Elle King's "destructive marriage" led to her battling depression, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance abuse.
Elle King
The 29-year-old singer was at the "lowest point in her life" while wed to Andrew Ferguson - who she married in February 2016 after a whirlwind romance before separating in May 2017 - and she used drugs and alcohol to "numb the emotions" she was feeling - however eventually realised she needed to "cut all the darkness" from her life.
In an interview with People, Elle said: "I was in a destructive marriage; I was at the lowest point in my life. ... I was not well. I couldn't look people in the eyes. I literally couldn't leave my house for weeks at a time.
"I was partying so hard to numb emotions that I couldn't handle at the time. I realised it was just prolonging the inevitable of dealing with them.
"And what you have to do, unfortunately, is just feel them, and that sucks, I thought that by doing drugs it would buy me time to feeling better.
"And when that wasn't working, I just realised I was in this other cycle, and that I was creating it myself. And I realised I needed to cut all the darkness out of my life."
In September 2017 the 'Ex's and Oh's' hitmaker decided she needed to dial back her partying and sought out a PTSD specialist to help her overcome her mental health issues - and the musician thinks that "saved her life".
She said: "There's two ways out. You can take the bad way out or you can get help. I got help because I knew that I have felt good in my life and I knew I could get there again.
"If I didn't get help, I probably wouldn't be ... I don't know. I don't wanna think like that.
"I think that reaching out saved my life. I don't wanna think of any other outcome that could have happened.
"I feel like the more I talk about it, maybe it could reach somebody ... reach somebody that feels alone."
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