I’m Not as Well as I Thought I Was: The Sunday Times Bestseller

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But the book opens in an unnamed mental institution with “all the charm of the hotel room/prison I was isolated in at Heathrow airport after entering the UK from South Africa during Covid times. Before I go, she wants to stress that the book was written “ Not because I had depression and needed to work my way out of it” but out of a post-pandemic concern that young people (and older) were missing a sense of purpose. Well, nobody does pay attention,” she replies, “I can’t get a job on television,” but then, in the same breath, she corrects herself: “I just did one. She was raised in Evanston, Illinois, where her father, “driven by that immigrant spirit”, became a sausage manufacturer. VIRGIN and the VIRGIN signature logo are registered trademarks of Virgin Enterprises Limited and are used under licence.

Her mother was beautiful, clever and “obsessively” clean: “Even in a five-star hotel, she’d be on her knees, washing out the garbage can. She has a master’s degree in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy from Oxford, has written books about it, and has an OBE for her services to mental health. She is married to Ed Bye, a television and film producer who, during the course of the book, is diagnosed with prostate cancer – and gets the all-clear that it has not spread. Depression is the black hole of diseases, where you sit helpless as your mind hammers you with accusations,” she notes. Iconic comedian Ruby Wax is making her way back to the stage and is set to tour the UK with her brand-new show I'm Not As Well As I Thought I Was later this year.Meditation has also helped with the anger she thinks she inherited from him: “I’ve switched that button off. Renowned for her comedy, her fearless approach to tackling mental well-being, and her ability to make audiences laugh and cry in equal measure. I'm Not as Well as I Thought I Was is Ruby's most honest and raw book to date - an insight into the depths of her psyche, and a stark exploration of what trauma can do to someone. Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. Some experiences changed my life for the better, and some helped me end up in a mental hospital, which was not expected.

I did 15 minutes today, before you came, figuring I’ll be in a taxi later… going to get my teeth fixed…” But to sit still and find the “wise” adult who can calm her inner kid is challenging: “You really watch yourself: how agonising it is just to be in your own skin.The star wrote on social media: "I’m taking my new book, I’m Not As Well As I Thought I Was, on tour as a stage show later this year. And yet she now protests (again that fear of being misrepresented) that she likes taking tea with friends. Reflecting on years of personal and professional experience, she opens up to readers about her struggles with mental health and different treatments over the years, hoping to provide reassurance and guidance to anyone confronting their own anticipated, or unanticipated, struggles with mental health. She conducted her interview with Goldie Hawn in bed but when she interviewed Donald Trump in 2000, he had no intention of becoming, even briefly, her new bestie. And finally – she genuinely almost forgot to mention it (it really is too early in the morning) – she is doing a show based on her book.

And when she describes making a documentary, Trailblazers, with Mel B, inspired by the Victorian adventurer Isabella Bird, she boldly climbs back on a horse even though, in 2019, she had a serious riding accident.Maybe it was because I’d got off medication to do the psilocybin [a “potential cure for depression” – another of her ideas for the book]. She is wearing black, tight-fitting trousers and a bright pink jumper and asks if I mind her eating toast, commenting that she can tell the bread is vegan, “because it is more expensive and tastes like paper”, before adding that it belongs to someone else in the house and she is merely trying to “be good”. At Spirit Rock, a rocky experience at first, she goes through with the month of silence and succeeds in steadying her mind.