AJ McLean has been dealing with his "past trauma, PTSD, depression, and anxiety".
AJ McLean is dealing with his past traumas through therapy
The Backstreet Boys star - whose real name is Alexander - has admitted he has struggled to separate his past wild boy band persona from the real him and he recently had a stint in Arizona to work on his mental health and delve deeper into his past traumas.
The 'Fashion Hero' host was asked by Digital Spy how he would fare as a contestant on the show, where they go against societal beauty standards, to which he replied: "Now, I think I would do better than if it was 10 years ago. Even three years ago, I would be in a different place.
"I just spent 10 weeks in Arizona for mental health, dealing with past trauma, PTSD, depression, anxiety. My sobriety is locked solid, I'm not worried about that. But I've never had an opportunity to really dig deeper, and to find my true authentic self.
“My biggest problem is, AJ is a persona. AJ is a Backstreet Boy, AJ is not who I am. Alex is who I am. I could not separate the two. So I'd come off stage, I'd stay in AJ mode with the partying and the girls and living the rockstar life."
The 45-year-old singer shared how self-help guru and author Brené Brown has helped him transform his life.
He said: "There's an amazing woman, I've not met her and she's now on my bucket list of women I want to meet. Her name is Brené Brown.
"She is an amazing speaker. And one of her TED Talks, she has a mantra called BRAVING, which I got tattooed on me when I was in Arizona, which stands for boundaries, reliability, accountability, vault, integrity, nonjudgement and gratitude. That is how I live my life today.”
AJ and his wife Rochelle - who have Elliot, 10, and Ava, six, together - have been undergoing therapy both together and apart amid their separation.
Speaking on the 'Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans' podcast last month, he told former 'Dancing with the Stars' professional Cheryl Burke: "We still live separately, but we are in couple’s therapy, we are in individual therapy. We talk every day, we are spending more time together. We just have to rebuild something that was never there from the beginning."
Before the pair started their relationship they both had their issues to deal with but these days they have found a different way to "approach" things and have ended up "much healthier" because of their time apart.
In March, the 'Everybody' hitmaker and his wife announced they were temporarily separating to "work on [themselves]".
In a statement given to TMZ, they explained: "Marriage is hard, but worth it. We have mutually decided to separate temporarily to work on ourselves, and on our marriage with the hope of building a stronger future.
"The plan is to come back together and continue to nurture our love for one another and our family. We ask for respect and privacy at this time."
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