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Oprah Winfrey said she suffered symptoms of nervous breakdown over network

Oprah Winfrey said she felt numb dealing with struggling network while filming scenes for "Lee Daniels' The Butler."

By DANIELLE HAYNES, UPI.com
US actress and entertainer Oprah Winfrey said she suffered symptoms of a nervous breakdown over struggling OWN network. UPI/Michael Reynolds
US actress and entertainer Oprah Winfrey said she suffered symptoms of a nervous breakdown over struggling OWN network. UPI/Michael Reynolds | License Photo

Oprah Winfrey said she believes she suffered the symptoms of a nervous breakdown dealing with her struggling OWN network while simultaneously shooting scenes for "Lee Daniels' The Butler."

In a sit-down interview with "Access Hollywood," Winfrey said she realized her emotions were on overload while conducting an interview with Jason Russell of the Kony 2012 movement. Russell suffered a nervous breakdown in which he arrested for running naked through the streets of San Diego.

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“I was sitting and listening to Jason Russell describe his symptom ... Saying, ‘Um, this sounds pretty familiar to me,' " Winfrey said.

“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 realized that I thought, ‘All right, if I don’t calm down I’m gonna be in serious trouble.’ 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," she added.

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“I mean, I wasn’t ready to go run naked in the streets. Let’s make that very clear,” Winfrey said, referring to Russell's incident. “But I had reached a point where I just couldn’t take in anymore stimulation. Ok? That’s what I meant by that.”

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