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Ruby Wax has reflected on turning 70 this year, after filming her new TV show, Ruby Wax: Cast Away.
The actor and comedian, whose birthday fell on 19 April, said the thought of celebrating it made her feel “sick to my stomach”.
In a new interview with The Times, she discussed falling into her “first serious depression in 12 years” while researching her new book.
Her mental health deterioration also came after her husband Ed Bye was diagnosed with prostate cancer and she stopped taking antidepressants. Wax said she was checked into a mental institution to be treated.
In her new Channel 5 show, Wax is abandoned on a desert island off the coast of Madagascar, called Ankerea, in hopes of discovering whether total isolation would improve her mental health.
After living on the island for 10 days, Wax reflected on what nature has taught her about ageing.
“You soon learn that nature doesn’t care about you. It will birth you and give you certain resources, but nature doesn’t care if you live or die,” she told the publication.
“That is humbling. Stop worrying or giving your opinion on this or that. Who cares? In a strange way, it made me feel better.”
The Absolutely Fabulous star also opened up about what living with anxiety looks like her for while living in London.
“In some senses, I’m tough. I am from refugee stock – we know how to look after ourselves. But at home in London I sleep with the lights on because I get anxious,” she said.
“Even walking down a street can be too much because I feel hyper-aware of everything. But I had hoped that being on an island would mean all that useless s*** in my head – ‘Should I call so and so who I don’t even like?’ or “Did I offend that person’? – would go.”
Wax previously appeared on BBC Two’s Trailblazers: A Rocky Mountain Road Trip alongside Mel B and Emily Atack, which aired in November.
However, she said the experience was “not good for my mental health”, adding: “It was like going back to my childhood and totally infantilising. Too many egos and demands.”
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