Lady Gaga Reveals She Battled 'Psychosis' Five Years Ago In Candid New Interview

Singer, songwriter, and performer Lady Gaga opened up this week about an experience that may not have been guessed by looking at her: her years-long struggle with psychosis.

During an interview with the New York Times' podcast The Interview, the singer confided:

"I had psychosis. I was not deeply in touch with reality for a while."

"It took me out of life in a big way, and after a lot of years of hard work, I got myself back."

Lady Gaga's struggles with psychosis were resolved about five years ago, and it was a time in her life that she found to be "increasingly harder to think about."

By talking about it in the interview, however, she hoped to reclaim that part of herself without shame and to possibly help listeners who felt alone or who remained undiagnosed.

Lady Gaga reflected:

"I hate feeling defined by it. It felt like something I felt ashamed of."

"But I don’t think that we should feel ashamed if we go through times like that."

"I mostly just wish to say, it can get better. It did for me, and I’m grateful for that.”

Lady Gaga has been open about her mental health history in the past. During an interview with Oprah, she said a "pill box" she traveled with sounded "like a baby rattle," and there are unmistakable discussions of depression and PTSD in her album Chromatica. But the artist has never been so open about specifically experiencing psychosis.

She also opened up about how it impacted her relationship with her fiancé, Michael Polansky.

"When I met Michael, I was in a much better place, but I remember him saying to me, pretty early on, ‘I know you could be a lot happier than you are.'"

"It was really hard for me to hear him say that because I didn’t want him to think that of me... I wanted him to think I was, like, this happy, totally together person."

You can listen to the clip here:

Fans of Lady Gaga empathized with her experiences.

As easy as it can be to write off successful artists and performers as rich and therefore without problems, it's important to remember that we all go through things, despite how well off we might be financially. Without deeply knowing a person, you can't really say what they've been experiencing behind the scenes.