Former Labour leader Ed Miliband had therapy both before and after his 2015 election defeat to David Cameron, he has revealed.
Mr Miliband, 51, quit as party chief in the aftermath of the ballot box disaster which delivered the first outright Tory majority in 23 years.
But he is back on Labour ’s frontbench as Shadow Business Secretary.
Mr Miliband, who beat his elder brother David to the party leadership in 2010, pointed to the infamous picture of him struggling to eat a bacon sandwich as an example of the intense scrutiny that comes with being leader of the Opposition.
He claimed looking back at his five-year premiership was more stressful than experiencing it at the time.
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“I’ve definitely had therapy both before and after it,” he told the Table Manners podcast.
“That’s why going back into the frontline is quite anxiety-making because the experience of last time was like I ate a sandwich in a particular way etc, etc, etc.
“There are definitely sacrifices in being a frontline politician.”
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Asked if at any point he felt relieved to have lost the election, he said: “I definitely felt, ‘At least I’m no longer a target’, but overwhelmingly, obviously, I wish I’d won.
“Oddly enough, the stress at the time – I just felt it was part of the job and it’s only looking back on it it almost feels more stressful in retrospect than it felt at the time.
“Once you’re in it you’ve got to do it. You think, ‘Well, nobody forced me to do this, I wanted to do it, I know the reason I’m doing it, the cause is what’s driving me forward to make the country fair and I think I can do a better job than Cameron’.
“That’s what drove me forward and it’s when you then think back on it you think, ‘Oh, God’.”
Dad-of-two Mr Miliband said his health had “definitely” improved since quitting as leader.
He added: “It’s quite a stressful experience.
“I wanted to do it and I felt I had something distinctive and important to say and that is a unique privilege to have done it, and I wouldn’t wish I hadn’t done it.
“But it definitely takes its toll and also there is something about being part of a team working for sort of a common goal which is quite unique, and you get a chance to talk to the country about where the country is, how things need to change – that is a big thing.
“I don’t regret doing it.
“I think the biggest sacrifice is about family, the intrusion into your family life.
“My kids were even younger then, obviously.”
Mr Miliband has been back in the spotlight since April last year when he was plucked from the backbenches for the business brief.
“I’m now back on the front line in a sense, not as leader obviously – Shadow Business and Energy Secretary – but you do have a hesitation about that because the last experience of the frontline was quite full on,” he said.
