Adrian Cooper describes himself as a “positive sort of bloke who doesn’t think he needs to ask for help”. So when he found himself working perpetual 13-hour days, eating badly, feeling constantly irritated and sometimes binge drinking, it was not difficult to make the connection between his demanding job and his unsatisfactory life outside it. Yet he was slow to react to what he now recognises was a situation that had serious implications for his health.

During the five years Cooper was managing director of a French telecom company he was responsible for reducing its workforce from 1,200 to 280, and pushing the company into profit. It is some satisfaction to him that he achieved the targets, and he acknowledges that the £100,000-plus salary was compensation for the stress. But only in hindsight — he negotiated his exit from the job a year ago — does he appreciate that the level of responsiblity he carried was unsuitable for him.

“Trying to accommodate the US corporates’s business philosophy and demands for profit at the same time as trying to satisfy your employees and customers in France was very stressful and consuming,” he says. “You’re seeing a maze of tasks ahead of you, you’ve got a US corporate asking why you can’t do things more quickly, and you’re trying to do what’s right for the business because that’s what’s paying you. At the same time you see the faces of people around you.

“The job is taking all your time, your social life disappears and there’s a lot of travelling, which means early mornings and late evenings. I was eating only when I got home between 9 and 11 at night and I had a poor diet and put on weight. You have insomnia because you’re constantly thinking about what you should have done or need to do — it’s whirling brain syndrome. No exercise except walking through airports. You’re getting irritable for the simplest of things. When your week’s over you feel ready for a good strong drink and maybe you do some binge drinking because you feel you want to kick back and forget all that’s around you.

“Of course my libido waned, and my powers of communication were very limited with my partner. I didn’t want to talk positively — looking at the future, all I could see was the job.

“Having a daughter 1,000km away and wanting to see her was also adding to the stress. I was totally isolated. The only people I talked to on a regular basis were work colleagues. You find yourself venting your frustration on family and friends, trying to get it out of your system.”

Now 41, he has spent the past year travelling, relaxing and getting fit, although he is still being treated for high blood pressure. He lives in London, has a new partner and feels ready for work again, he says.

“I don’t think I’ll go back into that level of responsibility. I saw the job as a challenge and I did it and I don’t need to do it again. Obviously you can do a lot with the money but if I look at what that job did to my life — I don’t know how many years it took off it — it’s something I’m prepared to live without, even if my next salary is somewhat lower.”