Lady Gaga Reveals She Suffers From PTSD

Lady Gaga revealed she has been suffering from a mental illness.

While visiting the Ali Forney Center, a shelter for homeless youth, the singer shared more than her time and money. She also shared her own experience.

“Kindness, to me, is an action of love or a showing of love to someone else,” the “Bad Romance” singer said. “I also believe that kindness is the cure to violence and hatred around the world. I like to share kindness in a lot of different ways.”

Her trip to the shelter was part of the #ShareKindness campaign.

“I love to give things to people that have nothing or less than me. These children are not just homeless or in need. Many of them are trauma survivors; they’ve been rejected in some kind of way,” she said. “My own trauma in my life has helped me to understand the trauma of others.”

In 2014 the singer revealed that she had been raped when she was 19, according to E! News.

“I don’t have the same kind of issues that you have,” she told the young people while leading a meditation session, “but I have a mental illness and I struggle with that every day so I need my mantra to help keep me relaxed.”

The performer had never publicly spoken about dealing with mental illness before.On Monday she bravely spoke about living with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

“I told the kids today that I suffer from a mental illness. I suffer from PTSD. I’ve never told anyone that before, so here we are,” the 30-year-old told Today. “But the kindness that’s been shown to me by doctors—as well as my family and my friends—it’s really saved my life.”

This story first appeared on Womanista.