“Everyone gets overwhelmed at points, but it’s when you think you can handle it yourself and you don’t reach out for help. That’s when the end is near,” Urban says in the December issue, on newsstands November 17. “Recognize that you are about the tire, that drowning is looming.”

He adds: “I’ve definitely been that drowning guy, and in the midst of drowning, I thought, ‘I wonder if I should put my hand up?’ … I’m just really grateful to be present and doing what I can. And if it overwhelms me, I speak out and say, ‘There is too much going on.”‘

Urban won male vocalist of the year for the second year in a row at the Country Music Association Awards, presented in Nashville on Monday night.

His award was accepted by Ronnie Dunn, who read a letter from Urban in which he thanked his friends and family and his wife, Nicole Kidman. The couple were married in June.

“I’m looking forward to coming home and seeing you all soon,” Urban said in the letter.

His new CD, “Love, Pain, & the whole crazy thing,” was released Tuesday as scheduled, but it was announced last month that he would postpone all upcoming promotional appearances.

Urban won a Grammy this year for best male country vocal performance for “You’ll Think of Me.”