Nadiya Hussain opens up about living with her anxiety

From Digital Spy

Nadiya Hussain has become a household name ever since winning The Great British Bake Off in 2015, back when the show was aired on the BBC.

Since winning the show Nadiya's gone on to present the BBC food-based documentaries The Chronicles of Nadiya and Nadiya's British Food Adventure.

She's also co-presented The Big Family Cooking Showdown alongside Zoë Ball, has been a regular contributor on The One Show. She was also nominated for Breakthrough Star at the Royal Television Society Awards for her work on The Chronicles of Nadiya.

She's written a book too, Bake Me A Story, which was shortlisted for Children's Book of the Year prize at the British Book Awards.

However, it hasn't all been plain sailing for the Bake Off winner. Whilst appearing on Channel 4's Sunday Brunch, Nadiya revealed her struggles with anxiety.

"It's that feeling of... The only way I can describe it is, before I did Bake Off, I never really understood what it was like to be on the other side of fear," she said.

"I always kind of stayed away from being scared. So, if something scared me, or frightened me, or I thought it was going to make me feel anxious, I'd avoid it completely.

"So now if somebody says, 'Do you want to do that?' I'm like, 'That scares the life out of me... yes, I'll do it'.

"And so, it's that feeling of being on the other side, and I think that when you have anxiety, you've got to push yourself and say you know what, I can be on the other side of fear," she finished.

Nadiya's already revealed that that she suffers from panic disorder in a video shared during Sport Relief last year.

She said: "I learnt how to smile when my kids were around, but the second they went to bed I fell apart."

We would encourage anyone who identifies with the topics raised in this article to reach out. Organisations who can offer support include Samaritans on 116 123 (www.samaritans.org) or Mind on 0300 123 3393 (www.mind.org.uk). Readers in the US are encouraged to visit mentalhealth.gov or the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

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