The X Factor ’s Janet Devlin says she ‘hit rock bottom’ as she battled depression, alcoholism and anorexia.
The 27-year-old singer, who hails from Northern Ireland, first shot to fame in 2011, after she appeared on the hit ITV competition, reaching the live quarter-finals after being tipped to win by head judge Simon Cowell.
Janet bravely spoke about her lifelong struggle with her mental health in an interview with GB News, and said she finally got help after almost two decades.
She said she began self-harming at the age of 11, and was diagnosed with anorexia a year later, as well as suffering from depression.
Over the last eight years, she’s struggled with alcoholism, and was addicted to sleeping pills, but it was when she hit rock bottom that she decided to get help.
“The first time I reached out for help, I was 19 but I wasn't ready for it, because as an alcoholic you have to be willing to get better,” she explained.
“You can actually start doing that and I wasn't but when I was 20 I finally hit that rock bottom and I went in [for treatment] and that was when I finally started to get better,” Janet told host Mark Dolan.
She added: “I was addicted to benzodiazepines, which are used for sleep. I was addicted to these sleeping pills for about seven years, and I was casually overdosing on them.”
The singer also said she was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and bipolar II disorder last year.
Janet spoke fondly about her experience on The X Factor, and confessed that while she was in a “really bad place” during the show, it gave her a huge confidence boost.
“To put it in perspective, I was flying to the judges house in Miami and I was doing my psychology homework on the plane. It was all very surreal because I was 16 so I didn't really have much of a concept of what was going on,” she said.
“But I was in a really bad place in the sense that I had a lot of depression and things like that going on… I didn't have a lot of self belief but that's what the show gave me,” Janet shared.
She released a BBC documentary earlier this year, titled Young, Female and Addicted, which followed her as she confronted her alcoholism, and spoke with other sufferers.
“The documentary put everything out there, so I did feel a bit nervous, how people would react, but I really wanted to shine a light on how many young women struggle with alcohol,” she said.
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