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Lady Gaga shares open letter about living with PTSD

Lady Gaga performs during the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show on November 30, 2016 in Paris, France.

After a "Today" show interview in which Lady Gaga revealed that she suffers from post traumatic stress disorder, the 30-year-old pop singer wrote an open letter to detail what it's like to live with the disorder.

Gaga, who alluded to being sexually assaulted at the age of 19 during a Howard Stern interview, said that now, years after she began experiencing mental changes and searching for answers about her trauma, she's ready to speak out.

"It is a daily effort for me ... to regulate my nervous system so that I don't panic over circumstances that to many would seem like normal life situations," she wrote.

Gaga said that leaving her house and being touched by strangers are basic actions that can cause her stress.  

"I also struggle with triggers from the memories I carry from my feelings of past years on tour when my needs and requests for balance were being ignored," she wrote, detailing an experience in which she felt overworked during an event.

It wasn't just sexual assault that led to my complex PTSD. I have prolonged repetitive traumas over the course of my career. #ShareKindness Greg Williams Photography

Posted by Lady Gaga on Tuesday, December 6, 2016

The "Til It Happens to You" singer also said she suffers from dissociation, which causes her to "look off and ... stare."

"My mind doesn't want to relive the pain .... As my doctors have taught me, I cannot express my feelings because my pre-frontal cortex (the part of the brain that controls logical, orderly thought) is overridden by the amygdala (which stores emotional memory) and sends me into a fight or flight response," she wrote. "My body is in one place and my mind in another. It's like the panic accelerator in my mind gets stuck and I am paralyzed with fear."
Gaga said that when she experiences dissociation, she can't speak or function normally. 
"It's harder to do my job. It's harder to do simple things like take a shower. Everything has become harder," she wrote. 
But despite the daily battle, Gaga said she will work to maintain her mental health. She wrote that she undergoes psychotherapy and takes prescribed medication.
"However, I believe that the most inexpensive and perhaps the best medicine in the world is words," she wrote.
Gaga, who pointed out that PTSD affects more than just those who have served in armed forces, co-founded the Born This Way Foundation with her mother, Cynthia Germanotta, in 2012. The organization is committed to supporting mental health wellness, empowering young people and encouraging them to spread kindness.

"I am a strong and powerful woman who is aware of the love I have around me from my team, my family and friends, my doctors and from my incredible fans who I know will never give up on me," she wrote. "I will never give up on my dreams of art and music. I am continuing to learn how to transcend this because I know I can. If you relate to what I am sharing, please know that you can too ... No one's invisible pain should go unnoticed."

Read the full letter at Born This Way Foundation.

 

I wrote a letter sharing my experience w/ PTSD. I want 2 help others understand what it is + how to get or give help

Posted by Lady Gaga on Tuesday, December 6, 2016