Ellie Goulding opens up about panic attacks and men

The Burn singer - whose father walked out on her family when she was five years old - felt she was having a "heart attack" on a train

Staff4 December 2013

Ellie Goulding needed therapy after panic attacks convinced her she was going to die.

The Burn singer - whose father walked out on her family when she was five years old - felt she was having a "heart attack" on a train one day, and it turned out to be the first of many terrifying incidents which left her terrified to go anywhere.

She said: "From that day, I kept having them. It was the weirdest time of my life. Sick, horrible things would go through my mind but I didn't want to draw attention to myself... It got to the point when I couldn't even get into the car and go to the studio.

"I went to see an amazing woman to have CBT [cognitive behavioural therapy], and she flushed everything out. It took a lot of going back to my childhood."

Ellie was also prescribed anti-anxiety drugs and says the attacks have now stopped.

She added: "With the help of things like Diazepam in small doses to relax me at certain times, the attacks slowly stopped and now I'm through it."

The 26-year-old star - who has previously dated DJs Greg James and Skrillex - also admitted she was once an "idiot" who changed herself for the person she was in love with.

Speaking to the forthcoming January issue of Cosmopolitan magazine, she said: "You should never change for anyone. And I say that because I've done it before; I've changed for a man... I was so, so in love with him that I'd have done anything. I look back now and think, 'What an idiot!' You only realise when you're out of it how someone can have a hold over you. He treated me horrendously and I just didn't help myself."