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The Saturdays’ Frankie Bridge opens up about mental health struggles during band’s height of fame

LONDON, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 25: Frankie Bridge attends a Cath Kidston product launch event on October 25, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Jeff Spicer/Getty Images)
Frankie Bridge has revealed she spent some time in hospital during The Saturdays' height of fame, in an attempt to overcome anxiety and other mental health issues (Photo by Jeff Spicer/Getty Images)

The Saturdays singer Frankie Bridge has opened up about her mental health struggles during the height of the band’s fame, including how she was admitted to hospital in an attempt to help her overcome debilitating anxiety.

In extracts from her new memoir Open: Why Asking For Help Can Save Your Life shared by MailOnline, the 31-year-old explained that for “as long as [she] can remember, [she] had suffered from nervousness, the big black cloud, stress, low moods and sadness.”

Read more: Frankie Bridge goes without make-up and dons an Australian hat in support of husband Wayne

“I lived with it in silence and tried to conquer it alone,” she continued. “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.”

Bridge went on to admit that things got so difficult to manage that, in the end, she “couldn’t see the point of living any more.” Eventually, she tried a number of anti-depressants, including Prozac, but remembers that none of them had any real effect.

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 10:  Una Foden, Vanessa White, Frankie Bridge, Mollie King and Rochelle Humes of The Saturdays attend a photo call at Radio City Live on December 10, 2014 in Liverpool, England.  (Photo by Shirlaine Forrest/WireImage)
Bridge said her The Saturdays bandmates Una Healy, Vanessa White, Mollie King and Rochelle Humes were supportive - but it took her a long time to be honest with them about the extent of her struggles (Photo by Shirlaine Forrest/WireImage)

Later, recalling the time she spent in Nightingale Hospital in London, the mother-of-two noted how doctors prescribed her numerous medications, like venlafaxine, clonazepam and diphenhydramine sleeping tablets, and how she had been taking such high doses of them that the first few days there were “a blur.”

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While she found comfort in then-boyfriend-now-husband Wayne and bandmates Una Healy, Mollie King, Vanessa White and Rochelle Humes, Bridge said she was consumed by guilt when she realised she wasn’t contented when The Saturdays found huge success in the early 2010s.

"It was what I had always wanted and I think that's what made it worse,” she wrote. "I think that's what turned the whole thing on its head because I thought something's not right here. I kept everything such a secret, and once I'd been to hospital I didn't feel it was a lie anymore.

For confidential emotional support at times of distress, contact The Samaritans at any time by calling 116 123 or emailing jo@samaritans.org.