Frankie Bridge opens up in her tell-all book 'Open: Why Asking for Help Can Save Your Life' that she was admitted to a psychiatric hospital due to severe depression at the height of her fame.
- Jan 24, 2020
AceShowbiz - Former The Saturdays singer Frankie Bridge was hospitalised after having a breakdown at the height of her fame.
The 31-year-old singer has battled depression and anxiety since childhood and has revealed how it caused her to reach crisis point in her new memoir, "Open: Why Asking for Help Can Save Your Life".
In an extract published in Britain's Daily Mail newspaper, the star reveals how in 2011 she returned to the U.K. from Iceland, where she had been filming a music video, and suffered a breakdown that led to her being admitted to London's Nightingale Hospital.
"Within days of returning to London that autumn, I was admitted to a psychiatric hospital suffering from a severe depressive illness that, in truth, I’d had off and on since childhood," she recalls.
Revealing how bad her mental health problems were the mother-of-two adds, "My list of symptoms made sober reading. I had uncontrollable panic attacks and paralysing negative thoughts about anything and everything. I had trouble sleeping, lacked energy and had lost my appetite and my libido. I couldn’t do anything without help and was unable to function in everyday life. Fundamentally, I couldn’t see the point of living any more."
Frankie did not tell her parents for fear of them blaming themselves and praises her soccer star husband, Wayne Bridge for helping her through her hospital stay.
"He was my constant, the person who knew me inside out and had seen me at my worst and most vulnerable. He made me feel safe and loved. I couldn’t have done it with anyone else," she gushes.
Although the star admits she still has "good and bad days" and is still on medication, she credits the hospital stay with helping her learn about her condition, and putting her problems in perspective as she met others with similar health issues.
"Open: Why Asking for Help Can Save Your Life", which is written with her psychiatrist Dr. Mike McPhillips, is out on February 6, 2020.
