Sinéad O'Connor discusses mental health struggles in Dr. Phil promo: 'Where do I start?'

Weeks after posting a frantic video in which she expressed suicidal thoughts, Irish singer-songwriter Sinéad O’Connor opens up about her mental health struggles and painful past in an emotional preview of her appearance on The Dr. Phil Show.

In the episode, set to air Sept. 12, O’Connor tells host Phil McGraw, “I am fed up of being defined as, you know, the crazy person, the child abuse survivor.”

As glimpsed in the two-minute preview, McGraw asks O’Connor about coping with success after her 1990 song “Nothing Compares 2 U” became a worldwide hit, about her famously tearing up a photograph of the Pope on Saturday Night Live, about her multiple suicide attempts, and about the physical and sexual abuse she says her mother inflicted upon her.

“Where do I start?” O’Connor asks at one point.

“At the beginning,” McGraw replies.

O’Connor, 50, raised alarm last month when she posted an anguished Facebook video from a Travelodge in New Jersey. In the video, she tearfully said she had been living alone for two years, away from her family in Ireland, as punishment for being mentally ill, angry, and suicidal.

“Suddenly, all the people who are supposed to be loving you or taking care of you treat you like s—,” she said. “If it was me, I’d be gone, straight away back to my mom.”

A statement posted to O’Connor’s Facebook page days later said the singer was safe, not suicidal, and “receiving the best of care.”

In the Dr. Phil promo, McGraw tells O’Connor, “I’m really sorry it took me this long to find you.”

“I’m so happy that you did,” she replies.

O’Connor’s episode leads off the 16th season of The Dr. Phil Show. Watch the preview above.