Yeah, I'm sure you've been asked this several hundred times, but I'm just going to ask you again. How has your family reacted to the TV drama? They loved it probably more than me because

with the book too, I spent majority of my energy went into making sure they were happy with it. So everything the book is there with their permission. I added things they wanted me to. I took out things they wanted me to with the script. I sat down and talked to them at length. My mom only realized, I think, halfway into a four hour conversation that it wasn't a documentary. And then she was like, I don't care. It's actors, but they all loved it. And I really wanted to make sure they were part of it. And so they came to a couple of the screenings and they loved it. My brother was a bit upset that the actor playing him wasn't built enough because my brother's a bodybuilder. That was the only complaint really. But yeah, it was an amazing experience for them. For me, mainly much more stressful because I felt responsibility.

Because your dad doesn't read English, so it hasn't read your

book. My dad, he's very unwell. So he's got one of the symptoms that gets for me. Some people have awareness. Some people don't. He doesn't have much awareness. So he's unaware of the whole thing. His life is unchanged by my career and my writing. So, you know, it makes no difference to him really.

Do you think thinking more broadly, because you've done an enormous amount of work, unconsciously and otherwise, in raising mental health as a necessary thing to talk about, and not to hide and not to feel ashamed or secretive over? Is there a broader point to be made here about does society as a whole view mental health issues as a failure of some sort?

I feel like I haven't done a massive amount, mainly because I ran away from it for such a long time. I mean, I vaguely knew my father and sister were unwell and I ran away to London and wrote about the media and celebrities. Also, when I'm offered opportunities now to talk about it or go on to boards of charities, I almost always say no, because it costs so much of my personal life. I can't stand spending any more energy, putting any more energy into it. I find it drains me. I find it exhausting because two of the closest people in my life have a very difficult disease. So if anything, I feel bad I'm not doing enough. In terms of awareness, I tend to do one thing a year, agree to one thing. So I'm doing something this year. I'm doing a keynote address at the Royal College of Psychiatrists Annual Convention and I'm talking about this about mental health awareness. I actually think some of the campaigns haven't had positive results. People are more aware, but it's also created confusion. I mean, people confuse anxiety. It's schizophrenia. They do have two very difficult, different illnesses and actually you could say they have opposite symptoms. And I think when you're talking about severe mental illness, it's much more difficult than depression, which has lots of advocates, almost no advocates for schizophrenia, because a lot of people who have it can die young. The symptoms are really difficult. These are people more often than not. You are across the road to avoid and they often don't turn into celebrities who are going to have massive campaigns. So yeah, it's difficult. I think it's much more complicated than it seems. And also for people with my father and my sister's condition, it can be slightly annoying that there's been increased awareness and therefore more need for resources. And the resources remain the same. So you've got people with very serious illnesses chasing the same resources as some people with mild anxiety. And I think that hasn't helped. Controversial, I realize to

say that.