Stress at work has reached crisis point with 13.4 million days lost a year, according to new figures from the Health and Safety Executive.

This means the problem has doubled in eight years. Only last week, stress was blamed for the heart scare suffered by Tony Blair. So, is it all down to long hours and horrendous public transport - and what is the answer?

We talk to two workers who reached breaking point and found ways to help themselves...

Martin Jones, 37, is managing director of MJ Media, a media planning and space-buying company. He is single and lives in Kensington. He says:

I'm basically responsible for spending £10 million of other people's money annually. I advise clients such as TV, publishing and computergames companies where to advertise and then plan their campaigns, making the decisions and buying advertising space for them.

I negotiate deals for ads to appear in the right place at the right time and for the best deal available.

Everything is done to a very tight deadline. I attend meeting after meeting, which leaves me precious little time in the office to do vital paperwork. So I invariably end up working evenings and weekends catching up, trying to juggle a diary full of appointments.

At the beginning of the year, I took up smoking again purely because of the pressures. I was a victim of "exploding head syndrome" - trying to do several things at once and not having time to concentrate on any one job properly, frequently leading to that horrible feeling that my head was about to blow.

My annual medicals every year seemed fine, but I cannot believe that this "pressure cooker" feeling is not rapidly rising blood pressure. I wouldn't have liked mine tested during such an episode.

I also had sleeping problems because I couldn't switch off. I'd either go to bed too late and not be able to get to sleep for hours, or be so tired that I'd fall asleep early on the sofa. I'd then wake up at midnight with problems crowding my brain, staying awake for the rest of the night trying to solve them.

I was all too aware that, as a boss, being stressed in front of your staff is bad news, because you transfer that stress to them, creating a negative atmosphere.

It's all very well having a successful business and, of course, a certain amount of pressure is challenging and therefore beneficial - but when it starts getting on top of you then you have to find a way to take control.

Before I started my business, I had taken a course in self-hypnosis. It worked, and I was completely relaxed the whole time. But when I started my own company I was so absorbed that just when I should have been sharpening my hypnosis skills to combat stress, I managed to lose them. It's a question of "use it or lose it" - and I lost it.

So, this summer I decided to get my head sorted out once and for all by relearning self-hypnosis, and I also aimed to quit smoking at the same time. I had been recommended to see hypnotherapist Georgia Foster at The Wren Clinic in Notting Hill.

Within two sessions I had given up cigarettes, but Georgia could tell how stressed I was and agreed that re-learning self-hypnosis would help me enormously. We talked through everything that I needed to change, and how to achieve the "altered state" through which I could de-clutter my head of stressful thoughts.

She gave me a CD which she designed and recorded specifically for me, which included simple methods, including breathing and focusing techniques. These would guide me to that special place that we all have in our subconsciousness - the place you can go to when you need to switch off and be calm when everything around you is chaos.

It's difficult to explain how one gets into this altered state and many people are sceptical about hypnosis, but it has certainly worked for me - I'm sleeping well now, I'm calmer and don't let pressure get to me. I can manage my time without feeling that everything is bearing down on me. I don't feel like my head is about to launch itself into space.