Singer and reality star Tamar Braxton yesterday (July 30) opened up about her attempted suicide as a Los Angeles hotel two weeks ago.

Braxton, in

an Instagram post with her seven-year-old son, Logan, said mental illness is “real”

and that it must be normalised and acknowledged without the associations of

shame and humiliation.

Thanking

those who have offered her support over the period, the Love and War singer said she has experienced pain over the past 11

years that “ate away at my spirit and my mental”.

Braxton said

she believed that, “as a black woman, as an artist, an influence, a

personality I could shape my world, and with whom I believed to be my partners,

they could help me share my world.”

She continued,

“I was betrayed, taken advantage of, overworked, and underpaid,” referencing

a partnership that she asked to be released from two months ago due to it being

“excessive and unfair”.

“I

explained in personal detail the demise I was experiencing. My cry for help

went totally ignored. However the demands persisted. It was my spirit, and my

soul that was tainted the most. There are a few things I count on most to be, a

good mother, a good daughter, a good partner, a good sister, and a good person.

Who I was, begun to mean little to nothing, because it would only be how I was

portrayed on television that would matter. It was witnessing the slow death of

the woman I became, that discouraged my will to fight. I felt like I was no

longer living, I was existing for the purpose of a corporations gain and

ratings, and that killed me.”

The 43-year-old was reportedly found unconscious in her room at the Ritz Carlton in Los Angeles and later hospitalised.

 She said, “It was only

God’s grace and his mercy on my attempt to end my pain and my life that I am

here to utilize my voice.”