Bryony Gordon on what is the ‘biggest feeder of mental illness’ ahead of new book launch

Having completed her second successive marathon, this time in just her underwear to promote body positivity, Bryony Gordon tells Happiful Magazine she is not resting on her laurels and feels there is plenty of ground to cover in our mental health

Speaking to the only magazine purely devoted to bettering mental health, the Mad World podcast host and author of new book Eat Drink Run, revealed she is on a journey to dispel shame as a perceived barrier to us opening up about our wellbeing.

Bryony, who won an award with Mind Media Award for Making A Difference in mental health, said: “Shame is the biggest, biggest feeder of mental illness. It keeps you silent. I always think that mental illness works a lot like abusers in that they want to operate in silence – they don’t want you to tell anyone – because then the secret is out and things might happen to counter it.”

“Once you expose shame to the light, it dies,” she continues. “The reaction is never as bad as you think it’s going to be, and it’s completely liberating. I don’t feel shame about anything now, because I think it’s the most dangerous emotion.”

Bryony has lived with obsessive compulsive disorder since she was 12, and has also been vocal about her experiences with bulimia, alcohol and drugs through her columns and books The Wrong Knickers and Mad Girl. She is a mental health advocate and her new book Eat, Drink, Run calls for us all to focus on what we can do rather than focussing on our limitations.

Read more of Happiful Magazine’s interview with Bryony, on shelves June 14 and online at happiful.com.

For more information contact Maurice Richmond, Media and Communications Officer, at maurice.richmond@happiful.com or call 01276 580047.