World Mental Health Day: Bake Off star’s message to those struggling

The Great British Bake Off star Georgie has said “there’s light at the end of the tunnel” to anyone struggling on World Mental Health Day.

“As someone who has struggled for a very long time with ADHD, PTSD, post-natal depression over the years, I know how extremely difficult it can be,” she told her Instagram followers.

“[I know] what a lonely place the world can be – even if you’re surrounded by many people, it can get very dark, very quick. But I promise you – I promise you – there is always, always light at the end of the tunnel.”

The 34-year-old mother of three from Carmarthenshire joined the most recent series of Bake Off last month, and has already spoken about her experiences with ADHD.

“No matter how low you are, how broken you are, speaking to someone will help,” she said.

Georgie recently said her life changed forever due to the loss of her stillborn child at 25 weeks.

“I never, ever thought that talking to someone would help – why would sharing what’s happened to me make me feel better. What’s it going to do?

“That was my attitude towards it. And I avoided it for a long time.

“There were years that I went by just in the stage of recluse, not accepting help, and the moment I did is when my life changed.”

The Welsh contestant is one of 12 amateur bakers competing in this year’s Bake Off, and has encouraged her fans to talk to someone if they are struggling.

“It was little steps, and it wasn’t always professional help,” she said.

“I know how hard it is to access professional help. I think what’s important is finding someone that you can trust.

“It may not be family, it may be someone from work… but someone who won’t dismiss you, because those you dismiss you will just feed that anxiety, that state of ‘I’m not good enough, I’m not worth having a conversation with’.

“Those are the types of feelings we can manifest. Certainly ones I’ve manifested.”

Georgie also said she was planning to make some longer videos tackling specific mental health issues – including ADHD, autism, post-natal depression, and PTSD.

“Why are we not talking about it more?” she said.

“The more people talking about it, the better. Because it is still so stigmatised. I know ADHD with me – if I mention ADHD someone rolls their eyes at me, and it’s so degrading, it’s so dismissive, and it hurts.

“All these little things build up. So, talking about it is so important and that’s something I’m going to continue to do.”

If you are affected by any of the issues in this article you can find details of organisations that can help via the BBC Action Line.