Lewis Capaldi had such severe panic attacks he had to sleep in same bed as his mum

Chart topper Lewis Capaldi has bravely opened up about his mental health struggles, revealing he gets panic attacks so severe that he sometimes has to sleep with his mum.

The 25-year-old singer-songwriter sat down with Steven Bartlett for the latest episode of his podcast The Diary of a CEO, where he spoke about everything from having hypochondria to self-deprecation.

On the topic of hypochondria, an anxiety disorder where people worry excessively about being or becoming seriously ill, Capaldi explained that his mum Carol helps to alleviate the worry as she's a nurse.

He said: "If I phone her and I say, 'Mum, I've got a headache, I'm dizzy, I think I've got a brain tumour or something,' she'll be like, 'Shut the f**k up, you're fine. Take some paracetamol and go to bed.'"

Joking aside, the 'Forget Me' singer went on to say that the anxiety disorder had an impact on him during school as he was convinced he was 'going to die'.

A couple of years back, he even cancelled a show in Austin in order to get a private MRI scan as he was convinced there was something seriously wrong with him, only to find it was all in his head.

Since getting certain therapies, Capaldi said it's easier for him to talk his own way out of some of the worries.

But when it comes to panic attacks, there's only one person who can help - his mum.

"If I'm having a panic attack there's nobody else that can help me out of it except my mum, for sure," he said.

"My mum has had to sleep in my bed as recently as a month ago because of how bad my anxiety got at one point. But I think that was alcohol related to be honest, I had been on a bit of a bender."

Earlier on in the episode, the Scottish star opened up about where he thinks the hypochondria stemmed from.

"It never really reached a tipping point until after getting famous, I never had a panic attack until after I was famous, or after I was a musician or after I got to a height," he explained.

"The hypochondria - I guess looking back, I was such an anxious kid, but now because I understand it a lot more with therapy and I speak about it a lot more with people and try to learn more about it, I look back at it and think the behaviour was a result of anxiety."

While Capaldi discussed issues with confidence and self-esteem, viewers were on hand to share messages of praise and support.

One described him as 'the most genuine, down to earth guy', adding: "The kinda bloke you want to be your best mate."

Another said: "I also suffer with quite severe anxiety at times and it's really wonderful (liberating even) to see that more and more of us are talking about it openly and sharing learnings/experiences."

A third added: "Hearing that lewis literally has the same anxiety’s as me has made me realise that it can happen to anybody and that I’m not alone. So thank you!

"Thank you for talking about this and making people realise they’re not alone."