In 2014, she began sharing her struggles with her readers and social media followers, and has since written four bestselling books, interviewed Prince Harry about his own mental health struggles on her podcast, Bryony Gordon’s Mad World, and started Mental Health Mates, a support group which encourages people with mental health issues to walk and talk without judgement.

In the latest episode of Nobody Told Me…, Stylist’s podcast exploring the personal life lessons from extraordinary women who overcame the toughest of challenges, Gordon discusses her mental health journey, the challenges facing people suffering with mental health issues, and how we can all work to promote a more kind, tolerant society.

“We have this quite narrow definition of people with mental health illnesses, and we expect them to be that person clutching their head that you always see in newspapers and magazines accompanying the latest research on depression,” she explains in the podcast.

“Whenever I felt sad or depressed or any other emotion that wasn’t happy, I felt like a failure. I felt like I wasn’t doing life right, I felt like it was some intrinsic sign that I was a faulty human being,” she continues.

“I look back now and I realise that those weren’t failures, they weren’t flaws; they were just human neurological responses to what was going on in my life. But I was too programmed into the cult of “happy” to be able to even feel those feelings.”

Listen to the latest episode of Nobody Told Me… here:

Mental health awareness: “Nobody Told Me…It’s OK To Feel Sad”