Kesha opens up about rehab

Kesha's last record "wore her spirit down".

The Timber singer spent two months at the Timberline Knolls treatment facility to get help for an eating disorder earlier this year and subsequently cancelled her tour. The star has avoided talking about her struggle until now, when she opened up to the August issue of Teen Vogue.

"Making my last record, Warrior, was a pretty miserable process, and it wore my spirit down," Kesha, 27, admitted. "I was fighting like hell to keep my whole irreverent essence and everything raw and visceral that I stand for in it, but in the end I was promoting something that wasn't the animal I wanted it to be. I decided to face my problem head-on."

Kesha realised that the songs she was writing didn't resonate with her own life.

"My whole message is to love who you are and accept all your beautiful imperfections. When I felt I was slipping into unloving territory with myself, I knew I had to listen to my own advice and correct it," she explained.

"The decision to take control of it is the scariest thing I've ever done, and this is coming from someone who dives with sharks and jumps out of airplanes for fun."

Kesha wrote 14 news songs during her rehabilitation and is planning to release an album more in tune with her new outlook.

"I remember thinking, I don't want to be pretty," Kesha said, recalling her state of mind before rehab. "Don't call me pretty. It was almost offensive."

For Kesha, the "defining moment" happened about six months ago after a breakup when she decided she was ready to "try" to be pretty.

Kesha is dating Brad Ashenfelter and feels lucky to have met him. "He's really, a really sweet human being," she added to Ryan Seacrest.