Lady Gaga fears critics don't believe her battle with fibromyalgia is for real.
The Born This Way hitmaker publicly acknowledged the diagnosis, which can cause fatigue, severe muscle pain, and memory and mood issues, last year (17).
Gaga explains her condition is made worse by other mental and physical issues she struggles with and she wishes people would be more understanding about her health woes and how difficult they are to deal with.
"I get so irritated with people who don't believe fibromyalgia is real," she tells Vogue magazine. "For me, and I think for many others, it's really a cyclone of anxiety, depression, PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder), trauma, and panic disorder - all of which sends the nervous system into overdrive, and then you have nerve pain as a result."
"People need to be more compassionate," she adds. "Chronic pain is no joke. And it's every day waking up not knowing how you're going to feel."
In 2014, the singer revealed she was raped as a teenager and subsequently explained she developed PTSD from the trauma. In her interview with the fashion magazine, Gaga also opens up about how speaking out has helped her heal.
"No one else knew," she says. "It was almost like I tried to erase it from my brain. And when it finally came out, it was like a big, ugly monster. And you have to face the monster to heal."
"For me, with my mental-health issues, half of the battle in the beginning was, I felt like I was lying to the world because I was feeling so much pain but nobody knew," she adds. "So that's why I came out and said that I have PTSD, because I don't want to hide - any more than I already have to."
And she goes on to detail the physical affects of the trauma she still has to deal with.
"I feel stunned. Or stunted," she continues. "You know that feeling when you're on a roller coaster and you're just about to go down the really steep slope? That fear and the drop in your stomach? My diaphragm seizes up. Then I have a hard time breathing, and my whole body goes into a spasm. And I begin to cry.
"That's what it feels like for trauma victims every day, and it's... miserable. I always say that trauma has a brain. And it works its way into everything that you do."
