James Arthur revisits the ‘trauma’ of being put into foster care and the impact on his mental health

He has previously talked about feeling suicidal after being dropped by his record label, Syco in 2014.

And now James Arthur, 34, has decided to revisit the ‘trauma’ of being placed in foster care at 14, in a bid to address ‘decades’ of battling his mental health.

previous X Factor The winner filmed a new documentary, James Arthur: Out Of Our Minds, which sees him open up to his parents about how their decision to give him up impacted his entire life.

After leaving the foster home, your depression and anxiety were so strong that he felt unable to leave his bedroom, while the star ended up feeling suicidal after his rise to fame.

Also appearing on the BBC Three show, which airs on November 13, is his ex-girlfriend Jessica Grist, with whom he was in a relationship during his early years in the spotlight.

Jmes, who has moved “seven or eight times”, has now returned to his hometown of Redcar, North Yorkshire, after feeling “increasingly isolated” living in the south west of the country.

He said Sun how he hopes to feel closer to “who he is” when he’s surrounded by people who knew the “weird little kid with ADHD” that he was.

James admitted he has struggled with his mental health “for decades” and has been overwhelmed by depression and anxiety at times.

Despite trying antidepressants, therapy and exercise to help, the singer explained, “I decided that in order to address my mental health issues, I had to start by going back to my hometown to review my past and my parents’ separation.” .

The former X Factor winner confessed that he previously ‘felt a lot of resentment’ towards his parents and did everything to keep them away.

But now, he sees his return to Redcar as an opportunity to get to know them again, to have the awkward conversations that are necessary to deal with what happened.

However, James confessed: We haven’t quite got there. I need to talk to my dad. With mom, I don’t know if I ever got closure from her, hearing her say “sorry” without hearing a “but.”

The singer’s mother, Shirley, split from his father, delivery boy Neil, when James was just two years old, and the two remarried to new partners a year later.

When James was nine years old, his stepfather, Ronnie Rafferty, a computer engineer, moved the family to Bahrain, where they lived happily for four years.

At age 13, they suddenly returned to the UK and Ronnie “disappeared”, leaving James’ mother Shirley alone to raise four children.

A year later, at a meeting of emergency social workers, his parents admitted they couldn’t cope and sent James to live with a foster family.

James explained how his mother was struggling with mental health issues and needed his father to ‘step up’.

He told the publication at the time: ‘I felt pretty hopeless. I watched my parents decide to say, “He can’t live with us.” I was a kid and really just needed someone to put an arm around me. I’ll never forget that day.

James recalled the ‘scary’ drive to his foster carer’s house and admitted to crying at night, feeling confused because at worst he had simply been ‘a little disruptive’ at school.

He revealed how he kept the fact that he was in foster care a secret from his friends for two years, because he felt “ashamed”, holding back his feelings as his mental health “soared”.

James said of his parents’ decision to give it away: “I resented them very much and have carried that situation, and how it all played out, for the rest of my life.”

At 19, jobless and penniless, James left foster care and moved into a small flat with a drug dealer in North Yorkshire.

Overwhelmed with anxiety, teenage James became a recluse and spent his time sleeping, before his GP finally prescribed antidepressants.

In 2012, at the age of 24, he called his mother Shirley to ask for a five-dollar bill so he could pay for electricity. She lent him the small amount, on the condition that she go to The X Factor auditions in Middlesbrough.

James’ world changed overnight when he won the iconic show after making his way through the ‘super intense’ training camp, judges’ houses and live finals.

The talented star had stopped taking her antidepressants before appearing on the ITV competition, but admitted she still “hadn’t really addressed the deep trauma”.

James candidly told the publication that his childhood trauma was “always going to come back and haunt him.”

The singer recalled walking offstage with palpitations and feeling utter terror, admitting, “I thought I was dying.”

An ambulance was called and he went back on antidepressants on the advice of doctors.

After topping the charts and releasing an album, James was embroiled in controversy over a homophobic slur on Twitter and a fight with Simon Cowell over a mixtape that glorified violence, leading Syco to call it quits in 2014.

The star revealed that he suffered from daily anxiety attacks and admitted that he was doing drugs, drinking and partying, and looking back, he called himself a ‘fool’.

Speaking on camera for her new documentary, his ex-girlfriend Jessica recalled a night she lay outside her bedroom begging the suicidal singer to open the door.

He has previously talked about feeling suicidal after being dropped by his record label.

“If I was ever near a balcony, or in my car, I would have an image of me jumping or running off the road. But then she thought, “Don’t do it, you have sisters, you’re the man of the family.” But there were many times that I thought about it,’ she said. Mirror in 2016.’

In 2016, James resurrected his career: he overcame his addictions, re-signed with Syco, and his single Say You Won’t Let Go topped the charts.

For confidential assistance, call Samaritans on 116123 or visit a local Samaritans branch, visit samaritans.org

James Arthur: Out Of Our Minds airs on BBC Three at 9pm on November 13.