Oprah Breakdown-Oprah Winfrey Admits She Suffered Symptoms Of A Nervous Breakdown During Filming For The Butler

Oprah Winfrey has revealed that she suffered symptoms of a nervous breakdown last year, whilst shooting harrowing scenes for her new movie The Butler.

Rumours surrounded the talk show queen a year ago after a diffiuclt period which saw her trying to revive her "struggling network", the Oprah Winfrey Network, as well as being busy shooting her movie comeback in the civil rights film.

The 59-year-old admits that she only realised she could be putting her health at risk when she was filming an interview with Jason Russell, the director of the controversial campaigning video Kony 2012, who also suffered a nervous breakdown last year.

"I was sitting and listening to Jason Russell describe his symptoms, saying, 'Um, this sounds pretty familiar to me,'' said Oprah in an interview with Access Hollywood.
"In the beginning, it was just sort of speeding and a kind of numbness and going from one thing to the next thing to the next thing. I will tell you when I realised that I thought, 'All right, if I don't calm down I'm gonna be in serious trouble.'"

The star even reveals that she nearly collapsed whilst working on The Butler:

"I was in the middle of doing voiceovers, you know? And I remember closing my eyes in between each page because looking at the page and the words at the same time was too much stimulation for my brain."

Oprah reveals though that whilst her inteviewer Jason's condition deteriorated to the point that he was arrested for running naked in the street, her health was never at such a risk:

"I mean, I wasn't ready to go run naked in the streets. Let's make that very clear," clarified the star. "But I had reached a point where I just couldn't take in anymore stimulation."