Lady Gaga on her fight with fibromyalgia: ‘Chronic pain is no joke’
We all know who Lady Gaga is, She is not only a World Famous Pop Star but also suffering from fibromyalgia. In the October edition of Vogue, 33 years old Pop star discusses her struggle with fibromyalgia, A Chronic Illness which affects millions of people around the globe.
Lady Gaga is tired of people thinking the chronic pain she experiences isn’t real.
“I get so irritated with people who don’t believe fibromyalgia is real,” the singer said. “For me, and I think for many others, it’s really a cyclone of anxiety, depression, PTSD, trauma, and panic disorder, all of which sends the nervous system into overdrive, and then you have nerve pain as a result.”
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“People need to be more compassionate. Chronic pain is no joke. And it’s every day waking up not knowing how you’re going to feel.”
Gaga, born Stefani Germanotta, revealed she suffers from the debilitating condition last September, just before the release of her documentary Gaga: Five Foot Two.
“I wish to help raise awareness & connect people who have it,” she tweeted
For Gaga, the pain has been so bad at times that she’s been unable to perform. In September 2017 she was hospitalized due to “severe pain” and cancelled her upcoming concerts.
There’s a lot of misunderstanding around fibromyalgia, because up until recently, the condition wasn’t widely accepted as a real illness, said Dr. Mary-Ann Fitzcharles, an associate professor of medicine in the Division of Rheumatology at McGill University.
Many believed that symptoms of fibromyalgia were all “in the head” of people dealing with the illness, since they often look healthy otherwise.
“It is now a completely recognized condition, no question,” Fitzcharles said. “We’ve moved away from the notion that all patients have mental illness.”
What is fibromyalgia?
Fibromyalgia is a condition in which people feel chronic pain in their muscles and tendons, often along with other symptoms like sleep problems, headaches or mood disorders, Fitzcharles told Global News.
According to the Arthritis Society of Canada, fibromyalgia affects around two per cent of Canadians, although the majority of sufferers (80 to 90 per cent) are women. People between the ages of 20 and 50 are most at risk for developing the condition, the Arthritis Society reports.
There is currently no cure for fibromyalgia, but symptoms can be managed through treatment.
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What does fibromyalgia feel like?
Symptoms of fibromyalgia vary, but include fatigue, disrupted sleep, cognitive dysfunction, irritable bowel syndrome, mood disorders like anxiety and depression, and migraines. There’s one common thread: pain.
“For more than 30 per cent of people with fibromyalgia, even just a gentle touch and stroking the skin is perceived as being unpleasant,” Fitzcharles said.
She further explained that for people with fibromyalgia, their painful symptoms indicate that there’s a disconnect between their bodies and nervous systems.
“It’s as if the nervous system is fired up. In many patients, we see evidence of something we call hypervigilance,” she said. “So people are overly sensitive to loud noises, busy environments and intensive light.”
What causes fibromyalgia?
For the other two-thirds of people living with fibromyalgia, Fitzcharles says the condition seems to come out of the blue. There is an increased chance of developing the condition if your family has a history of fibromyalgia.
Why is fibromyalgia hard to diagnose?
Fibromyalgia has puzzled doctors for years. It’s is hard to diagnose because there is no one standardized test for the condition, and there’s also no test to confirm the diagnosis. Plus, people’s symptoms can change frequently and again, those living with fibromyalgia often look healthy.
“The patient looks absolutely normal. There’s no swelling, there’s no fever, there’s nothing to see. So even family and friends have difficulty understanding the process,” Fitzcharles said.
Because it’s hard to identify, she says it typically takes patients five years before they’re properly diagnosed.
Then, doctors will do minimal testing to ensure there’s no other underlying illness. “We really recommend against doing excessive testing on patients, like excessive x-rays and MRIs.”
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How do you treat fibromyalgia?
Fitzcharles says that the condition can be treated with drugs, but most patients control their illness with self-managed techniques, including a healthy lifestyle, proper sleep, and minimizing stress.
“Probably the intervention that is most successful is a regular program of comfortable physical activity,” Fitzcharles said. “Non-pharmacologic management is exceedingly important.”
If a patient does require medication, Fitzcharles said it’s important to find drugs that help alleviate pain — not contribute to it.
Lady Gaga says this is what having fibromyalgia feels like: ‘It’s every day waking up not knowing how you’re going to feel’
Five years ago, Lady Gaga revealed that she had fibromyalgia, a chronic illness so intense that it led to “severe pain” and tour cancellations during her music career.
Fibromyalgia is a long-lasting disorder that “causes pain and tenderness throughout the body,” according to the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases. But while its effects can have severe impacts on those with the disease, some people don’t view it as an actual medical condition — because it cannot currently be diagnosed through medical testing. People are often diagnosed with fibromyalgia because it’s the only explanation left, after doctors have ruled out everything else.
Lady Gaga: ‘Chronic Pain Is No Joke’
By Pat Anson,
One of the few celebrities brave enough to speak openly about their battle with chronic pain is talking about it again – in a fashion magazine.
“Chronic pain is no joke. And it’s every day waking up not knowing how you’re going to feel,” Lada Gaga told Vogue in a cover story.
Last year, Lady Gaga revealed that she suffers from fibromyalgia, a poorly understood disorder characterized by deep tissue pain, fatigue, depression and insomnia.
A pain flare up forced her to cancel several concert appearances, which led some skeptics to complain that it was a publicity stunt to promote “Gaga: Five Foot Two,” a Netflix documentary that shows the singer being treated for chronic pain.
Lady Gaga says her fibromyalgia is very real – along with the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) she has from being sexually assaulted as a teenager.
“I get so irritated with people who don’t believe fibromyalgia is real,” she told Vogue. “For me, and I think for many others, it’s really a cyclone of anxiety, depression, PTSD, trauma, and panic disorder – all of which sends the nervous system into overdrive, and then you have nerve pain as a result.
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.”
The 32-year old singer said it took years for her to open up about the sexual assault.
“No one else knew. 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,” she said. “I felt like I was lying to the world because I was feeling so much pain but nobody knew. 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.”