Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} River of Time My Descent into Depression and How I Emerged with Hope by Naomi Judd Naomi Judd Reveals Battle With ‘Life-Threatening’ Depression. Singing a different tune: Naomi Judd revealed on Good Morning America Tuesday, December 6, that she’s been battling “severe depression.” For the last six years, Judd, 70, has been in and out of psychiatric wards and on heavy medication. PHOTOS: Stars Who've Battled Mental Health Issues. “I would come home and not leave the house for three weeks and not get outta my pajamas, not practice normal hygiene,” she said. “My hands shake really bad … medication, nothing I can do about it. And my face, I feel like a balloon. My face is all swollen because of the medication. I really haven’t been eating ice cream and candy, I really haven’t!” Asked by host Robin Roberts why she decided to share her story now, the country icon replied, “Because what I’ve been through is extreme. Because it was so deep and so completely debilitating and life-threatening and because I have processed and worked so hard for these last four years.” Judd also shared some untold stories from her past. In her new book, River of Time: My Descent into Depression and How I Emerged with Hope, she claims she was molested by a family member when she was 3 years old. “I think that’s one of the reasons I wanted to write the book … because I never acknowledged all the bad stuff that people did to me,” she told Roberts. PHOTOS: Famous Family Feuds. Judd previously battled hepatitis C, which caused her to end her country music career in 1991. Four years later, Naomi was told she was cured of the disease and continued performing with daughter Wynonna , 52, through 2010. Though the mother-daughter duo reunited last year for a Las Vegas residency, the “Why Not Me” songstress and her oldest child are “a little estranged from each other.” “If she sees this, and I hope she does, ’cause the smartest thing is for all of us to feel known, no matter what’s goin’ on. Be truthful,” added the Kentucky native. “I think she’ll say, ‘Good for you, Mom, for finally being willing to talk about the bad stuff.’” Younger daughter Ashley , who has also battled depression, has supported her mom, always offering a comforting hug when Naomi took the one- mile walk to her house. “Ashley and I are so stinkin’ much alike,” the Judds performer said of the actress, 48. “I mean we have the same mannerisms. We both read a whole lot. We both love new places. I mean, there’s such similarities.” PHOTOS: Stars — They're Just Like Us! Ultimately, Naomi wants her journey to give others hope, declaring on the morning show, “If I live through this, I want someone to be able to see that they can survive.” For access to all our exclusive celebrity videos and interviews – Subscribe on YouTube! Naomi Judd Reveals She Suffered from Suicidal Depression: 'No One Can Understand It Unless You've Been There' Three years ago, Naomi Judd faced some of her darkest days. The singer was in the grip of a deep depression and was suffering panic attacks despite heavy medication, multiple therapies and two stays in psychiatric wards. Suicide seemed the only way out and Judd began to plan how she might jump from a bridge near her Tennessee home. “Nobody can understand it unless you’ve been there,” the singer, one half of Grammy-winning mother-daughter duo The Judds, tells PEOPLE. “Think of your very worst day of your whole life – someone passed away, you lost your job, you found out you were being betrayed, that your child had a rare disease – you can take all of those at once and put them together and that’s what depression feels like.” The illness took hold, Judd says, soon after The Judd’s Last Encore tour ended in 2012, leaving her feeling empty. Into that void, long-suppressed memories of childhood trauma re-emerged, including sexual abuse by a great uncle. During her depression, “I literally couldn’t leave the house for weeks. I was completely immobilized and every single second was like a day,” says Judd, 70, who had to install an elevator in her home because her legs became so weak from lack of exercise. “It’s so beyond making sense but I thought, ‘Surely my family will know that I was in so much pain and I thought they would have wanted me to end that pain [through suicide].'” Stopped only by the thought of a family member finding her body, the singer slowly found effective ways to heal: new medications, new therapies, stronger relationships with friends and family, including daughters Ashley and Wynonna, alternative treatments like massage and acupuncture. “I’m still recovering myself,” says Judd, who chronicles her battle with depression in her new memoir, River of Time: My Descent into Depression and How I Emerged with Hope . “I’m still trying desperately trying to help myself. There’s never going to be a pill for it all. I read up on all the scientific literature, I go to courses. I try so hard to stay up on everything that I possibly can to get rid of this horrible curse.” Today, she says, “Those thoughts of suicide don’t come anymore. But I’m vulnerable. I know I can backslide.” For more on Judd’s battle with mental illness — and for an exclusive excerpt of her book, River of Time , pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday. And, she says, she still struggles with the serious side effects of the medication she needs. “I still have to take a whole lot of pills,” she says. As a result, “my face is swollen. I don’t have any hair. My right hand shakes real bad from lithium. I look horrible. But I can’t be anything else after what I’ve gone through.” Judd says she has to wear wigs and hairpieces when she goes out. “It’s a drag. I’m always afraid I’m going to leave my wig in the car or at home. And I’ll sew hair inside across the back of my hats, so it looks like real hair.” Naomi Judd suffering from ‘extreme’ mental illness. Naomi Judd says her lifelong struggle with mental illness has forced her to hide from the public in recent years. “What I’ve been through is extreme. My final diagnosis was severe depression,” the country star revealed on Tuesday’s “Good Morning America.” The 70-year-old told host Robin Roberts that she has been battling severe depression and anxiety since she and daughter Wynonna stopped touring as The Judds in 2011. “[Fans] see me in rhinestones, you know, with glitter in my hair, that really is who I am,” she said. “But then I would come home and not leave the house for three weeks, and not get out of my pajamas, and not practice normal hygiene. It was really bad.” While the “Why Not Me” singer’s close relationship with younger daughter Ashley has helped her over the last few years, she and Wynonna have drifted apart since filming the reality series “The Judds” in 2011. “I love her, but sometimes we just need a break from one another … We’re still a little estranged from one another, but that happens with mothers-daughters,” she said. Judd, who explained that her notably changed appearance and visible tremor are the result of medication, has written a book about the experience, “River of Time: My Descent into Depression and How I Emerged with Hope,” because she wants other people struggling with mental illness to know they are not alone. “If I live through this, I want someone to be able to see that they can survive because there are 40 million of us out there,” she said. Naomi Judd on Her Battle with Mental Illness – and Why She's Estranged from Daughter Wynonna. It’s been years since country music star Naomi Judd left the public eye. Now, the star is back and opening up about her life-long battle with mental illness. “What I’ve been through is extreme. My final diagnosis was severe depression,” Judd told ABC’s Robin Roberts in an interview aired Tuesday on Good Morning America . “Treatment resistant because they tried me on every single thing they had in their arsenal. It really felt like, if I live through this I want someone to be able to see that they can survive.” Judd, 70, was part of a country music duo comprised of herself and her now-52-year-old daughter Wynonna Judd — The Judds. The Grammy award-winning pair rose to the top of the country music charts — but not without some struggles. “They see me in rhinestones, you know, with glitter in my hair, that really is who I am,” she said. “But then I would come home and not leave the house for three weeks, and not get out of my pajamas, and not practice normal hygiene. It was really bad.” Her condition has landed her several stints in psychiatric wards and on different medications — which she said has caused her hands to shake and her face to swell up “like a balloon.” “I really haven’t been eating ice cream and candy,” she joked. “I really haven’t.” Judd wrote of her troubles in her new memoir River of Time: My Descent into Depression and How I Emerged with Hope , in which she tells about her struggles and her road to “radical acceptance.” “Every day I exercised.