Talking to Channel 4's Transmission, he said: "I feel as if I'm coming out of some sort of valley of despair," he confesses. "It was hell, man."

However he admits he is happier now he can write music with a clear head, but he always has a niggling fear of something going wrong for him: "Every year a mate will say: 'Things are going to have to calm down now - they can't get any worse than they did last year', and then bang, something will happen."

Meanwhile, Pete Doherty and his former bandmate from the Libertines, Carl Barat, were reconciled on a night out in London earlier this week, according to reports.

The former friends and core members of the Libertines are understood to have been seen drinking together at the Dublin Castle in Camden, London, on Tuesday evening.