Queen Latifah regrets using alcohol for pain relief

London: Rapper-turned-actress Queen Latifah regrets drinking alcohol in the past to overcome her tough times.

The 43-year-old `Joyful Noise` actress said she spent years drinking to numb her pain after she was involved in a violent carjacking in 1995, reported Contactmusic. "Drinking a bunch of alcohol, numbing myself. Every day I would be faded, like a painting that`s just not vibrant, whose edges are dull. I wasn`t living my full life," said Latifah. The `Chicago` star also confessed her life was "rocked to the core" when her older brother crashed a motorcycle which she gifted him, and died in 1992. "I think I got to that place by not being happy with the other side - hating your body and criticising yourself all the time. When I was around 18, I looked in the mirror and said, `You`re either going to love yourself or hate yourself.` And I decided to love myself. That changed a lot of things," she added.