Lady Gaga has spoken candidly about her use of antipsychotic medication to help manage her PTSD and fibromyalgia, a long-term condition that causes pain all over the body.

The A Star Is Born actor appeared on Oprah Winfrey’s 2020 Vision: Your Life in Focus tour, where she addressed her battles with mental health, sexual assault, and post traumatic stress disorder. Gaga told Winfrey that her rapid rise to fame didn’t allow her to cope with the PTSD she faced after being sexually assaulted at 19 years old.

As well as attending regular therapy sessions, Gaga – who has spoken openly about her struggles with mental health in the past – maintains that antipsychotic medication has “helped tremendously” with managing her symptoms, and that without it, she would “spiral very frequently”. 

“I developed PTSD as a result of being raped and also not processing that trauma. I all of a sudden became a star and was traveling the world going from hotel room to garage to limo to stage, and I never dealt with it, and then all of a sudden I started to experience this incredible intense pain throughout my entire body that mimicked the illness I felt after I was raped.”

She said: “Medicine really helped me. A lot of people are afraid of medicine for their brains to help them. I really want to erase the stigma around this.”

Fibromyalgia is a chronic condition in which a person suffers issues such as widespread pain, fatigue, and cognitive difficulties.

Typically, antipsychotic drugs are licensed to treat disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and severe depression, but they can also be used to treat physical conditions like fibromyalgia too. Back in October, Flow Neuroscience launched a use-at-home headset proven to have similar effects as antidepressants, and studies into the use of pyschadelics for the treatment of mental health disorders continue worldwide.