Six-time Paralympic champion David Weir has reflected on a fight with depression in the aftermath of the 2016 Rio Games.
The London wheelchair athlete was unsuccessful in a bid to add to his haul of 10 Paralympic medals in Brazil but has since recovered form by clinching a record seventh London Marathon title in the men's wheelchair race.
Weir, 38, was critical of the approach taken by British Athletics, telling the Daily Telegraph: "British Athletics put gold medals round my neck before I'd even got on the track in London. Then after London it was always, can I deliver? Deliver, deliver, deliver.
"Maybe I couldn't deal with the pressure afterwards. I don't know if 2012 destroyed me or made me a better person.
"If it was Mo Farah they would have said: 'You're doing everything right, whatever you need, pick up the phone, don't worry about it'. That's all I ever wanted. But it was always a battle.
"I remember waking up after New Year and realising I couldn't live in my house any more. I wrote a letter to the kids saying I was going away, and that I was sorry.
"I'd picked up some clothes and said to my mum I was going training. But I didn't go to training, I just drove to Scotland. I was going to get the ferry, and see my old man. I'd also turned my phone off.
"I got stopped on the M6 by police at 11 o'clock at night. Obviously someone reported me and said I was mentally unstable. They said that they had been trying to find me for hours and could I ring some people. I turned my phone back on and obviously I had messages.
"I really wasn't myself. I couldn't talk properly. I was stuttering. My speech was slow. I was twitchy. I was in training for the London Marathon, but there were times when I would forget to eat for a few days."
Weir, who has been praised by Jamaican sprint king Usain Bolt as "simply inspiring", is currently preparing for his final track appearance at next month's Anniversary Games at the London Stadium.
He was appointed an MBE in 2009 and a CBE in 2013.