SHE HAS PTSD
NEW YORK: Lady Gaga is not afraid to open up.
The singer, 32, revealed she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in a pre-recorded piece that aired on
on Monday.
The pop superstar took some time out of her busy schedule to visit the Ali Forney Center here, where she shared one of her “deepest secrets” with the homeless kids at the shelter.
“I have a mental illness and I struggle with that mental illness every day. My own trauma in my own life has helped me to understand the trauma of others.”
The singer, a rape survivor, said she continued to suffer the ramifications.
“I told the kids today, ‘I suffer from PTSD’. I’ve never told anyone that before. So, here we are.”
She said it was the kindness she was shown by others that helped her get through her darkest days: “The kindness that’s shown to me by doctors as well as my family and friends really saved my life.”
The singer visited the shelter as part of the #ShareKindness campaign, which is put on by
and NBC Universal to celebrate acts of kindness big and small.
Gaga first revealed she was raped when she was 19 during an interview with Howard Stern in 2014.
It took her seven years to tell anyone about the experience, but once she did, she became an outspoken advocate for victims of sexual assault and violence. Her Oscar-nominated song
which was featured in the documentary
about campus rape, details the harrowing experience of what it is like to be sexually assaulted.
During her visit to the shelter, the 32-year-old brought clothes and other essential items for the teens, but also took the time to give them little tips on how she has coped with some of her personal issues.
“Meditation helps me to calm down,” she told them.
“I don’t have the same kind of issues that you have, but I have a mental illness and I struggle with that every day, so I need my mantra to keep me relaxed.”
This comes shortly after Gaga admitted fame didn’t make people happy.
The Bad Romance hitmaker said celebrities had been “put on a pedestal”, and felt kindness was far more important than celebrity and fame.
She said: “Money has been put on a pedestal, beauty has been put on a pedestal, celebrity has been put on a pedestal. I have travelled the world and seen the happiest people in the poorest parts of the world.
“Their values are intact. In the richest homes, I meet the saddest and most depressed people.
“I want to remind the whole world and my fans that the most important things are love and kindness. Kindness is what will create harmony, not celebrity and not fame.” BEIJING: Matt Damon said yesterday his role in the new China-Hollywood production The Great Wall was always intended to be European, responding to criticism that an Asian actor should have been picked for the part.
Some critics have said Damon’s casting amounted to “whitewashing”, in which Caucasians are chosen for roles that should have gone to actors from other ethnicities.
The American actor said he thought of “whitewashing” as applying to Caucasian actors applying make-up to appear to be of another race, as was common in the early days of film and television, when racism was much more overt.
“That whole idea of whitewashing, I take that very seriously,” Damon said, using the example of Irish-American actor Chuck Connors, who played the lead character in the 1962 film Geronimo, about the famed Apache chief.