Frankie Bridge has opened up about her battle with depression and time in a psychiatric hospital.
The Saturdays star, 31, said she has battled depression since childhood, and in her new memoir she goes into detail about her heartbreaking mental health battle.
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In her book, Open: Why Asking For Help Can Save Your Life, she admitted that in her early 20s and during her The Saturdays heyday, she was admitted to the Nightingale Hospital in London.
In extracts shared with the Mail Online, she writes: “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.
She explained: “As soon as I got there, doctors put me on new medication — venlafaxine, clonazepam and diphenhydramine sleeping tablets in such high doses my first few days in hospital are a blur.”
I no longer had to hide, cover up and lie about how I was.
The mum of two said that it was her now husband, former footballer Wayne Bridge, who took her to the hospital and was incredibly supportive throughout her several-week stay.
The hospital treatment consisted of a medication, group and one to one therapy, art therapy and mindfulness workshops.
She reflected on her time there as: “It might sound intimidating but, actually, it was amazing. There were so many people who had experienced the same feelings as me, if not worse, that I felt understood and not so alone.
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“I no longer had to hide, cover up and lie about how I was.”
The former S Club Juniors star has been very open about her struggles with depression and anxiety over the years.
She admitted on Loose Women in October of last year that she needed to keep taking medication in order to “stay alive”.
She told the panel: “I’ve kind of accepted I’ll always be on medication. And as far as I’m concerned it keeps me alive.
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“Also, without the therapy there’s only so much the medication can do. It’s still something I deal with on a daily basis and I will do for the rest of my life.”
But she said that with her open discussion of her mental health difficulties comes great responsibility, and she feared the consequences of being a “poster girl” for depression.
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She explained: “I do sometimes worry that it gives people an opinion on me already before they’ve met me. “Maybe she’s a bit miserable”.’
“After I said my piece I pulled away from it, I was scared of being the poster girl for depression.”
Open: Why Asking For Help Can Save Your Life by Frankie Bridge will be released online and at booksellers nationwide on February 6.
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