AceShowbiz - Mariah Carey was quietly relieved when police showed up at her mother's home to take her to the hospital during a family fight in 2001, because she desperately needed a break.

In a new chat with Oprah Winfrey, the singer reveals her mum, Patricia, called the police and told them her daughter was having a breakdown and going through an "emotional crisis", and although she didn't approve of her actions, they gave her the emotional pause she needed in her life.

"There was a code switching that happened and a power shift that was immediate," the "Hero" singer says. "It was immediate and she was in charge and instead of saying, 'I'm taking care of my daughter, she's tired, somebody called the cops by mistake', or whatever, it was like, 'Oh no, because you defied me, this is what's going to happen'."

"But in the backseat of the police car, it's a vivid memory I'll never forget... at that moment, that seemed like a better alternative than where I was."

Carey tells Oprah she didn't feel like she was suffering a breakdown, but she was overworked after promoting film flop "Glitter".

"If they had given me even two days, I would have gotten up, gone to the video shoot and made the video...," Mariah adds. "People push artists to the edge and then they wonder why people are gone too soon."

Back in July of the year, she opened up about her personal problems on her website. "What I'd like to do is just take a little break or at least get one night of sleep without someone popping up about a video," so she wrote. "All I really want is to just be me and that's what I should have done in the first place … I don't say this much, but guess what, I don't take care of myself."