Lady Gaga’s Netflix Documentary puts Fibromyalgia Front and Center
About 38 minutes into the film, after a moving scene in which Gaga plays a song for her father and grandmother, we see her in a full blown fibro flare, which at the time of the filming was undiagnosed. We see Lady Gaga, lying on the couch under a towel, crying, describing “the entire right side of my body in a spasm.” It’s powerful, and something that every person with fibromyalgia has gone through. She even acknowledges, to her credit, I think, how her privilege as a massively famous and wealthy entertainer allows her access to constant and excellent healthcare. “I think of other people that have, maybe something like this, but that are struggling to figure out what it is, and don’t have the money to have someone help them,” she says. “And I don’t know what I’d do without all these people to help me. What the hell would I do?”
It’s a good question and one that many, if not most, people with fibromyalgia ask themselves on a daily basis. We know how hard it is to get a doctor to take it seriously, how stigmatized chronic pain is. And most people don’t have millions of dollars and nurses as part of their entourage. But it’s still pretty amazing to see her go from that to performing a lights-out rendition of “Bad Romance” for Tony Bennett’s birthday just hours later
Next, we get a montage of her working, squeezing past paparazzi, recording radio station greetings, surprising fans. In a way it’s inspiring, to see someone go from being in so much pain to being non-stop “on” for an adoring, voracious public. Again, this is all standard celebrity pop star stuff: Gaga dealing with a public breakup, worrying about whether her long-time fans will like her new look, will the record be any good?
But it’s the fibro stuff that sticks with you. We see her visiting her doctor, listing her symptoms and medications. This is one of those “Stars, they’re just like us” moments that celebrities try to pull off, and not always successfully. But Lady Gaga manages to do it. She gets a trigger point injection and we get to see it, all the while she’s stressing out because the new album is leaking all over the internet.
“Awareness” is one of those weird terms that gets thrown around a lot for diseases like fibromyalgia, and I’m not always sure it’s enough for people to just be “aware” that something exists. But Lady Gaga’s decision to show herself in so much pain, and to let us into her doctor’s office with her, seems to be doing more than just raising awareness. It really can chip away at the stigma of these chronic conditions. Nobody could ever, watching Lady Gaga go through her preparations for performing at the Super Bowl
