‘I was addicted to sleeping pills’, says Sarah Harding

Washington: Sarah Harding has revealed that she was addicted to powerful sleeping pills and binge drinking for four years and it took three weeks of exhaustive rehabilitation to help her get over the habit.

The ‘Girls Aloud’ singer asserted that she has been to “hell and back” with her alcoholism and dependence on prescription drug Zopiclone - which she started taking in 2006 after finding it difficult to sleep. “I’m just glad I survived. My drinking was out of control and I was addicted to sleeping pills. It was an awful combination,” Contactmusic quoted her as saying. The 30-year-old beauty also alluded to late singer Amy Winehouse - who died from alcohol poisoning last year aged 27 - and confessed that she went through “something similar” to the ‘Rehab’ hitmaker during her darkest days. “Poor Amy - she lived round the corner from me in Camden,” Harding stated. “I remember everyone saying, ‘We have got to go and see her before she dies.’ I thought that was so f***ing morbid, but in a way everyone kind of expected it. But when it happened it was unbelievable. It was awful. “The mad thing was, she was coming off the alcohol - and I have been through something similar,” she stated. Harding resorted to heavy drinking to cope with her fame when she first tasted success with girl band Girls Aloud, which was formed in 2002, as she thought that alcohol gave her extra confidence. “I never even enjoyed getting drunk before the band. The drinking was more to give me more confidence - especially when I was going through my little wild child stage. It was trying to maintain that f***ing image that got me in all this trouble,” she insisted. The singer’s drink problem worsened after her split with DJ boyfriend Tom Crane in September 2010. “I was lonely out at my house in the countryside on my own. I was isolated and depressed. I was drinking to deal with my emotions after the split,” she added. ANI