Former Grange Hill and Brookside actor George Wilson has told ITV's This Morning of his bipolar disorder, which became so bad he smashed up his loft.
George, 49, was just 15 when he started as Ziggy Greaves in the hit BBC One show in the 1980s.
The pressure of being famous caused his life to spiral out of control.
He told Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby: "The first four years were great doing the show, there were no problems.
"It was only towards the end the pressure was getting to me a bit.
"Things built up and I'm not saying all of the time, but sometimes fame can be a bad thing."
He said he started crying for now reason and found himself breaking down during scenes and he'd have to hide.
"When I came out Grange Hill, I thought I was like going to be like Brad Pitt and I thought I was going to walk into Hollywood, you know Once Upon A Time in Hollywood."
He said it wasn't to be and he ended up working normal jobs and they'd be "giving me abuse behind my back."
When his nan died, he said he was "imagining so many things... there's so many frightening things all coming at you at once."
"I just lost it totally and smashed my loft up, which had all my most beautiful things that I had collected over the years and I just threw them out of the window, I was out of control."
He detailed his struggle, in a book called From Grange Hill To Bipolar and Back, and also explained that he was at the Hillsborough disaster in April 1989, although he wasn't injured.
Finally, in 2011, he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Things are going well for him now, he added, as he's getting scripts and added that he is taking life easier.
Bipolar is a brain disorder which causes unusual, and sudden, changes in mood and energy levels.
Sufferers can have extreme elation and periods of extreme lack of energy.
This Morning is on ITV Monday to Friday from 10am.
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