born with Bradley Cooper. To promote the film, Lady Gaga will be appearing on the October cover of Vogue Magazine. As part of her cover, she gave a tell-all interview in which she opened up about a variety of topics.
One of the most revealing parts of the interview came when Lady Gaga discussed her fibromyalgia, which is a chronic condition that causes excruciating joint and nerve pain.
Lady Gaga would like everyone to learn a little more about this disease.
“It’s really a cyclone of anxiety, depression, PTSD, trauma, and panic disorder,” she said.
Though the cause of fibromyalgia is not known, experts believe it is linked by traumatic events. Lady Gaga thinks she was “triggered” during her teenage years, and her fibromyalgia has gotten worse since then because of her career stresses.
“For me, and I think for many others, it’s really a cyclone of anxiety, depression, PTSD, trauma, and panic disorder, all of which sends the nervous system into overdrive, and then you have nerve pain as a result,” she said.
“For me, with my mental-health issues, half of the battle in the beginning was, I felt like I was lying to the world because I was feeling so much pain but nobody knew,” Lady Gaga explained. “So that’s why I came out and said that I have PTSD, because I don’t want to hide – any more than I already have to.”
Lady Gaga went on to say that even though she is a famous pop star, she still has trouble being believed just like any other patient with an “invisble illness.”
“I get so irritated with people who don’t believe fibromyalgia is real,” she said. “People need to be more compassionate. Chronic pain is no joke. And it’s every day waking up not knowing how you’re going to feel.”
Lady Gaga has had trouble conveying how painful her condition really is in the past.
“You know that feeling when you’re on a roller coaster and you’re just about to go down the really steep slope?” she asked. “That fear and the drop in your stomach? My diaphragm seizes up. Then I have a hard time breathing, and my whole body goes into a spasm.”
Last year, Lady Gaga opened up more about her illness in a social media post.
We’re glad Lady Gaga is highlighting a disorder that affects an estimated 10 million people in the U.S. and more worldwide. Here’s a video below of her new movie that’s out in theaters now.
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