The 23-year-old singer is so terrified of performing live that she worries she won't make it to old age because she spends so much time stressing out.

She explained: 'Oh my God, I'm crippled by fear. I have awful stage fright. I don't know what possesses me to do it. I think I'm going to die young from having so much stress all the time.'

One way Adele found to alleviate the stress in her life was to move back in with her mother after an ill-fated attempt to live alone in the Notting Hill area of London.

The singer admitted she couldn't function without her mum and quickly returned to her old apartment for fear she would one day be found dead and eaten by rats.

The 'Someone Like You' hitmaker said in an interview with Britain's OK! magazine: 'After my first record I moved out of my mum's and moved to Notting Hill on my own. My life fell apart. My phone got cut off, my credit card got cut off, the house was a mess. It was awful. I couldn't function without my mum so I moved back in with her.

''d rather be defeated than one day come in and the rats would be eating me. My mum and I don't live in a tiny place. It's a big apartment, she can be at one end and me at the other.'