Kindness saved my life: Lady Gaga

For the first time, the songstress spoke in depth about her mental illness and how she dealt with it.

Lady Gaga recently opened up about her "mental illness" to a group of LGBT youth in Harlem, where she revealed that she has Post-traumatic Stress Disorder.

The 30-year-old songstress visited the Ali Forney Center, a shelter for homeless LGBT youth so on behalf of the '#ShareKindness' campaign, 'Today' and 'NBCUniversal's celebration of kind acts both big and small, reports E! Online.

"I told the kids today that I suffer from a mental illness. I suffer from PTSD," said Gaga, who revealed in 2014 that she had been raped at age 19.

"I've never told anyone that before, so here we are. But the kindness that's been shown to me by doctors-as well as my family and my friends-it's really saved my life," she shared.

During her visit, the 'Joanne' singer led a brief meditation exercise after which she talked of the importance of "kindness" which, to her, is an "action" or "showing" of love to someone else.

"I also believe that kindness is the cure to violence and hatred around the world. I like to share kindness in a lot of different ways," the 'Million Reasons' singer said.

Until her visit, Gaga had never spoken publicly about living with posttraumatic stress disorder.

"These children are not just homeless or in need. Many of them are trauma survivors; they've been rejected in some kind of way," she continued, "My own trauma in my life has helped me to understand the trauma of others."

"The one way to help people that have trauma is to inject them with as many positive thoughts as possible," she quipped.

In addition to donating clothing and other items to the homeless youth, Gaga gave them hugs and kisses. She also performed a few of her hits, as well as a cover of Nat King Cole's 'Smile.'

Gaga co-founded, with her mother Cynthia Germanotta, the 'Born This Way Foundation' to let people "experience" and "share" kindness.

Lead photograph: Jason Merritt/Getty Images