Lady GaGa Opens Up About Antipsychotics Saving Her From Being 'Non-Functional As A Human'

Lady GaGa is getting real!

The songstress sat down with Zane Lowe back in May for a wide-ranging interview about Chromatica, her mental health, and more, but clips have recently resurfaced from their chat for Apple Music’s Beats 1 radio station. At one point during their convo, GaGa, real name Stefani Germanotta, went in-depth about the antipsychotic medication she takes, revealing how it inspired one of the tracks on her new album.

The 34-year-old explained she takes olanzapine, AKA Zyprexa, because she struggles with “mental issues” as a result of being raped as a teenager:

“I wrote a song on Chromatica called 911, and it’s about an anti-psychotic that I take and it’s because I can’t always control things that my brain does and I have to take medication to stop the process that occurs.”

She added:

“I know I have mental issues and I know that they can sometimes render me non-functional as a human.”

Wow.

The A Star Is Born lead also discussed (below) how she has coped with these “issues” by abusing alcohol, which in part inspired the lyrics of her song with Ariana Grande, Rain On Me:

“And you know what it’s also a metaphor for, is the amount of drinking that I was doing to numb myself. ‘I’d rather be dry,’ I’d rather not be drinking, but I haven’t died yet. ‘I’m still alive, rain on me,’ like, ‘Okay, I’m gonna keep on drinking.’”

She went on to share:

“I’ve flirted with the idea of sobriety. I’m not there yet, but I flirted with it throughout the album. It’s something that came up as a result of me trying to work through the pain that I was feeling. But part of my healing process was going, ‘Well, I can either lash the hell out of myself every day for continuing to drink, or I can just be happy that I’m still alive and keep going and feel good enough.’ I am good enough… I’m perfectly imperfect.”

The pop star first opened up to Oprah Winfrey last year about her mental health conditions and past trauma, detailing one “psychotic break” which landed her in the emergency room:

“It was one of the worst things that’s ever happened to me. I didn’t understand what was going on, because my whole body went numb; I fully dissociated. I was screaming, and then he [her psychiatrist] calmed me down and gave me medication for when that happens.”

That sounds so scary! We’re so glad she’s found the right balance of medication now. Watch more from GaGa & Zane (below):