Katy Perry dealt with depression after flop album

Sydney: Singer Katy Perry fell into deep depression after her album "Witness" flopped last year.

The pop star told Vogue Australia that the public's reaction to her fifth record, which featured the tracks Swish Swish and Bon Appetit, left her heartbroken and led to some serious soul-searching, reports aceshowbiz.com.

"I have had bouts of situational depression and my heart was broken last year because, unknowingly, I put so much validity in the reaction of the public, and the public didn't react in the way I had expected to," she said.

The low prompted Perry to seek help and counselling at the Hoffman Institute in California where she felt recharged and re-energised.

"Essentially and metaphorically, we are all computers, and sometimes we adopt these viruses via our parents or via the nurture that we are given or not given growing up. These toxic tendencies can start to play out in our behaviour, in our adult patterns, in our relationships," she said.

The biggest breakthrough, she says, was realising that she didn't have to be an emotional wreck to be a successful singer and songwriter.

"The biggest lie that we have ever been sold is that we, as artists, have to stay in pain to create," the "I kissed a girl" singer said.