Lady Gaga’s Mother Says Singer Felt ‘Humiliated’ & ‘Taunted’ Amid Depression
Before all the fame, fans and fortune, Lady Gaga — born Stefani Germanotta — battled with mental health.
The “Poker Face” singer, 33, now known for her extravagant style and catchy lyrics, was often bullied for being “unique.”
Recently, her mother, Cynthia Germanotta, opened up about her daughter’s past struggles with depression, in an attempt to raise awareness and help anyone who may be experiencing the same symptoms.
“In middle school, because she was unique, she started experiencing a lot of struggles,” Germanotta, 65, revealed on in Today show‘s digital series Through Mom’s Eyes.
“You know, feeling isolated from events. Humiliated. Taunted. And she would start to question herself and become doubtful of her own abilities. And that’s when she developed depression,” she continued. “We tried our best as parents to help her, but didn’t know everything.”
Gaga's mom, 65, admitted she wasn’t as attentive as she should have been, when raising the star, and might have “made mistakes.” At the time, mental health issues were not as widely discussed and accepted as they are now. “I didn’t really know the warning signs to look for,” she confessed.
Now, Gaga’s uniqueness and talent has led her to a successful career in music and film.
With her help of her mom, Gaga now also focuses on helping young girls struggling with depression. In 2012, the two built Born This Way Foundation, to help individuals suffering from mental health issues. According to Germanotta, it is a project that is “personal” to them, as Gaga “envisioned a world where young people were better equipped to deal with her struggles than she was.”
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Germanotta said the experience of running the foundation has actually been “very healing for her Gaga and also her fans.”
In 2016, while visiting a group of homeless LGBTQ youth in New York, she shared that she has PTSD, which stemmed from being raped when she was 19.
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, the singer talked to ELLE about the psychotic break she experienced as a result of her rape trauma and her fibromyalgia.
“I was brought to the ER to urgent care and they brought in the doctor, a psychiatrist,” she said. “So I’m just screaming, and I said, ‘Could somebody bring me a real doctor?’ And I didn’t understand what was going on, because my whole body went numb; I fully dissociated.”
The “Bad Romance” singer started taking an antipsychotic medication used to treat mental disorders after her break. She also started dialectical behavioral therapy to help stop her from continuing to cut herself.
As RadarOnline.com exclusively reported, Gaga is currently working on a screenplay about her life It’s unclear if the traumas of her life will be discussed in the biopic.