‘I now know when I need to SLOW DOWN'

Ruby Wax opens up on how she’s learnt to deal with her depression and why she’s helping others

- ROSALIND ERSKINE

Over the past few years, comedian Ruby Wax has become increasingly well known as a mental health campaigner and a celebrity face of depression awareness after she was hospitalised with what she has called ‘the tsunami of all depression’ in 2007.

This spawned a show – Live from the Priory – which Ruby wrote with her friend Judith Owen, which they first performed in private at NHS mental health institutions before taking it on the road.

Since then, Ruby has gained a master’s degree in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, written books on the subject and spoken candidly in interviews and blog posts.

She cites the pressures of everyday life as why many of us feel frazzled, which is the name of one of her books and a nod to the charity she founded in 2017, Frazzled Cafe.

‘We live in a time where a life crammed to the hilt is considered a success story, but so many of us are struggling with the pressure and afraid to admit it,’ Ruby, 67, reveals.