Ananova:

Britney Spears says the past 12 months of her life were so bad that she felt like she was suffering from post-traumatic stress.

The singer made the claim in a new documentary, which aired on Sky1.

In the exclusive fly-on-the-wall show, Spears is seen trying to rebuild her career after a series of blows to her hectic life.

They include losing custody battles for her children, spending time in a psychiatric ward and being seen to self-destruct her clean-cut image in public.

Talking of that time, she says: "That was a really, really bad time in my life. It was crazy.

"I'm kind of stuck in this place and it's like, how do you deal with it? You just cope and that's what I do."

In the programme, Britney is seen preparing for a series of comeback performances.

The pop star is surrounded by a swarm of assistants. But, despite fawning over her, she insists they do not understand what she is thinking.

"When I tell them the way I feel, it's like they hear me but they're really not listening," she says.

"They're hearing what they want to hear, they're not really listening to what I'm telling them. And that's bad."

She pauses and stares into the distance. The camera holds on her. She looks teary. "I'm sad," she says.

In the documentary, we also see Madonna meeting Britney backstage before they perform together on Madonna's tour.

The body language is awkward. Britney looks uncomfortable with the encounter and leans away.

But Madonna says she feels empathy with the younger singer.

"There's a certain fragility about her and vulnerability about how that makes me feel maternal towards her," the pop icon says.

Britney insists the worst is now behind her.

Her appearance on ITV1's X-Factor reality show attracted record ratings, despite a wobbly performance in which she appeared to mime..