Boy George feared for his life during panic attacks

16 April 2018

Boy George feared for his life when he was suffering from panic attacks.

Boy George

The 56-year-old singer has revealed that he suffered particularly bad moments of anxiety during the 1990s, which left him thinking he was going to die.

He shared: "When you're in the public eye, you're going along and then suddenly ... you realise you're not so in control of your life as you think you are.

"I had a period in the 90s, had these really bad panic attacks, I used to go to the Royal Free Hospital and freak out. There was nothing wrong with me. I thought, 'I'm dying!'"

Eventually, the 'Karma Chameleon' hitmaker - whose real name is George O'Dowd - was advised to make a number of lifestyle changes in order to get the problem under control.

George explained that he changed his breathing technique and took up yoga as he tried to quell the problem.

Appearing on ITV's 'Loose Women', the Grammy Award-winning star said: "Eventually somebody just said to me, 'You need to learn how to breathe, change your diet, maybe try yoga ...' just calming down.

"It wasn't chest pains ... just panic. It's not logical. Sometimes there's no symptoms, you're just like, 'What's wrong with me?' You just lose it."

Although George has successfully fought the problem, he's still unable to cite specific things that trigger his panic attacks.

George explained: "I think it's really hard to diagnose. It can be food, it can be too much coffee, it can be stress."

George has transformed his lifestyle over the last decade, having quit taking drugs and drinking alcohol.

However, he still considers himself to be an addict and revealed he was only able to overcome his addiction once he acknowledged its existence.

He previously confessed: "An addict is an addict. But until you can say, 'I'm an addict,' you can't start to make peace with those demons.

"I struggled with that for years. I went to Narcotics Anonymous meetings, I went to see counsellors [but] I wouldn't say it. It felt like a defeat. When I finally did, it was like, 'What a relief! That's what I am!'"