Lady Gaga has revealed that she experienced a psychotic break and sought psychiatric care after filming the 2018 musical drama A Star Is Born. In an interview with Rolling Stone, the pop star, real name Stefani Germanotta, said the production came at a particularly stressful time in her career, shortly after her Super Bowl halftime show performance in February 2017.
During the making of the film, Gaga was taking lithium, a mood disorder medication. After completing the film, she embarked on a tour for her 2016 album Joanne, but one night she experienced what she described as a “psychotic break.” She recalled her sister telling her, “I don’t see my sister anymore,” leading her to cancel the tour and seek hospital care.
“I couldn’t do anything… I completely crashed. It was really scary. There was a time where I didn’t think I could get better,” Gaga said. “I feel really lucky to be alive. I know that might sound dramatic, but we know how this can go.” In February 2018, she cancelled the last ten dates of her tour, citing “severe pain” related to fibromyalgia.
Gaga now considers herself “a healthy, whole person,” crediting her recovery partly to the support of her fiancé, Michael Polansky. “Being in love with someone that cares about the real me made a very big difference,” she said. She added that the experience influenced her 2025 album Mayhem, which has been nominated for seven Grammys. “It was months and months and months of rediscovering everything that I’d lost,” she said.
