NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Thursday, December 7, 2017, 7:40 AM
Fergie is coming clean about the lowest point of her life — a crystal meth addiction.
The Black Eye Peas star struggled with an addiction to the drug prior to her time in the group, she told iNews in an interview published Thursday.
“At my lowest point, I was (suffering from) chemically induced psychosis and dementia,” she told the British news publication. “I was hallucinating on a daily basis. It took a year after getting off that drug for the chemicals in my brain to settle so that I stopped seeing things.”
The singer was addicted to the dangerous substance while part of the group Wild Orchid, and she remained addicted even after she left the group in 2001.
“The drugs thing, it was a hell of a lot of fun… until it wasn’t,” she recalled of her years as an addict. “But you know what, I thank the day it happened to me. Because that’s my strength, my faith, my hope for something better.”
Fergie, 42, explained that during the height of her crystal meth habit, she was convinced the CIA, FBI and SWAT teams were following her. Those hallucinations led her to freak out in a church, believing they were after her.
“They tried to kick me out, because I was moving down the aisles in this crazy way, as I thought there was an infrared camera in the church trying to check for my body,” she recalled.
“I bolted past the altar into the hallway and two people were chasing me. I remember thinking if I walk outside, and the SWAT team’s out there, I was right all along. But if they’re not out there, then it’s the drugs making me see things and I’m going to end up in an institution.”
The mother of one said she found the moment in the parking lot to be “freeing.”
Crystal meth is a methamphetamine that affects the central nervous system and has no legal use, according to WebMD. Some of the main short-term side effects include hallucinations, bizarre and erratic behavior, panic and psychosis among others.
Fergie, whose real name is Stacy Ann Ferguson, has said hypnotherapy assisted in her overcoming the addiction and continues to help her relax. She’s now been clean for 18 years.
Fergie announced in September that she and husband Josh Duhamel, who she married in 2009, separated earlier this year.
“Both Josh and I are working full-time right now. It gets tough and we get tired, but we’re trying our hardest to make sure that kid feels nothing but love,” Fergie said of their 4-year-old son Axl.
“There’s a lot going on. That’s why we wanted to find our footing with our separation before we announced it publicly, to make sure we really got it together for our kid. It’s a constant juggling act,” she continued to iNews.
The singer is now on the road promoting her new album “Double Duchess,” which debuted in September.