Lady Gaga is a Grammy Award-winning singer, who had previously revealed in 2014 that she encountered a rape incident at the age of 19. The singer opened about her struggle with the post-traumatic stress that has engulfed her life, despite the fact that she has risen to the high echelon of success as a celebrity ( Krippner et al., 2012) . Being in the public eye with such a mental illness is a challenge as she has attested that there is a lot of shame attached to mental illness even though she is confident that the knowledge of hope is a chance for recovery ( Morris, 2015) . The celebrity is also in contention with the fact that even though the trauma does not have immediate physical ramifications, it triggers patterns in the body that are related to mental and physical distress ( Woelfer & Lee, 2012 ) . The incident has eminently changed her body and thoughts. This paper will discuss the ramifications of living with a mental disorder in the public eye, where it will analyze the life of Lady Gaga as a celebrity living with posttraumatic stress disorder after a teenage incident of rape.
Historical background of the Celebrity
Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta , now known as Lady Gaga, is the daughter to Cynthia and Joseph Germanotta. She is a female celebrity, who was born in Yonkers, New York City on March 28, 1986. The name Gaga came from the Queen Song known as Radio Ga-Ga. Lady Gaga learned how to play piano at 4-years-old and later on attended a private Catholic school in the city at age 11. She continued to develop her music skills and at age of 13, she was able to write her first piano ballad ( Krippner et al., 2012) . Lady Gaga is an American songwriter, singer, and actress. Her father and maternal grandmother were of Italian ancestry, her maternal grandfather from French-Canadian, English, German, Scottish, and remote Swedish and Dutch . Angelina Calderone was Gaga’s paternal grandmother and she was also of Italian descent together with her paternal grandfather Joseph Antony Germanotta.
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Lady Gaga’s maternal grandfather was known as Paul Douglas Bisset. Paul was born in West Virginia and was having French-Canadian, English, and German, Scottish, and remote Swedish and Dutch, ancestry . Lady Gaga's maternal grandmother was called Veronica Rose who was also born in West Virginia to Italian parents ( Morris, 2015) . This makes Lady Gaga’s ethnicity to be 75% Italian and 25% mix of French-Canadian, English, German, Scottish, and remote Swedish and Dutch . Because of her diverse nature of ancestries, she encountered some adversities in her early life. She had already started dancing in bars at 14years old ( Krippner et al., 2012) . Lady Gaga was able to sharpen her songwriting skills at the age of 17 when she was admitted to New York University Famous Tisch School of the Arts. During this time, she could write about religion, politics, social issues and arts.
Lady Gaga was raised in a Catholic family and until now, she still believes in God. She was never afraid of expressing herself as a Catholic and has believed that everyone will go to Heaven upon death. However, she is against the institutionalized religion ( Click et al., 2013) . At 19 years old, Lady Gaga withdrew from school to focus on its music career. During the same period, Gaga was raped as she revealed in 2014. As a result, she underwent mental and physical therapy and later on developed a post-traumatic mental disorder ( Woelfer & Lee, 2012 ) . Lady Gaga’s new album will be named after her aunt, while it explores her family heritage. She is a representation of her culture as a father’s daughter and a mother’s daughter, who is also the vintage of the Italian-American culture. This is an ethnic group that consists of Americans who heralded from Italy.
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Posttraumatic stress disorder is a mental disorder that is associated with the aftermath of exposure to traumatic events such as sexual assault ( Woelfer & Lee, 2012 ) . Victims of a posttraumatic disorder may experience disturbing thoughts, feelings, and dreams related to the reoccurrence of the event. A victim of sexual assault such as the case of Lady Gaga may developmental or physical distress, which may lead to trauma-related cues ( Krippner et al., 2012) . The victim will always attempt in vain to avoid the trauma-related cues, which the thought of the incident may lead to alterations on how the person thinks and feels. Such an incident may provoke the fight-or-flight response, which is a physiological reaction occurring in response to the perceived harmful event. In this case, human beings just as animals react to the threats with a general discharge of the sympathetic nervous system.
Most of the people who have had experiences with a traumatic event will not necessarily develop PTSD, even though people who experience interpersonal trauma such as rape will more likely experience the mental disorder as compared to those who experience non-assault-based traumatic events like accidents and natural disasters ( Morris, 2015) . Most of the people who have experienced rape incidences will develop a posttraumatic disorder, where it is more rampant in children as compared to adults ( Click et al., 2013) . The diagnostic procedure for PTSD is highly based on the presence of the specific symptoms that the victim may reveal following a traumatic event such as rape.
Most of the symptoms of PSTD are seen within the first three months after the traumatic event, but may not begin until the later years ( Krippner et al., 2012) . In this typical case, the celebrity with the PTSD contends to the fact that she persistently avoided the trauma-related thoughts and emotions and open discussions about the event, where she even had amnesia of the event. However, the events may be relived in the life of the victim through intrusive, recurrent recollections, dissociative episodes of reliving the trauma as evidenced by the flashbacks and nightmares ( Morris, 2015) . Even though victims will have symptoms in the aftermath of the incident, they must persist to a sufficient degree to lead to the significant dysfunction in life or the clinical levels of distress for the disorder to be classified as PTSD.
Celebrities living with posttraumatic stress disorder face different challenges that are associated with medical conditions ( Click et al., 2013) . For example, the posttraumatic stress disorder in the life of Lady Gaga has led to the current struggle with drug abuse and alcohol use ( Krippner et al., 2012) . Lady Gaga has admitted that she struggles with marijuana addiction, which is highly associated with the sedative feeling acquired to combat the mental torture from the thoughts of the rape at her teenage. It is evident that recovery from PTSD or other mental disorders related to anxiety may be hindered or worsened when the victim resorts to the use of drugs as a stress reliever ( Morris, 2015) . It has also been found out that substance use disorders are comorbid with posttraumatic stress disorder, which increases the adversity of the symptoms in the life of the victim with poor mental coordination that can lead to permanent brain damage.
The role of the Disorder
In December 2016, Lady Gaga wrote a letter with the brave revelation that she has struggled with PTSD since she was sexually assaulted at the age of 19. This was highly associated with the performances she has on stage. She chose the life of hustling with her tits out in the bars across the New York City for years, where she became a household name in 2008 ( Morris, 2015) . She recollected the life she has lived, showing that it has been that of suffering as she has kept the secret to herself. She has disclosed that the kindness that her doctors and members of the family offer her has saved her life ( Woelfer & Lee, 2012 ) . The traumatic event has influenced the life of Lady Gaga since she has attested that since then she has continued her work as an advocate for both the sexual assault survivors and the mental health community. The most recent advocacy was the honest letter she wrote with the revelation of her struggles with PTSD.
Lady Gaga has wrestled with the thought of how and when she could reveal her diagnosis of the disorder. She has experienced chronic pain for over five years, which has strengthened her faith to speak for the voiceless; especially those who have been victims of rape ( Krippner et al., 2012) . Her life changed since the incident since she spent each day struggling with the regulation of her nervous system since even mundane events like being touched by strangers who were enthusiastic about her performances were triggers of the traumatic event ( Morris, 2015) . Her life has also changed since she has revealed that she experiences dissociations, which imply that she perceives her surroundings as not being real.
Conclusion
It is imperative that living with a mental disorder in the public eye is the most challenging endeavor as the personal life comes into the public domain, which is a double tragedy. For instance, Lady Gaga found it hard to reveal her posttraumatic stress disorder five years after she experienced a rape incident. Living with the posttraumatic disorder is also challenging as it may lead to associated medical conditions. The best example is where Lady Gaga has revealed that she struggles with Marijuana addiction. In most such cases, recovery from the mental disorder or other related disorders may be hindered, while the condition is worsened especially when substance used disorders are comorbid with posttraumatic stress disorder.
References
Krippner, S., Pitchford, D. B., & Davies, J. A. (2012). Post-traumatic stress disorder . ABC-CLIO.
Morris, D. J. (2015). The evil hours: A biography of post-traumatic stress disorder . Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Click, M. A., Lee, H., & Holladay, H. W. (2013). Making monsters: Lady Gaga, fan identification, and social media. Popular Music and Society , 36 (3), 360-379.
Woelfer, J. P., & Lee, J. H. (2012, October). The Role Of Music in the Lives of Homeless Young People: A Preliminary Report. In ISMIR (pp. 367-372).
