Christopher Eccleston has said he "nearly lost everything" after being admitted to hospital with severe clinical depression.
The 57-year-old former Doctor Who actor recalled reaching his lowest point during an interview with Plymouth-based Big Issue magazine vendor Clive.
Eccleston, who is an ambassador for the publication, said: "I think the received idea about people who sell The Big Issue is that they've never had a 'successful life’.
"But I discovered that when I had a severe clinical depression and I was hospitalised . . . I nearly lost everything.
"There was one night I thought I was going to die. I was running down Euston Road with a suitcase.
"Now, if anybody has seen me they’d have gone, ‘Oh, there’s Doctor Who’.
"My point is, I don’t think people understand how quickly it can happen. Particularly in times of economic recession."
Eccleston said he "broke down" and experienced a mental health episode while filming for the first season of The A Word on BBC, which was originally broadcast in 2016.
He said: "I was playing a character called Maurice, who was comic and bluff. I was spending 10 hours a day being him, then I would go back to my hotel room and I wouldn’t sleep."
He continued: "I found out afterwards that I’d been in fight or flight for a couple of years and could no longer fight or fly, my brain chemistry was telling me I was about to die.
"I wasn’t necessarily going to take my own life.
"I don’t know whether it would be called psychosis, I was just convinced that I was about to die all night.
"But when 7am came, I would go to work and there would be Maurice’s costume. And I swear to you, Clive, I put it on and I was fine."
