Jeremy Vine suffered "burnout" 10 years ago.
Jeremy Vine
The 55-year-old presenter - who has two daughters with wife Rachel Schofield - struggled to cope with the pressures of working five different jobs, raising a young family and the unwanted attentions of a stalker, all of which left him in a bad place.
He said: "I had a stalker, two young children, I was in hunter-gatherer mode, the 2008 crash happened. I was doing five jobs, not really in touch with my emotions and not in a good place.
"I had burnout without a doubt 10 years ago."
The BBC Radio 2 DJ admitted he didn't feel able to take the time off, even though a psychologist recommended he needed to recover.
He told the Sunday Times newspaper: "You never have a secure position. The whole lesson of broadcasting is you are as good as yesterday's show...
"Workplace stress is a big thing. If you talk to psychologists they will tell you by far the majority of their patients have stress-related depressive illness. I remember speaking to a friend who was a psychologist who said, 'If you had a nervous breakdown in the 1950s you would be sent to live with your aunt in the country ... and in three or four months you would be better.'
"The problem now is no one has time to do that. [My friend] has patients who are seriously broken and they need to get better fast because they will get fired if they are not back at work in three weeks."
The 'Eggheads' host has learned from what happened to him, though he isn't yet ready to fully open up about it.
He said: "This guy said to me to, 'Look at the ring on your finger and turn it and say, "This too will pass."' "
Jeremy also strives to enjoy life more and appreciate that some stress can be healthy.
He added: "Understanding that sometimes the people who are most stress resistant are the ones in the most danger, because they are the ones who stay in the burning building when they do not realise that their suit is about to leak heat."