AceShowbiz - David Archuleta may be the runner-up of season 7 of "American Idol", but apparently the experience wasn't always sunshine and rainbow. The "Crush" hitmaker, who lost to David Cook at that time, opens up in a new interview how he developed some "kind of PTSD" following the show.

Speaking to Yahoo Entertainment, David shares, "You're basically a character on a TV show, and parts of it are worked so that it fits the TV show -- but they're using your personal life."

The "A Little Too Not Over You" singer continues saying how his 17-year-old self felt, explaining, "You become this character, but it's with your own name." He adds, "Parts of who you actually are, but other parts that are portrayed in a way that you're not actually. Then everyone feels like they know you, and they know what you are, and they know how to treat you, and have certain expectations."

"This was years ago, right? But there's still certain things about us that we still had certain little tics that we're paranoid about certain things. … Eight, nine, 10, 11 years later, we're still kind of stuck in some of those patterns of thinking," David says.

He reveals the competition somehow makes him feel guilty after the series painted his father as a controlling manager. "I felt very guilty because of how it affected my family, because we loved our dad," he admitted. "I love my dad too, and to be in the place where it's constantly contentious and I was encouraged to question my dad -- that's what I feel like really hurt my relationship with my dad. And it made him feel really lonely."

It was fellow "Idol" contestant Melinda Doolittle who helped him overcome his feelings of isolation, paranoia and PTSD. She suggested him to go to a therapist who is specifically for those who have been on reality television.

"Even though they ['American Idol'] liked me, they were nice to me, and they wanted me to do well on the show, they were willing to portray me and my dad in a way that made it really difficult for all of my family," he went on saying "They didn't really think about how it was going to affect my brothers and sisters. They didn't think how it was going to affect me. They didn't think about how it was going to affect my dad's reputation. People say, 'That's the price that you pay, and you got yourself into your own mess.' But I didn't know people were going to start talking about my family."

David is currently on tour to support his newly-released Christmas album "Winter in the Air".