Lady Gaga Says She Suffers from PTSD After Being Raped

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She elaborated on her comments on Today. “I suffer from PTSD,” she says. “I’ve never told anyone that before, so here we are.”

The singer says her post-traumatic stress disorder began after she was raped by an older record producer when she was 19. She first publicly disclosed the assault during an interview with Howard Stern in 2014. “I was a shell of my former self at one point,” she said in the interview. “I was not myself. And to be fair, I was about 19, so I went to Catholic school, and then all this crazy stuff happened, and I was going, ‘Oh, is this just the way adults are?’”

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Now, Gaga says she finds comfort in the kindness she’s felt from doctors, family, and friends—and sharing that kindness with others. “I’ve been searching for ways to heal myself, and I’ve found that kindness is the best way,” she told Today.

About 8 million people suffer from PTSD each year, according to the National Center for PTSD. For more information on the link between rape and PTSD, read Women’s Health’s report on Life After Rape: The Sexual Assault Issue No One’s Talking About. 

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