The 76-year-old singer admitted she battled alcoholism for years but after finally giving up drinking, she has "never been happier in life".
She told The Times newspaper: "I was a secret drinker. I think I always wanted to be Miss Perfect, the 'best Lulu', and I was terrified of being like my father.
"For years, I made a choice not to talk about (my alcoholism) publicly. I chose to wait until I had the language to understand it before I could start spouting off.
"I've learnt a lot from other people, their memoirs, and self-help books too, so maybe I can be of some help now."
Lulu believes her drinking was "controllable" until she reached her sixties and her son Jordan Frieda, now 48, left home.
"For me, it had been controllable until I got into my 60s," she said.
"After I became menopausal, with both my parents gone, the empty nest, looking around and seeing all the young kids in the music industry, I became more and more reliant on it and so it just got worse.
"For many years, and I can't say how many, I had not been happy with the way I felt, not at all happy and (yet) unable to ask for help."
And, Lulu firmly believes it is an inherited disease, calling her parents "damaged", and admitting she has "carried so much shame" about their actions.
"It's a family illness. The gene is there," she said.
She went on: 'The thing about drink is that you become the worst part of who you really are. You can be happy and singing and having fun, but that doesn't last.
"So I know it sounds perverse, but I'm glad I'm an alcoholic and that I'm in recovery."
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