Lady Gaga made her debut in the first decade of the millennium. Her jump onto the music scene was laced with curious eyes following her every move. While she topped all charts and broke records, curious audiences around the world just wanted to figure who she was and what was the inspiration behind all those costumes she used to show up donning during public appearances. She was a mystery to a lot of people but nonetheless an artiste par excellence with which she gained legions of fans that she very lovingly termed "Monsters". Success was not at all a problem for Gaga, her work guaranteed that. However, there was a price to pay for all the brilliance that she exhibited in her work. She had become addicted to a lot of recreational drugs claiming in a number of interviews that she used them only to find her inspiration.
Her addiction battles have been detailed in a 2010 biography titled 'Lady Gaga: Just Dance' written by Helia Phoenix. It was revealed in the biography that Gaga had her favorite artistes (Andy Warhol, Mick Jagger) who she wanted to emulate and the only way she thought it would be possible was if she'd live their lifestyle. Gaga said that she'd use cocaine, LSD and other drugs to find inspiration but eventually ended up getting addicted. Gaga also believed that she would've died due to her addiction. “My cocaine soundtrack was always 'The Cure'. I would lock myself in my room and listen to ‘Never Enough’ on repeat while I did bags and bags of cocaine. It was about being an artist. I wasn’t a lazy addict. I would make demo tapes and send them around. At the time I didn’t think there was anything wrong with me, until my friends said, ‘Are you doing this alone?’ Um, yes. Me and my mirror.”
The book also said that Gaga believed she was saved by the ghost of her late aunt that lives inside her, according to Drug Addiction Treatment. "I realized my father’s sister Joanne, who’d died at 19, had instilled her spirit in me. She was a painter and a poet — and I had a spiritual vision I had to finish her business,” she was quoted in the biography.
September 2020 marks the 31st year of National Recovery Month and with this column, we aim to tell the share the experiences of public figures and celebrities with mental disorders, with an aim to raise awareness and normalize asking for help.
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