rehab

Mel B. Entering Rehab for PTSD Following Divorce

Mel B. of the Spice Girls. Photo: Steve Granitz/WireImage

Former Spice Girl and current America’s Got Talent judge Mel B. spoke to The Sun over the weekend about her decision to enter rehab. The singer, whose full name is Melanie Brown, said that working on her upcoming book Brutally Honest has been “unbelievably traumatic” as she’s been forced to contend with her recent divorce from producer Stephen Belafonte and the death of her father. She revealed that she was recently diagnosed with PTSD, and that she’s been in a course of therapy called EMDR, or eye movement desensitization and reprocessing. “I am fully aware I am at a crisis point,” the pop star told the tabloid, in a story that also featured stories from her former nanny about the singer overindulging in both alcohol and sex. The former Scary Spice then told of her plans to enter a treatment program, but said that, “[I]t has to be in the U.K. because I am very, very British and I know that will work best for me.” Brown also said she hopes she can “shine a light on the issue of pain, PTSD and the things men and women do to mask it.”

Read her full statement below:

“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 from the death of my dad to my relationship with men.

I’ve also been through more than a year of court battles which have left me financially battered and at the mercy of the legal system which is completely weighted against emotionally abused women because it’s very hard to prove how someone took away all your self-respect and self-worth.

I am being very honest in my book 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. But the problem has never been about sex or alcohol — it is underneath all that.

I have recently been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and on August 9, after trying many different therapies I started a course of therapy called EMDR (eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing) which in a nutshell works on the memory to deal with some of the very painful and traumatic situations I have been through.I don’t want to jinx it, but so far it’s really helping me. I am fully aware I am at a crisis point.

No-one knows myself better than I do. But I am dealing with it. I love my three girls more than life itself.

I have also 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.I am still struggling. But if I can shine a light on the issue of pain, PTSD 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.

I’m not perfect, and I have never pretended to be.

But I am working on being a better version of myself for my kids, for my family and for all the people who have supported me in my life.”

Mel B. Entering Rehab for PTSD Following Divorce