The Saturdays star Frankie Bridge has revealed she was relieved when she was admitted to hospital after a mental breakdown aged 23.
She said she was glad to finally going somewhere she knew she would be taken care of, as she was in dire straits.
Frankie, now 31, said she was incapable of looking after herself at that point, and she "had no idea what was gong on".
Her month-long admission to London's Nightingale Hospital came in 2011, and Frankie said she was grateful for it.
"I felt completely out of control, she told OK!.
"I'd lost who I was."
Frankie has been open about her struggles with mental health and has written a memoir, OPEN: Why Asking For Help Can Save Your Life , about anxiety and depression.
During her breakdown, she describes herself as "exhausted, constantly crying and I couldn’t function any longer".
At the same time, she was at her height of success with The Saturdays, and she was dating her now-husband, Wayne Bridge.
The mum-of-two says she put on a brave face during performances, but she was hitting "rock bottom", suffering from panic attacks and "paralysing" negative thoughts.
She told MailOnline: For as long as I can remember I had suffered from anxiety, nervousness, the big black cloud, stress, low moods, sadness."
It was a feeling that she kept secret and Frankie admitted: "I lived with it in silence and tried to conquer it alone."
During her early 20s, Frankie required medical help on various occasions and six months before being admitted to a psychiatric unit, Frankie had seen "two therapists and tried three different anti-depressants — Prozac, venlafaxine and sertraline."
While in hospital, she spent most days asleep but Frankie said "that was fine" as it was "a relief to silence my mind so it could just switch off."
Once her sleep was under control, Frankie said that she had stopped crying and started to integrate with the other patients at the private hospital.
In OPEN , Frankie credits Wayne for calling the doctor and getting her the help she needed, and she now calls herself "a prime example of how you can have a really bad time and still live your life and achieve things".
"He made me feel safe and loved" she writes.
"I couldn’t have done it with anyone else."
Frankie continues to "spend hours of my life in therapy because I believe the two should always go hand in hand."
She married Wayne in 2014, and the couple share two sons, Parker seven, and Carter, four.
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