TV presenter and podcast host Sonia Gray has revealed she suffered a nervous breakdown last year following burnout from overworking.
The Lotto presenter of 16 years joined Mel Homer on The Breeze’s The House of Wellness to talk about her wellness journey and podcast.
After being diagnosed with ADHD in 2017 and navigating her daughter’s own challenges, Sonia started ‘No Such Thing as Normal’, a podcast looking at various neurodiverse conditions.
When asked by Mel what fills her cup, Sonia admitted it was something she’d had to ask herself a lot recently.
“In July last year, I had a nervous breakdown.”
“I had the most terrible burnout, I’d been working 80 hour weeks, I was under a lot of pressure and my body and brain just said no.”
“I could feel it coming,” she said.
“I had these weekly deadlines for my podcast, which is about neurodiversity and I’m interviewing a lot of people who are neurodivergent," Sonia explained.
“A lot of them are really vulnerable and I felt a huge responsibility to tell their stories in a really respectful, beautiful way… but that takes a lot.”
“I just felt something go inside me.”
“I had to get my story out, get the podcast out, and then I pressed send and collapsed,” Sonia revealed.
“My kids had to pick me up off the floor.”
After about a month off, Sonia went to different psychiatrists who all told her ‘you will not get better if you don’t rest’.
“It’s been a very slow road back,” she acknowledged, “I’m still recovering, I can’t do what I used to do.”
Sonia said that resting and being around the people she loves is what helps her now.
“It’s just really simple things,” she explained, “Not trying to do all the things all the time and be all the things to all the people.”
“When you’ve lived a certain way where you’re just ‘go, go, go’ and you say yes to everything and you don’t want to let anyone down, it’s really hard to make that mental shift.”
With the third series of Sonia’s podcast entering pre-production and another series of ‘My Family Mystery’ going ahead, Sonia has given herself long lead times and is prioritising rest and mindfulness to make sure it’s all manageable.
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