Earning £18m by 24 drove me to a breakdown, says Katie Melua
MOST 24-year- olds would jump at the chance of fame and an £18million fortune - but for singer Katie Melua, the pressure of success led to a psychotic breakdown.
The star, now 34, has revealed she eventually spent six weeks in a psychiatric hospital after suffering from insomnia, depression and paranoia.
Miss Melua said the experience was ‘like being in an apocalyptic film’ after her rapid success, back-to-back tours and massive album sales caused the mental health crisis in 2010.
‘Like being in an apocalyptic film’
She had signed to a record label at just 18 and topped the charts with her first album, Call Off The Search.
In 2008, she was listed as being worth £18million and ranked the 10th richest person in music in the UK under 30.
But the ‘unsustainable’ pressure of fame – not to mention the use of ‘recreational drugs’ – left her burnt out and having chronic nightmares.
She said: ‘When I wasn’t touring I’d be really down. Then after a few weeks of crazy travelling, TV shows here and just partying, suddenly I had an acute psychotic breakdown. It came out of the blue. I’d never suffered from depression. Recreational drugs, partying and drinking – that doesn’t help.
‘The success was amazing. But the timing of how much we had to put out, that was the bit that I struggled with. It was album, tour, album, tour.’
As a result of the breakdown she was admitted to the Nightingale Hospital in Paddington, London.
She said: ‘I was completely out of it – not unconscious, but having really terrible paranoia.
‘I couldn’t sleep for I don’t know how many days and was having chronic nightmares, like you’re in an apocalyptic film.’
Speaking about that time, she told The Daily Telegraph: ‘When I was coming out of it, one nurse said, “Jesus, I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy”.’
She was then on medication for two years, including antipsychotics and antidepressants.
Miss Melua, who lives in Barnes, south-west London, with her husband, former motorbike racer James Toseland, said she now enjoys ‘clean living’, limiting alcohol and avoiding recreational drugs.