Had accepted I was dying: Avril Lavigne

Avril Lavigne has revealed that at the height of her battle with Lyme disease, the singer was sure that death was coming.

The 34-year-old, in a recent interview, stated she was bed ridden for two years from the tick-born illness. "I had accepted that I was dying," Lavigne told Billboard magazine.

"And I felt in that moment like I was underwater and drowning, and I was trying to come up to gasp for air. And literally under my breath, I was like, 'God, help me keep my head above the water.'"

It was that moment that inspired the 'Complicated' singer to pen the lyrics of her recently released single - 'Head Above Water' - her first in about five years. The song details her journey through her struggle with the debilitating illness.

The Grammy nominee also opened up about going to various doctors, back in 2014, as she was feeling utterly exhausted and no one could figure out why.

"I'm achy, I'm fatigued, I cannot get the f- out of bed - what the f- is wrong with me?" 'My Happy Ending' singer said she asked doctors.

Lavigne said she was then suggested by a friend that she might have Lyme disease and was advised to get in touch with TV personality Yolanda Hadid - who also had Lyme - for advice.

Post her diagnosis, Lavigne said she was then put on multiple antibiotics and antimalarials.

"It's a bug- a spirochete - so you take these antibiotics, and they start killing it," she said. "But it's a smart bug: It morphs into a cystic form, so you have to take other antibiotics at the same time. It went undiagnosed for so long that I was kind of f***ed."

However, according to the singer, the "silver lining of it (her forced hiatus from the music industry) is that I've really had the time to be able to just be present, instead of being, like, a machine: studio, tour, studio, tour. This is the first break I've ever taken since I was 15.