The 54-year-old actress, who will bow out of her role as Carmel Kazemi in the coming weeks, admitted she needed to "come up for air" after finding it tough to arrange anything in her private life.
She told The Stage: "In EastEnders, you don’t know when you are going to be needed, you are on call all the time and don’t know your availability until the Friday before.
"Silly things, like booking a dentist appointment, become impossible.
"That sounds like a stupid thing to have as an issue, but after a while you don’t know where you are.
"I started to think I needed to come up for air a little bit."
"I needed to do other stuff, to get out there and feed that other part of my soul.
"You have to nurture the whole lot, otherwise you can’t do your job properly."
Bonnie also claimed she didn't receive "support" from EastEnders team while playing out the recent hard-hitting knife crime storyline which saw Carmel's son Shakil Kazemi (Shaheen Jafargholi) tragically stabbed to death by a gang.
When asked if she was supported by the EastEnders team during the plot, she replied: "No, but I had support at home."
Bonnie announced in July that she was leaving the soap after a three-and-a-half year stint.
She said at the time: "I've had a wonderful three-and-a-half years at 'EastEnders' and it's been a privilege to be part of such an iconic show.
"My storyline has been such an incredible experience and I'm honoured to be part of something so powerful and poignant.
"However, I've known since the beginning of this storyline it would always lead to Carmel having to take a break from Walford."
Bonnie has wasted no time seeking other opportunities away from Albert Square after landing the role of Dorothy Brock in musical 42nd Street.
Bonnie, who was married to actor Paul Grunert, was a child star.
She won the talent show Opportunity Knocks age six and was also a well-known character in Dr Who in the Eighties
Bonnie was also in Bugsy Malone.
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