Lady Gaga discusses painful trauma from her past

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Lady Gaga reportedly has a past trauma that was so severe she has kept it secret from her fans.

Lady Gaga has never shied away from discussing past drug use and feelings of rejection, but now the Grammy-winning singer has revealed for the first time that she suffered a painful trauma long before "The Fame" catapulted her to superstardom.

Music journalist Neil Strauss interviewed the 24-year-old pop star for his new book "Everyone Loves You When You're Dead," and told RadarOnline.com that Gaga made a startling confession.

"I asked if she'd been through a traumatic experience when she was younger and she said yes, that it was when she was in New York and it was so terrible that she'd blocked it out," Strauss told the site. �

"She said it was so horrible that she didn't want it in her younger fans' heads," Strauss recounted. "I think she felt that if she opened up about herself, then it would define her and that's all anyone would ask about."

The singer refused to elaborate further on the experience, only saying that "all of the trauma I caused to myself. Or it was caused by people that I met when being outrageous and irresponsible."

"I didn't have a bad childhood," the Manhattan native reportedly told Strauss.� "All of the things I went through were on my own quest for an artistic journey to f--k myself up like Warhol and Bowie and Mick, and just go for it."

At the top of her game now, Gaga remembered the long stretches of her journey that were plagued by drug use and apathy.

"Sometimes it freaks me out - or I should say it petrifies me - when I think about laying in my apartment (in New York) with bedbugs and roaches on the floor and mirrors with cocaine everywhere," she said, "and no will or interest in doing anything but making music and getting high."

The dark days of her past are just part of the "very long and continuous road that I love," the singer said.

"But it's hard to just chalk it up to myself," Gaga said. "I have to believe there's something greater than myself."

Strauss' book, which also reportedly includes interviews with Britney Spears and Snoop Dogg, among other big-name artists, will be released March 15.

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