By Jon Wiederhorn
Lady Gaga opened up about her struggles with mental illness in a Facetime conversation with Prince William.
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“There’s a lot of shame attached to mental illness,” She told the Duke of Cambridge to promote his mental awareness campaign Heads Together, which he runs with the Duchess and Prince Harry. “You feel like something’s wrong with you. And in my life I go, ‘Oh my goodness, look at all these beautiful, wonderful things that I have and I should be so happy.'”
During the three-and-a-half minute conversation, Gaga revealed that post-traumatic stress disorder often left her waking up feeling unhappy and not understanding why.
“It made me very nervous at first – me waking up every morning and feeling sad and going onstage is something that’s very hard to describe,” she said. “But you can’t help it if in the morning when you wake up you are so tired, you are so sad. You are so full of anxiety and the shakes that you can barely think, but it was like saying, ‘This is a part of me and that’s okay.’”
The video was posted on the Royal Family’s Facebook page and it’s the latest clip in the #oktosay series, in which various people from different places discuss their battles with mental health.
When Prince William mentioned how important he felt it was for people with mental issues seem to benefit by addressing them and dealing with them without shame and that organizations like his are helping the community, Gaga agreed.
“I feel like we are not hiding anymore” she said. “We are starting to talk and that’s what we need to do, really. Even though it was hard, it was the best thing that could come out of my mental illness, was to share it with other people and let our generation, as well as other generations, know that if you are feeling not well in your mind that you’re not alone. And that people that you think would never have a problem, do.”
At the end of their chat, Prince William mentioned that he would like to meet with Gaga when she comes to the UK in October to discuss possible ways they could work together on his mental health campaign. “I would love that,” she said. “”We have to make the strongest, most relentless attempt we can to normalize mental health issues so people feel they can come forward.”
