Liam Payne opened up on his battle to face celebrity, revealing that there were times when he "almost killed him".
The 24-year-old said he feared for his sanity after becoming famous for the second time as a soloist after One Direction announced his stop.
"There were difficult moments," he told KISS FM. "When the group started our break, I fought with the idea of becoming famous, it scared me, because the last time it almost killed me, frankly.
"So I had to find a way to make it work for me, instead of working for it."
Payne enjoyed fame, at the age of 14, as one-fifth of the One Direction youth group with Zayn Malik, Harry Styles, Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson.
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He debuted his first solo single, Strip That Down, last May, before releasing For You, from Fifty Shades Freed's soundtrack, and Familiar earlier this year.
Payne says he turns to people to help him deal with the stress and anguish of living in the public eye, and encourages others to talk if they need it.
He said, "I am brutally honest about it." I speak with many people who are in the same position as me because I grew up in the public eye. He was 14 years old, he is so young to start in this process.
"I love my life, it was fantastic, but there was a lot of difficulty getting to that point, having good people around you, not being psychologists, just friendly people, someone to who to speak.
Sharing his technique to live in the eyes of the public, he said: "Laugh and remember that it will become a story one day and it will look funny."
