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FROM MAINSTREAM MEDIA TO MENTAL HEATH CHAMPION: Fearne cotton has a lot to say

For mental health awareness week, there are not many celebrities more fitting to feature in our Pop Culture section than Fearne Cotton.

The presenter began her career on CBBC when she was just a teenager and spent most of it working for both the BBC and ITV. Cotton has had her fair share of mental health struggles over the course of her career, and since leaving the BBC in 2015 and ITV in 2018, she has become a passionate advocate for those that suffer with mental health difficulties. So much so that her efforts have been recognised and celebrated with the The Hope & Grace Mental Health Advocate Award.

She produces a popular mental well-being podcast called Happy Place, and has published three self-help books called Calm, Quiet and Happy. Fans say they really resonate with the way she draws upon personal experiences to explore anxiety and other mental health issues.

In a recent interview for The Guardian, she recalls the fear she is experienced the night before appearing on television early last year. “Intellectually, I know I’m going to be OK,” she explained, “But my body goes into panic. It’s a whole PTSD thing, feeling unsafe in certain spaces. I worry something is going to go wrong or I’ll be judged, and I go into catastrophe mode.”

She, rather refreshingly, puts a positive spin on mental health. “I have a really big imagination, which is amazing – it allows me to write and be creative,” she said. “But it also sends me to bad places, from where I can’t get back”. She talks about us having the ability, with practice, to tap into both “good” and “bad” places, and “neither one of those places define us as people”. Cotton is a firm believer in approaching our mental health with acceptance and kindness and caring for ourselves regardless of our emotional state.

She describes the liberation she feels now she no longer cares what people say about her. This is a far cry from what she was like before. By her own admission, Cotton used to care a huge amount about what the press and others said about her, and this severely affected her mental health and how she viewed herself. Her transformation came after years of constant media scrutiny and misrepresentation early in her career.

For many people, anxiety is worse at night and contributes heavily to insomnia. This in turn as further consequences for our ability to rationalise thoughts and leads to further anxiety and the cycle continues. This is something Cotton explores publically.

In a recent Instagram post, she said, “Think I got two seconds of sleep last night”. “Anxiety crept up on me as my head hit the pillow and I just couldn’t get into a deep sleep”.

“Recently I have been sleeping so well, so last night was disappointing – but I’m not going to let one bad night set me back”.

“If anything, it’s a sign I have more important work to do; more self inventory, more self compassion – it’s a life’s work”.

Given that 1 in 3 of us suffers with insomnia at any given time, Cotton knows there is an audience for words of encouragement and positivity. She ended her Instagram post with:

“If you experience anxiety too, don’t compare yourselves to others”.

“It’s easy to do, I know! It’s easy to imagine everyone else copes just fine, but it’s not helpful to use comparison in these moments”.

“Be kind to yourself always”.

There was a hugely grateful response to her post. Comments included “one bad night need not make a bad day and going gentle on yourself is the best way indeed”.

Psychotherapist Ruairi Stewart says, “When you compare yourself to others you are only seeing things from your lens of experience, your perspective”. “You don’t have the full picture of the other person’s journey or the reality of their situation”. “This is one reason social media can be such a trigger. People choose to share with others what they want to be seen, so it’s important not to judge yourself harshly when looking sideways at others, because you don’t have all the information”.

He goes on to say, “You can’t compare your chapter five to someone else’s chapter 40. Comparison in this context is disempowering. People curate their lives on social media, they share what they want you to see – don’t let this define how you see yourself or measure your self-worth against it.”

Another comment to Cotton’s above mentioned Instagram post sums things up nicely, “Compassion over comparison, kindness over criticism and the generosity to be able to start afresh every morning, hour, minute if need be”. To re-quote Fearne Cotton… “Be kind to yourself always.”