Lady Gaga and Oprah have a lot in common when it comes to sharing truth from their stages. Both women have transcended their own personal stories to become beacons of help and hope to millions of others. Both have extended themselves from their initial callings—Oprah to television and the reinvention of the talk show, and Stefani Germanotta to music and her performance identity which defies genre or category.

Lady Gaga and Oprah are world-recognized business entrepreneurs. Lady Gaga’s newest eye shadow palette was one of the biggest selling items on Amazon this holiday season.

Oprah’s OWN network offerings continue to be in high demand, while simultaneously developing new writers, directors, and showrunners across genders and colors in the industry. Most of all, Oprah and Lady Gaga have devoted their life missions to using their platforms to pursue ideals beyond themselves.

As reported per Yahoo and Teen Vogue on January 6, Oprah launched her current Oprah’s 2020 Vision: Your Life in Focus tour only days ago, and she knew that Lady Gaga would be joining her at the BB & T Center in Sunrise, FL. What Oprah nor any of the thousands in attendance expected was the total self-revelation and vulnerability that that poured from the pop music icon. Lady Gaga is beloved for her honesty in a song she and took her openness even to her medicine cabinet in the revealing talk.

Her point was simple: “Mental Health is a crisis.”

A prescription for truth

Anyone who has become swept up in Lady Gaga's heartfelt truth in the songs “Joanne,” “Til It Happens to You,” or “A Million Reasons” hears the depth of inspiration from the singer-songwriter. These are even more amazing considering her ongoing battle with fibromyalgia and PTSD, as courageously documented in her autobiographical on Netflix, “Five Foot Two.” Lady Gaga confirmed that faith and hope walked alongside inspiration on the path towards her “getting up,” in response to Oprah.

Gaga commended “all of you,” pointing to the audience seated, and countless watching, as part of her support system.

Lady Gaga then became self-revealing with more bravery than so few artists can ever display. Opening with a precursor that she realized her remarks were “controversial in a lot of ways,” the multiplatinum Mother Monster praised that “medicine really helped” her.

She even described her daily regimen, careful to comment that she never wants anyone to take her own personal accounts as endorsements. She continued, saying that a lot of people “are afraid of medicines for their brains to help them.” She admonished that primary care physicians should refer patients to qualified psychiatrists for proper testing and medication, rather than trying one antidepressant after the other.

In her poignant account, Lady Gaga described being repeatedly raped at the age of 19, and not having medical, emotional, or psychological support through her ordeal. The combined effects of the trauma itself and the difficulty in getting support manifested itself in devastating pain as part of a “trauma response.” In an ET Canada video clip, Lady Gaga said that she was “a survivor and thriving” thanks to the intervention of proper drugs and support, which she is passionate about bringing to every person with mental health needs.

“Not everybody has access to these things. Not everybody has the money for these things. I want the money for it. I want the best doctors in the world,” Gaga implored, insisting that “getting on the same page” for mental health will mean that “Gen Z does not have to deal with it the way we are right now. Mental health is a crisis.”

Shrinking shame

Lady Gaga employs cognitive behavioral therapy and dialectical behavior therapy along with meditation techniques and physical therapy as part of every day. While many of her fans were wrapping up holiday time spent with family, she was still performing her “Enigma” shows at the Park Theater at the MGM in Las Vegas. In so many ways she reflects the hard work ethic of her Italian family in New York, and she has learned to apply the same kindness to herself that is central to her #BeKindBeTheDifference initiative in mental health.

The practice of radical acceptance has been transforming in her life.

“I have radically accepted that I will put my shame in a box way over there and make it very small, and say to myself: ‘I have mental health issues. I take a lot of medication to stay on board, and I'm a survivor’”

Oprah expressed backstage after the event that Lady Gaga’s expression of her truth had brought countless others to their own breakthroughs. Holding both of Gaga’s arms lovingly, Oprah declared: “You were still vulnerable. You were so truthful. You were so real. I couldn't even believe you were doing that.” More gratitude came for being “so strong and so real,” before Oprah praised that “To be the truth like that. No one does that. You know that,” with a warm embrace.

The multitudes who find Lady Gaga's caring, forgiving, and graciously open heart, no matter which stages she’s on, aren't surprised at all.
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