In a startlingly candid new interview, global superstar Lady Gaga has pulled back the curtain on the severe mental health crisis she endured at the peak of her professional success, revealing she filmed the Oscar-winning A Star Is Born while on powerful psychiatric medication.
The Mask of Success
To the outside world, 2018 was a triumphant year for Lady Gaga. Her leading role in A Star Is Born propelled the film to global sensation status, earning eight Oscar nominations and turning the duet 'Shallow' into an anthem. She performed at the Super Bowl, accepted Golden Globes, and became a permanent fixture on red carpets.
Yet, in a new cover story for the December issue of Rolling Stone, the 39-year-old artist confesses this public zenith masked a terrifying private collapse. "I did A Star Is Born on lithium," Gaga stated with stark directness, referring to the medication commonly used to treat bipolar disorder.
The medication provided enough stability to complete the film, but it was merely a temporary shield. Throughout the production and the intense global promotion that followed, Gaga's inner world was disintegrating. She describes feeling herself drift further away from her own identity, even as her public fame skyrocketed.
The Breaking Point
The situation escalated catastrophically during her Joanne World Tour. It was here that Gaga experienced what she now identifies as a psychotic break. The severity of her condition became undeniable when her own sister looked at her and uttered the devastating words, "I don't see my sister anymore."
Shortly after this confrontation, Gaga made the difficult decision to cancel the remainder of her tour. She immediately sought intensive psychiatric care and stopped all professional work. The pop icon admits there were moments during this period when she genuinely believed she might never recover.
"It was really scary," Gaga recalls. "There was a time where I didn't think I could get better… I feel really lucky to be alive. I know that might sound dramatic, but we know how this can go."
The Road to Recovery and 'Mayhem'
Gaga credits her fiancé, Michael Polansky, with providing a crucial anchor during her recovery. By calling her by her birth name, Stefani, and seeing the person behind the elaborate stage persona, he offered a grounding presence she had lacked for years.
This new, intimate relationship forced her to confront fundamental questions about her own identity. "How do you learn how to be yourself with someone when you don't know how to be yourself with anyone?" she wondered.
This arduous process of self-rediscovery eventually led her back to music, resulting in her album Mayhem, released in March 2025. The album, which has just received seven Grammy nominations, is now hailed as one of her most powerful works. Gaga explains that the record was born from piecing together the parts of herself she feared were lost forever.
"It was months and months and months of rediscovering everything that I'd lost," she tells Rolling Stone. "And I honestly think that's why it's called Mayhem. Because what it took to get it back was crazy."
Today, Lady Gaga describes herself as a "healthy, whole person." While she has reinvented herself countless times for the public, this transformation is a quieter, more profound shift—a journey from internal chaos to a hard-won peace.
