“We gaslight ourselves – that’s what depression does to us, that’s one of the main symptoms of mental illnesses. They make you feel like things are all your fault and that you’re being silly.”

It’s taken most of her life, but Bryony Gordon now has a pretty remarkable handle on what havoc both mental illness and poor mental health can wreak on our lives. In an episode of Nobody Told Me…, Stylist’s podcast – sponsored by Clinique – she opens up about what she has learned about sitting with her own feelings, including her sadness.

“If we have this really narrow definition of what mental health is, we’re only feeding into it,” she explains, admitting that her own issues made her feel like a “faulty human being”, whereas now she feels that they were, and are, her brain’s way of trying to protect her.

After numerous battles with conditions such as obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), bulimia, anxiety and depression, Gordon has found that a large barrier standing between herself and good mental health is the “cult of happy”, which she has learned to renegotiate.

“You don’t have to be happy all the time to be a success, and my aim in life now is to be content. I [may feel] sad or angry but I can still be content. I may feel disconnected from life [sometimes] but it’s okay, because I won’t be feeling this forever.”

“Just because I’m feeling sh*t doesn’t mean I am sh*t”: Bryony Gordon talks living with sadness, OCD and her pursuit of contentment

“Just because I’m feeling sht doesn’t mean I am sht”: Bryony Gordon talks living with sadness, OCD and her pursuit of contentment