Willow Smith shares history with self-harm: 'I lost my sanity'

May 15 (UPI) -- Willow Smith is going public with her history of self-harm.

The 17-year-old singer shocked mom Jada Pinkett Smith in an interview Monday by recalling how she started cutting herself following the release of her single "Whip My Hair."

"I would have to say I honestly feel like I lost my sanity at one point," she said on Jada's Facebook show, Red Table Talk. "It was after that whole 'Whip My Hair' thing and I had just stopped doing singing lessons and I was kind of just in this grey area of 'Who am I? Do I have a purpose?'"

Willow was just nine years old when "Whip My Hair" debuted in October 2010. The song became a hit, reaching No. 11 in its second week on the Billboard 200.

"After the tour and the promotion and all of that, they wanted me to finish my album. And I was like, No. I'm not gonna do that," Willow recounted.

"After all of that kind of settled down, it was just kind of a lull. I was listening to a lot of dark music and it was just so crazy and I was just plunged into this black hole and I was, like, cutting myself and doing crazy things," she said.

Willow explained she harmed herself because her physical circumstances weren't reflecting her emotional pain.

"There's still a little something there," she said of her scars. "Totally lost my sanity for a moment there. I never talk about it because it was such a short, weird point in my life but you have to pull yourself out of it."

Jada is parent to Willow and 19-year-old son Jaden Smith with her husband, actor Will Smith. She said on last week's episode of Red Table Talk that she regrets dating Will while he was still legally married to his first wife.