Danny Dyer meditates every night

He told The Observer magazine: "You've got to try and squeeze as much f****** joy out of life as you possibly can.

"Because the one thing I learned when I was going through some crazy times is that your f****** brain is your worst enemy. It questions us all the time and we can't escape it.

"[I take 10 minutes to meditate every evening] and just completely concentrate on my breath, and let all the f****** s*** go, then have a good night's sleep and then attack the day again."

The 46-year-old actor had therapy when he was in rehab and learned many of his struggles were a result of "abandonment issues" due to his father walking out when he was nine to live with his other secret family, and his grandfather dying of cancer shortly afterwards.

He said: "There's little holes. You've got stuff missing within your soul and you don't know why and you try and fill it with drugs or drink and it doesn't work.

"And so I learned from going to therapy that I had abandonment issues from men."

But the 'Football Factory' star went "off the rails" when his mentor, Harold Pinter, died in 2008.

He said: "I pushed my 'f***-it button'. It was about destroying relationships before they could f*** me over. Which is why I sort of went a bit crazy."

Danny - who has children Dani, 27, Sunnie, 16, and 10-year-old Arty with wife Jo - has noticed his physical appearance changing as he's got into his 40s, but he's determined to continue enjoying life.

He said: "I started to notice I was going bald, but I realise that's part of the ageing process. I understand I'm starting to be the shape of an avocado. But that's what a middle-aged body is. And I'm accepting it.

"I smoke and I drink, I like to enjoy life, and I don't want to become a person who calls potatoes 'carbs'. I don't want white bread to be the enemy.

"So I'm a middle-aged man and I enjoy it.

"It's weird getting older, because you become aware of how long you've got left. I reckon I've got another half my life to go and I intend to enjoy it."