Journalist and author Bryony Gordon’s books, including her latest ‘Mad Woman’, are dark, funny, no holds barred accounts, of what it’s like to live with addiction and mental illness while, at the same time, putting on the mask of being a high-functioning and successful human being. Now a mental health campaigner, she sees her honesty about her struggles as an essential part of staying well, and a way to connect with others. As she learned in therapy, ‘shame dies when you expose it to the light’ and she explains that understanding how all mental illnesses lie to you has been an important step in her journey.From her experiences with OCD as a child to drinks and drugs addiction as an adult, she looks back at what she’s learnt and offers her take on what can help people live more positively again. She also offers her take on why our obsession with phones is making us sad, how being a parent has changed how she sees her own problems and the regular habits she’s introduced to help her feel better from day to day. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.