Lady Gaga isn’t one to shy away from a tough subject. Since the very start of her career, she’s tackled LGBTQ+ rights, sexual violence, and mental health. Now the star is using her platform once again to advocate for the elimination of the stigma around the use of psychiatric prescription medications — admitting that she herself uses them to treat her own “mental issues.”In a May 2020 chat with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe that’s gaining renewed traction thanks to a previously overlooked revelation, Gaga discussed her latest release, ‘Chromatica’ and then shifted the conversation to talk about how she manages her mental health. Referencing one of the album’s songs, ‘911’, the pop star explained that the track’s lyrics name-drop a medication she takes, olanzapine. The medication is a mood stabilizer that is typically used in the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. “I can’t always control things that my brain does — and I have to take medication to stop the process that occurs,”
she told Lowe. “I know I have mental issues and I know that they can sometimes render me non-functional as a human.”[video_embed id='2008958']RELATED: Lady Gaga announces Gaga Radio[/video_embed]Gaga has mentioned the drug before, though not on an album. Last autumn, the artist did an interview with Oprah Winfrey for
Elle, and talked about what she feels are the roots of her mental health struggles. “I was raped when I was 19 years-old, repeatedly. I have been traumatized in a variety of ways by my career over the years from many different things, but I survived, and I’ve kept going,”
she told Winfrey. “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.”“I had a psychotic break at one point,” she continued, “and it was one of the worst things that’s ever happened to me. I was brought to the ER to urgent care and they brought in the doctor, a psychiatrist... I didn’t understand what was going on, because my whole body went numb; I fully dissociated. I was screaming, and then [the doctor] calmed me down and gave me medication for when that happens — olanzapine.”“Medicine really helped me,” she said, expressing her hope that by talking publicly about the topic, she can encourage fans and followers to seek out any variety of mental health help available to them — including often-stigmatized pharmaceuticals.As for ‘Chromatica’ the album is up for nine (nine!) VMAs later this month.
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