Lady Gaga has revealed that she is suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after she was raped as a teenager.

The multiple Grammy Award winner revealed two years ago that she had been raped at the age of 19 by a man who was 20 years older.

The popstar visited a homeless shelter for LGBT young people in New York, where she shared her PTSD diagnosis for the first time.

She told the teenagers at the Ali Forney Centre in Harlem that meditation helps her "calm down" but that she struggles with her mental illness "every day".

In a TV interview with NBC's Today about the visit, she said: "These children are not just homeless or in need; many of them are trauma survivors. They've been rejected in some type of way. My own trauma in my life has helped me understand the trauma of others.

"I have a mental illness and I struggle with that mental illness every day. I suffer from PTSD. 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. I’ve been searching for ways to heal myself, and I’ve found that kindness is the best way."

Lady Gaga later tweeted: "Today I shared one my deepest secrets with the world. Secrets keep you sick with shame."

The singer first spoke out about her rape on the Howard Stern show in December 2014.

“I was about 19,” she said at the time. “I went to Catholic school and then all this crazy stuff happened, and I was going, ‘Oh, is this just the way adults are?’ I was very naïve.”

"It happens every day and it's really scary and it's sad. It didn't affect me as much right after as it did about four or five years later.