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Tag: Lady Gaga

  • Lady Gaga Talks To Oprah About PTSD, Working Through Trauma & Self-Harm

    Lady Gaga Talks To Oprah About PTSD, Working Through Trauma & Self-Harm

    “I have PTSD. I have chronic pain. Neuropathic pain trauma response is a weekly part of my life. I’m on medication; I have several doctors. This is how I survive,” Gaga said.

    Lady Gaga and Oprah Winfrey dove deep into mental health, healing from deep-rooted trauma and the benefits of getting treatment on a recent episode of Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations podcast. The power duo have both been outspoken mental health advocates throughout their careers.

    Living With Trauma

    The Bad Romance singer has long been a champion of inclusivity and owning your truth and her sitdown with her mogul hero was exceptionally open and honest. The founder of the Born This Way Foundation discussed her past trauma and how she manages it.

    “I have PTSD. I have chronic pain. Neuropathic pain trauma response is a weekly part of my life. I’m on medication; I have several doctors. This is how I survive,” Gaga said. “I would also beckon to anyone to try, when they feel ready, to ask for help. And I would beckon to others that if they see someone suffering, to approach them and say, ‘Hey, I see you. I see that you’re suffering, and I’m here. Tell me your story.’”

    Then the singer revealed that she self-injured for a number of years in the hopes of helping another person who self-harm see that they’re are not alone.

    “I was a cutter for a long time, and the only way that I was able to stop cutting and self-harming myself was to realize that what I was doing was trying to show people that I was in pain instead of telling them and asking for help. When I realized that telling someone, ‘Hey, I am having an urge to hurt myself,’ that defused it. I then had someone next to me saying, ‘You don’t have to show me. Just tell me: What are you feeling right now?’ And then I could just tell my story.”

    Using Dialectical Behavioral Therapy To Heal

    The Grammy award-winning singer no longer self-harms – she also clarified that her admission is not meant to glamorize it any way.

    “One thing that I would suggest to people who struggle with trauma response or self-harm issues or suicidal ideation is actually ice. If you put your hands in a bowl of ice-cold water, it shocks the nervous system, and it brings you back to reality.”

    Gaga went on to rave about her experience with dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT). With DBT, patients are encouraged to explore the emotions surrounding their trauma so they begin the path to accceptance.  

    “I think that DBT is a wonderful, wonderful way to deal with mental health issues,” Gaga pined. “It’s a really strong way of learning how to live, and it’s a guide to understanding your emotions.” And for Gaga understanding and acceptance are important keys to life.

    “I believe life is asking of us to accept the challenge. Accept the challenge of kindness. It’s hard in a world the way that we are; we have a very, very grave history. We’re in trouble, and we have been before. But I think life asks us amid these challenges, this hatred, this tragedy, this famine, this war, this cruelty: Can you be kind and can you survive?”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Lady Gaga’s Mother Discusses Singer’s Childhood Mental Health

    Lady Gaga’s Mother Discusses Singer’s Childhood Mental Health

    “What I didn’t realize because I wasn’t prepared, was how to really deal with it. When I was growing up, times were different.”

    With her incredible success, Lady Gaga has used her powerful platform to speak out about mental health with her Born This Way Foundation.

    Now, her mother, Cynthia Germanotta, spoke with CBS This Morning about how parents can deal with children that are struggling with their mental health. 

    Throughout her life, Lady Gaga, born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, has struggled with depression, anxiety and PTSD.

    “As a parent, I wasn’t prepared to really address this,” Cynthia explains. “Stefani was very unique, and that wasn’t always appreciated by her peers, and as a result, she went through a lot of difficult times – humiliated, taunted, isolated.”

    My Generation Was Told To Suck It Up

    Upon entering middle school, Germanotta saw her daughter go from “a very happy and aspirational young girl to somebody that started to question her self-worth, to have doubts about herself. What I didn’t realize because I wasn’t prepared, was how to really deal with it. When I was growing up, times were different. The way that we would deal with things was what we learned. I relied on the generational grit of just sucking it up and getting on with it.”

    Once she saw her daughter clearly struggling, Cynthia says, “It’s very hard to know what to do. The profound impact that it can have (on families). It basically turns the focus of everything onto that one individual. Families feel conflicted about it, they don’t really understand it, it causes conflict, and a lot of stress within the families. It can also cause feelings of guilt and helplessness, not knowing how to help my daughter. What I’ve learned is that no family is immune to this.”

    Parents: Listen To Your Children, Share Your Own Struggles

    For families that are struggling with troubled teens, Germanotta recommended that parents simply listen.  

    “What I learned from my daughter is to listen and validate her feelings. I think as parents our natural instinct is to go into problem-solving mode, when in fact they really just want us to take them seriously and understand what they’re saying.” 

    While a lot of troubled youth don’t feel comfortable talking to their parents about their struggles out of “fear of being judged,” Germanotta adds that “as parents we don’t talk about our own struggles. I encourage parents to be vulnerable. Talk about your current and past struggles. The biggest thing is to talk to them.” 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Lady Gaga's Born This Way Foundation Opens Mental Health Program

    Lady Gaga's Born This Way Foundation Opens Mental Health Program

    The program will help teens learn how to be a trustworthy friend that their peers can confide in.

    Since launching in 2011, Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation has been on a mission to educate the world on mental health, and encourage people to speak out and get help.

    Now, the Born This Way Foundation is opening a mental health program at a number of high schools in the country.

    As Las Vegas Now reports, the Born This Way program will launch in eight high schools this spring, including Valley High School in Vegas where students who participate will be trained in Mental Health First Aid.

    Valley High School Principal Ramona Esparza says, “We are so grateful to have been chosen as one of the only eight pilot schools in the nation to introduce Teen Mental Health First Aid to our senior class. We teach and reach the ‘whole child,’ so social-emotional learning is essential to academic learning and growth for our students.”

    Esparza added that Born This Way, along with the National Council for Behavioral Health, “have truly carved a new path for youth to know that there is not a stigma to seeking support and resources for mental health and wellness,” and that this program will be “a game-changer.”

    Students who partake in the program will learn a five-step plan they can apply to friends who are struggling with their mental health and may need help. Five staff members of Valley High have been trained in Mental Health First Aid as well.

    This program is being set up at Valley High School to coincide with Lady Gaga’s residency at Park MGM in Vegas. As Cynthia Germanotta, Gaga’s mother, and president and co-founder of the Born This Way Foundation, explains, “Knowing how to spot the signs that someone in our lives is experiencing a mental health challenge and understanding how we can support that person is a basic life skill we all need to have—especially teenagers.”

    Through this program, teens will learn how to be a trustworthy friend that peers in trouble can confide in.

    Linda Rosenberg, president and CEO of the National Council for Behavioral Health, says, “Teens trust their friends, so they need to be trained to recognize signs of mental health or substance use problems in their peers.”

    Another state where the foundation is setting up shop is Montana.

    As Shani Rich, director of the North Central Montana Area Health Education Center, told KXLH, “Montana has one of the highest rates of suicide per capita in the U.S… So we have to start having this conversation.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Lady Gaga Disappoints Fans by Failing to Address Mental Health Triggers in "A Star Is Born"

    Lady Gaga Disappoints Fans by Failing to Address Mental Health Triggers in "A Star Is Born"

    Lady Gaga has worked tirelessly to help people with mental health problems, sharing her own struggles with debilitating depression. So why hasn’t she addressed the very real and dangerous depressive and suicidal triggers in the film?

    Trigger Warning: The following story discusses a completed suicide in a film and links to potentially triggering articles. Proceed with caution. If you feel you are at risk and need help, skip the story and get help now. Options include: Calling the U.S. National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 800-273-TALK (8255), calling 911, and calling a friend or family member to stay with you until emergency medical personnel arrive to help you. 

    (This piece contains spoilers for A Star is Born.)

    Months after its release, the highly-acclaimed A Star is Born is still generating plenty of headline-worthy buzz, most recently with an Oscar nomination for Best Picture.

    It’s an incredible movie with an equally impressive soundtrack; I had every song memorized long before I seeing the movie. But months after seeing A Star is Born on a rare date-night with my husband, I still feel that Lady Gaga—Mother Monster herself—let the entire mental health community down. And while I agree that the Oscar-buzz is well-deserved, I also wonder at the media’s lack of attention to the film’s numerous potential triggers for alcoholism, addiction, depression, and suicide.

    Lady Gaga has made a name for herself as more than just a performer, using her platform to bring awareness to preventative mental health care. She’s spoken publicly about her personal struggles with her own “debilitating mental health spirals,” amassing a following of “Little Monsters” – fans who see themselves in her message. She and her mother, Cynthia Germonatta, created the Born This Way Foundation for a “kinder and braver world.” Germonatta also notably presented to The United Nations General Assembly in 2018 on behalf of the Born This Way Foundation on the topic of mental health, launching the United for Global Mental Health initiative. According to its Twitter page, the initiative’s vision is “a world where everyone, anywhere, can turn to someone who is able to support their mental health when needed.”

    You could say that I’ve been stanning Lady Gaga since before “stanning” was even a word, so I was well aware of her activism before seeing the movie. I was thrilled going into A Star is Born. But my excitement soon gave way to anxiety and sadness. Certain scenes left me dismayed and shaken, stunned that there weren’t safety protocols put into place to warn the very fans she has worked so hard to fight for and protect.

    Never having seen the original film (and not having done any research on the film before seeing it) I still knew going in that A Star is Born wasn’t going to have a happy ending. One friend had posted on Facebook that she was “gutted” as the credits rolled. But even that did not prepare me for the very real and incredibly dangerous depressive and suicidal triggers contained within the film’s ending, most notably Jack’s suicide (and the very brief glimpse of the belt from which he was hanging swinging through the garage windows). That shot alone, while problematic in terms of the little that could be seen and the dangers of suicidal triggers according to The Association for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), I might have been able to shake off. It wasn’t until the moment after Jack’s brother, Bob, was consoling Ally (played by Gaga) following Jack’s suicide, telling her that it was nobody’s fault but Jack’s, that I cracked. 

    I waited, breathless and crying, for Mother Monster to channel herself through the character she was portraying on the big screen, to speak up. She’d done so repeatedly while Jack was still alive and fighting his addiction, assuring him that alcoholism is a disease and that there was no blame to be placed or taken on.

    All she needed to say was that the addiction won; that Jack’s suicide wasn’t any more his fault than his alcoholism had been. 

    But she didn’t. And it broke me. 

    For a brief moment, I thought that maybe I was the only one. Maybe I was overreacting. Maybe I was just being too sensitive. But it wasn’t just me.

    In researching this piece, I discovered that complaints of “viewer distress” in New Zealand had caused the film to be reclassified with a suicide warning note. But why wasn’t a trigger warning for suicide added to the beginning of the film from the get-go? 

    David Shanks, head of the New Zealand film classification board, was quoted in The Guardian after demanding that the film add a warning to protect vulnerable viewers. “For those who have lost someone close to them, a warning gives them a chance to make an informed choice about watching.” 

    Houston-based licensed therapist Bill Prasad notes that for those who haven’t yet seen A Star is Born, it’s best to skip the film if proper resources are not in place. 

    “Triggers can be tricky and dangerous,” said Prasad, who added that those in the early stages of sobriety may also be adversely affected. 

    The AFSP’s fact sheet on suicide statistics, warning signs, and risk factors includes “Exposure to another person’s suicide, or to graphic or sensationalized accounts of suicide” among the many risk factors for triggering those vulnerable to act. A Star is Born triggered for me my own “debilitating mental health spiral.” I withdrew from my friends, both personal and those in my social media circles. I stopped writing. I stopped sleeping at night and started sleeping too much during the day. And when no one was looking, I kept crying. 

    As a writer whose livelihood depends on my ability to create, I lost months of income. As a survivor of my own suicide attempt with a diagnosis of Major Depressive Disorder, I am grateful that I’m not actively suicidal now or when I saw the film. That doesn’t mean, however, that I am not sensitive to associated triggers. Two months later, I’m still trying to find all the pieces and put myself back together. 

    I’m not asking for Hollywood to hold my hand. I know that hard stories need to be told. A Star is Born is a brilliantly acted film and rightfully deserves all the attention it continues to receive. I understand that perhaps it might not have been “realistic” for Ally to snap out of her grief-stricken state and set Jack’s brother right about how dangerous it is to blame the victim, that it’s never okay to even imply that.

    So I waited for Mother Monster herself to set the record straight after the fact. 

    But she didn’t. 

    Lady Gaga didn’t say a word. Not then, and not after, during countless interviews, did she reassure her monsters that depression is an illness beyond the control of the afflicted. Not once did she say that no one should ever blame the suicidal.

    As Prasad reminds us, “If you are struggling after the movie, reach out to someone or get professional help. You don’t have to suffer alone.”

    If you or someone you know may be at risk for suicide, immediately seek help. You are not alone.

    Options include:

    • Calling the U.S. National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 800-273-TALK (8255)
    • Calling 911
    • Calling a friend or family member to stay with you until emergency medical personnel arrive to help you.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Lady Gaga Addresses Mental Health During Grammy Speech

    Lady Gaga Addresses Mental Health During Grammy Speech

    Gaga highlighted mental health during an acceptance speech at the 2019 Grammys. 

    Mental health awareness is something that has always been close to Lady Gaga’s heart. 

    In fact, while accepting a Grammy for her co-performance of the song “Shallow” in the film A Star Is Born, Gaga took the opportunity to speak to the importance of looking out for one another. 

    “If I don’t get another chance to say this, I just want to say I’m so proud to be a part of a movie that addresses mental health issues. They’re so important,” Gaga said, according to Harper’s Bazaar. “A lot of artists deal with that. And we gotta take care of each other. So if you see somebody that’s hurting, don’t look away. And if you’re hurting, even though it might be hard, try to find that bravery within yourself to dive deep and go tell somebody and take them up in your head with you.”

    Gaga also took a moment to acknowledge Bradley Cooper, her co-star in the film, who was not present at the awards show.

    “I wish Bradley was here with me right now,” she said. “I know he wants to be here. Bradley, I loved singing this song with you.”

    This was not the first time Gaga has taken to the stage and spoke about mental health awareness. In November, according to Harper’s Bazaar, she spoke at the Patron of the Artists Award about the necessity of bringing mental health conversation to the forefront. 

    “When I speak about mental health, especially when I’m speaking about mine, it is often met with quietness,” she said. “Or maybe, a somber line of fans, waiting outside to whisper to me in the shadows about their darkest secrets. We need to bring mental health into the light.”

    In October 2018, Gaga was named one of ELLE’s Women in Hollywood. During her acceptance speech, she touched on various serious topics, including her experience with sexual assault. 

    “As a sexual assault survivor by someone in the entertainment industry, as a woman who is still not brave enough to say his name, as a woman who lives with chronic pain, as a woman who was conditioned at a very young age to listen to what men told me to do, I decided today I wanted to take the power back,” Gaga said during her speech, according to ELLE.  

    Gaga also addressed mental health during the same speech, stressing the importance of coming together. 

    “It is my personal dream that there would be a mental health expert teacher or therapist in every school in this nation and hopefully one day around the world,” Gaga added. “Let’s lift our voices. I know we are, but let’s get louder. And not just as women. But as humans.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Lady Gaga & WHO Director Pen Essay For World Mental Health Day

    Lady Gaga & WHO Director Pen Essay For World Mental Health Day

    The duo call for additional treatment funding and the need for governments to better prioritize mental wellness in the essay.

    Mental health issues are universal—and costly without proper treatment—so why is mental illness still a taboo subject?

    That question is raised by Lady Gaga and Tedros Adhanom, director-general of the World Health Organization, in a new essay published in the Guardian on the eve of World Mental Health Day (Oct. 10): “800,000 people kill themselves every year. What can we do?”

    This annual statistic translates to “more than the population of Washington, D.C., Oslo or Cape Town,” they write. “Sometimes they are famous names such as Anthony Bourdain or Kate Spade that make headlines, but they are all sons or daughters, friends or colleagues, valued members of families and communities.”

    Globally, suicide is the second-leading cause of death among 15- to 29-year-olds, yet mental health receives less than 1% of global aid, they write.

    This lack of funding translates to a higher cost overall—mental health issues cost $2.5 trillion a year globally, which will keep rising if they continue to be excluded from the conversation.

    “Stigma, fear and lack of understanding compound the suffering of those affected and prevent the bold action that is so desperately needed and so long overdue,” they write.

    Gaga (born Stefani Germanotta) and Adhanom urge governments to invest in mental health services, saying it will not only help individuals but benefit state coffers as well.

    “Research shows there is a fourfold return on investment for every dollar spent on treating depression and anxiety, the most common mental health conditions, making spending on the issue a great investment for both political leaders and employers, in addition to generating savings in the health sector,” they write.”

    Individuals have a part to play too, by supporting one another and urging lawmakers to make mental health a priority. “We can all help to build communities that understand, respect and prioritize mental wellness,” they write.

    The essay cites local efforts that are moving the momentum in a positive direction, such as the ThriveNYC initiative in New York City.

    Germanotta—who previously revealed that she lives with PTSD—spearheads the Born This Way Foundation, established in 2012, with her mother Cynthia Germanotta. The foundation focuses on young people with the goal of creating a “kinder and braver world.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Lady Gaga Reflects On Drugs, "Loneliness" Behind Stardom

    Lady Gaga Reflects On Drugs, "Loneliness" Behind Stardom

    “There was a buffet of options. When I first started to perform around the country doing nightclubs, there was stuff everywhere.”

    Six-time Grammy-winning singer Lady Gaga makes her feature film debut as an aspiring performer who falls for a rocker (Bradley Cooper) with dependency problems in the upcoming A Star is Born.

    The confluence of substance abuse and fame is an issue with which Gaga (born Stefani Germanotta is familiar, having battled cocaine dependency early in her career. And in an interview about the film with the Los Angeles Times, Germanotta recalled how she traveled a path similar to that of her screen character, where drugs were frequently offered as a panacea to the emotional turmoil of striving to achieve your dreams.

    In the film—which is the third remake of the 1937 film, with previous iterations starring Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand in Germanotta’s role— Cooper is musician Jackson Maine, whose career is in crisis due to his drug and alcohol dependency. He finds what appears to be creative and emotional salvation in Germanotta’s Ally, a gifted singer. But as her star ascends, his substance issues threaten to upend their happiness. 

    In her interview with the Times, Germanotta said she fully understood the emotional turbulence that was part and parcel of the pursuit of a career in front of an audience. “It’s very lonely being a performer,” she said. “There’s a certain loneliness that I feel, anyway—that I’m the only one that does what I do. So it feels like no one understands.”

    Feelings of isolation and insecurity can spur some aspiring performers to seek comfort in the substances that can proliferate behind the scenes. “There was a buffet of options,” recalled Germanotta. “When I first started to perform around the country doing nightclubs, there was stuff everywhere, but I had already partied when I was younger so I didn’t dabble. I was able to avoid it because I did it when I was a kid.”

    As Us Weekly noted, Germanotta has spoken often about her struggles with cocaine in the past. The publication quoted her 2011 interview on The Howard Stern Show, where she said, “I think that I was lonely and there was something about the drugs that made me feel like I had a friend. 

    “I did it all alone in my apartment while I wrote music. And you know what? I regret every line I ever did.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Lady Gaga Gives Passionate Speech About Mental Health

    Lady Gaga Gives Passionate Speech About Mental Health

    “I have struggled for a long time, both being public and not public about my mental health issues… But I truly believe that secrets keep you sick.”

    Lady Gaga joined her mother on stage at the 10th annual Children Mending Hearts Empathy Rocks fundraiser on Sunday (June 10), where she presented her mother Cynthia Germanotta with the Global Changemakers Award for her role as co-founder of the Born This Way Foundation.

    The mother-daughter team established the foundation in 2012, with the goal of empowering youth by providing “genuine opportunities, quality resources, and platforms to make their voices heard.”

    Before presenting her mother with the award, Gaga (born Stefani Germanotta) shared her personal stake in the foundation’s work, as well as the driving force behind it.

    “I have struggled for a long time, both being public and not public about my mental health issues or my mental illness. But I truly believe that secrets keep you sick,” she said.

    The eclectic singer emphasized the importance of kindness. “We [the foundation] bring people together to have real, honest conversations and to be kind. Kindness is not an afterthought to our work. It is the driving power for everything we do,” she said. “To me, almost every problem you can think of can be solved with kindness… Sometimes people think it is weak. It is tremendously powerful.

    “It can change the way that we view each other, the way that we view our communities and the way that we work. Even the way that we feel about ourselves, by being kinder to ourselves. We need more kindness in the world.”

    She thanked her mother for standing by her through it all, “Thank you, Mom, for not being afraid of my darkest thoughts and for doing what many don’t realize goes very far: just holding my hand and running an organization that helps hold the hands of others and join the hands of others. I love you. Suicidal ideation feels like a spell, and we have to have empathy. Be kind and help each other break the spell and live and thrive.”

    Last year, Gaga lent her voice to the Heads Together campaign, the initiative spearheaded by the British Royals—Prince William, Duchess Kate Middleton, and Prince Harry—to de-stigmatize mental illness and encourage people to seek help. The singer video-chatted with Prince William for a promotional video, discussing the importance of caring for one’s mental health and how talking about it can break down the stigma and shame of struggling with it.

    Gaga told William that it was gratifying to be able to open up to her fans without shame. “Even though it was hard, it was the best thing that could come out of my mental illness—to share it with other people and let our generation, as well as other generations, know that if you are feeling not well in your mind, you’re not alone. And people that you think would never have a problem, do.”

    View the original article at thefix.com