Lady Gaga Opens Up About Her Struggles With Unhappiness and Anxiety

Over the weekend, Lady Gaga stopped by Yale University to speak at the Emotion Revolution summit, a new initiative that partners with the Born This Way Foundation. The pop star posted plenty of shots from the event to her Instagram account, promoting #IAmNotJust. Gaga's contribution, which she also posted, stated, "#IamNotJust ANXIOUS. I have depression." The powerful caption correlates to the empowering speech Gaga gave at the summit, a snippet of which was posted by Tumblr user sickestambition. She talks about her own unhappiness and how she found a way to be true to herself again. Watch her speak in the clip above, then read a full transcription of the quote below.

"I have had to make decisions like . . . why am I unhappy? 'OK, Stefani-Gaga hybrid person . . . why are you unhappy? Why is it that you want to quit music?' I was like, well I really don't like selling these . . . you know, fragrances. Perfumes. I don't like wasting my time, spending days just shaking peoples' hands and smiling, and taking selfies. Feels shallow to my existence. I have a lot more to offer than my image. I don't like being used to make people money. I feel sad when I'm overworked. And that I just become a money-making machine, and my passion and creativity take a backseat. That makes me unhappy.
So what did I do? I started to say no. I'm not doing that. I don't want to do that. I'm not taking that picture, I'm not going to that event, I'm not standing by that because that's not what I stand for. And slowly but surely, I remembered who I am. And then you go home, and you look in the mirror, and you're like, 'Yes. I can go to bed with
you every night.' Because that person, I know that person. That person has balls, that person has integrity, that person has an opinion. That person just doesn't say yes. That person doesn't get a text from somebody and say, 'Oh my God, they wrote this, and sent this emoji. Should I send this back? What do you think, is that OK to say? Are they going to like me if I say that? Should I say something different?' This is the age that we live in. We are not actually communicating with each other. We are unconsciously communicating lies."