Michelle Collins tried to kill herself after being "tipped over the edge" by personal and professional problems.
The soap star – who had quit ‘EastEnders’ in 1998 and split from partner Fabrizio Tassalini – "felt like a failure" and took an overdose of pills as she plunged into depression.
She told the Sunday Mirror newspaper: "I felt like I’d been tipped over the edge.
"I felt like a failure and fund myself sinking lower and lower as the days went on, until in the end I couldn’t seem to pull myself out of the hole.
"I remember swallowing some pills. There was no definite plan or explicit decision behind my actions. It just happened."
The actress – who now stars in ‘Coronation Street’ – admitted she "foolishly" thought nobody would miss her and described her state of mind at the time as "unthinkable".
She added: "The question that kept going through my mind was, ‘Would anybody miss me if I wasn’t here?’ Foolishly I somehow decided no one would.
"When i think about what I did now it all sounds very melodramatic, but I guess that’s the nature of depression. How low must I have been to do something like that? It was unthinkable."
Michelle Collins opens up on suicide attempt
