Anyone familiar with Lady Gaga’s story is also familiar with her mental health challenges and her strong advocacy for comprehensive mental health care reform.

Her new song, Rain On Me, with Ariana Grande, seems to seamlessly blend her advocacy work with her music.  “Rain on Me.” is an empowering duet about persevering through hardship, healing, and finding beauty in the pain, heartbreak, and life.

Lady Gaga told Yahoo News, ‘Rain On Me,’ the lyrics that I wrote right here in this studio, ‘I’d rather be dry, but at least I’m alive. Rain on me.’ This is about an analog of tears being the rain. And you know what it’s also a metaphor for, is the amount of drinking that I was doing to numb myself. I’d rather be dry. I’d rather not be drinking, but I haven’t died yet. I’m still alive. Rain on me. Okay, I’m going to keep on drinking. This song has many layers.”

Specifically, it seems like Lady Gaga is talking about alcohol and the way people use it to numb the pain in her lyrics.

Heavy alcohol use can have dangerous consequences for people with diabetes, including coma and death. Alcohol abuseis treatable through personalized treatment capable of meeting each patient’s medical needs.

Mental health affects so many aspects of daily life—how you think and feel, handle stress, relate to others, and make choices. You can see how having a mental health problem could make it harder to stick to your diabetes care plan.

People with diabetes are 2 to 3 times more likely to have depression than people without diabetes according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Only 25% to 50% of people with diabetes who have depression get diagnosed and treated. But treatment—therapy, medicine, or both—is usually very effective. And without treatment, depression often gets worse, not better.

Back in 2014, Lady Gaga opened up about her struggles with mental health.. She spoke out about being raped at age 19 and the subsequent mental health challenges she experienced as a result, including post-traumatic stress disorder. She also maintains that her mental struggles manifested into physical symptoms, like chronic pain and panic attacks. 

Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation works to shed light on toxic behavior patterns and improve conditions and treatment options for those in need of help.

Divabetic’s Diabetes Late Nite podcast guests include Author of the Noodle Shop Mysteries: Vivien Chien, Lorraine Brooks, Sara (Mandy) Reece, PharmD, CDE,  Dr. Wendy Satin Rapaport PhD, Patricia Addie-Gentle RN, CDE, and Alexis Gray and music from Maren Morris.