Danielle Bradbery Has 'Nothing to Hide' on New Album as She Opens Up About How She Left a Toxic Relationship (Exclusive)

"I was hanging on for dear life," Bradbery, whose self-titled album is out now, tells PEOPLE

• Danielle Bradbery released her first album in six years on Friday, Sept. 6

• She opens up about the inspiration behind the album, including a toxic relationship

• Bradbery shares she's in her "self-healing" era

In her first album release in six years, Danielle Bradbery is opening up about an awakening she experienced after a toxic relationship.

The singer-songwriter, who won The Voice in 2013, released her self-titled independent album on Friday, Sept. 6. On this project, Bradbery documented "the ebbs and flows" of what she thought was a picture-perfect relationship — and turned out to be the "total opposite."

On "You Could," which she considers her most vulnerable song on the album, Bradbery sings about the conversations she had with God — hoping something would change.

"All of these moments, I have actually been there. I've sat down in my bathroom and just cried my eyes out to where I couldn't anymore," Bradbery, 28, tells PEOPLE exclusively. "And I'm just saying, 'Please fix him for me, because I know I can't, but you can.' It's a deep one. I really wanted to go there because I have nothing to hide. People go through stuff like this."

"I went through it and I'm like, 'Maybe this can help somebody wake up,'" she says. "So if it's a song that can help someone realize a little bit sooner, then that's amazing."

Related: Danielle Bradbery Announces First Album in 6 Years and Talks Healing After Heartbreak: 'Night and Day' (Exclusive)

Reflecting on her relationship, the "Wedding or a Funeral" singer says that she initially thought it was "magical" and "too good to be true."

"He [was] confident, very handsome... he was the type of guy that knew how to do everything and just was that guy. So I was like, 'Oh, my gosh, I am so in love, this is the guy I'm going to marry.' We had those talks and then all of a sudden one day we woke up... and it was just a mess," she says.

When she was in the relationship, she found herself acting out of character and felt like her mental health was put through "the wringer." Her friends and family would tell her to leave — but she was "blinded" by his ways.

"I was hanging on for dear life. I'm like, this guy, he just needs help. He needs loving, he needs all of this stuff. But I never realized how much it was hurting me at the end of the day, even though I was hurting. I'm like, 'This is actually killing me,'" she recalls.

In the end, it took several screaming matches and DMs from strangers who would capture him out in public with other women to walk of the relationship.

"It was a mess. And part of it was my fault for just continuing to get back together with him. It was manipulative and I was completely ignoring my life for somebody else when he just was doing whatever he wanted and called it love," she says.

She doesn't want to forget about it either. Bradbery — who's now in a healthy relationship — acknowledges that her previous one taught her boundaries and "so much on what I don't want, what I do deserve in a relationship."

Related: Danielle Bradbery on Suffering from Chronic Migraines: 'It's the Worst, Confusing Feeling'

When it came time to start working on the album, she knew she wanted to "do it right."

"I want to do it with intention. I want to do it with a story to tell," she says. "And I do have a story to tell. I'm like, 'OK, I'm not the only one that has had these things happen with toxic relationships and just going through my 20s and all of the above. I know I'm not the only one."

Now, the "Broken Boy" singer is in her "self-healing" era and enjoys Hannah Montana jam sessions in the car. She's also been reading The Attachment Theory.

"I will be straight up honest, I have not conquered 100% healing yet, but we are in the process of the healing era. I'm just learning so much about myself and what I want in my career. I will still say that 10, 11 years later, I'm just constantly learning so much about what I want to say and who I want to be as an artist, a person," she says.

She continues, "And then my new relationship, there's been so many learning curves in that as well. Talk about the mirror kind of being on yourself a little bit. I've had to learn so much about that. I'm writing a lot of newer music, and it's just such a unique phase that I'm in, and I'm really trying to just tap into it instead of question it."

Danielle is out now.

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