The 43-year-old 'Joyful Noise' actress said she spent years drinking to numb her pain after she was involved in a violent carjacking in 1995, reported Contactmusic.
"Drinking a bunch of alcohol, numbing myself. Every day I would be faded, like a painting that's just not vibrant, whose edges are dull. I wasn't living my full life," said Latifah.
The 'Chicago' star also confessed her life was "rocked to the core" when her older brother crashed a motorcycle which she gifted him, and died in 1992.
"I think I got to that place by not being happy with the other side - hating your body and criticising yourself all the time. When I was around 18, I looked in the mirror and said, 'You're either going to love yourself or hate yourself.' And I decided to love myself. That changed a lot of things," she added.