Singer Mel B will enter a UK-based therapy centre next month to battle alcohol addiction.
“The past six months have been incredibly difficult for me. I’ve been working with a writer on my book Brutally Honest and it has been unbelievably traumatic reliving an emotionally abusive relationship and confronting so many massive issues in my life,” Mel was quote as saying in The Sun.
A source said the former Spice Girl is facing a tough time in the wake of her bitter divorce from US movie producer Stephen Belafonte.
“I am being very honest about drinking to numb my pain but that is just a way a lot of people mask what is really going on. Sometimes it is too hard to cope with all the emotions I feel,” she said.
“I am fully aware I have been at a crisis point. No one knows myself better than I do — but I am dealing with it,” the singer added. “I have made the decision to go into a proper therapy programme in the next few weeks, but it has to be in the UK because I am very, very British and I know that will work best for me.”
She is still struggling, but said: “If I can shine a light on the issue of pain, post-traumatic stress disorder and the things men and women do to mask it, I will do. I am speaking about this because this is a huge issue for so many people.”
Leeds-born Mel, who says she has been “financially battered” following her split from Belafonte, is determined to get well for the sake of her children Phoenix, 19, Angel, 11, and Madison, six.
She has also begun a pioneering psychotherapy course called EMDR (eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing).
Last year, Mel said in divorce court documents that Belafonte was physically and emotionally abusive.