Lady Gaga opens up about drug addiction: 'I have to be high to be creative'

The singer admits she uses drugs to cope with the pressures of fame

Lady Gaga has spoken candidly again about her drug use.

The singer says she used drugs to cope with the pain of her hip injury, which left her in a wheelchair after undergoing surgery last February to treat damage cause to her cartilage on her Born This Way tour.

"I have been addicted to it and it's ultimately related to anxiety coping and it's a form of self-medication and I was smoking up to 15-20 marijuana cigarettes a day with no tobacco," she told US radio station Z100. "I was living on a totally other psychedelic plane, numbing myself completely, and looking back I do see now that some of it had to do with my hip pain... I didn't know where the pain was coming from so I was just in a lot of pain and very depressed all the time and not really sure why."

The singer went on to say that her addiction to various drugs had grown worse as a method of dealing with fame. "I've been addicted to various things since I was young," she said. "Most heavily over the past seven years... But, the truth is that it is very hard to be famous."

She continued: "It's wonderful to be famous because I have amazing fans. But it is very, very hard to go out into the world when you are not feeling happy and act like you are because I am a human being too and I break, and I think there is an assumption... that I cannot break because I am an alien woman and I am unstoppable."

The singer then said that she is working to get to a place where she doesn't have to use drugs to be creative. "I do put that pressure on myself; I have to be high to be creative. I need that, that's an error in my life that happened for over 10 years... Can I be brilliant without it? I know that I can be and I have to be because I want to live, and I want my fans to want to live."

Lady Gaga released her fourth album 'ARTPOP' yesterday (November 10). A string of tracks including the piano-led, Rick Rubin-produced ballad 'Dope', 'Mary Jane Holland', the R Kelly collaboration 'Do What U Want' and singles 'Applause' and Venus' have already been revealed by the singer.