Ruby Wax at Glasgow’s Aye Write Festival 2023

Glasgow’s Aye Write Festival opened 2023 with the fantastically funny Ruby Wax talking about her new book I’m Not as Well as I Thought I Was, where she documents her existential journey to try and find happiness, and deals with serious, and unexpected, mental health issues in the process.

Being a successful writer and comedian, Ruby knows success and money don’t bring happiness, and she embarks on a tour of experiences to see where they bring her, mainly with a light-hearted touch and a desire to face new challenges. She swims with whales in the Dominican Republic, spends 30 days in a silence retreat in California, joins a Christian monastery, but then ends up in a mental health clinic when depression takes over.

Ruby talks about turning life into a comedy in order to help herself cope. She always wants to keep herself busy – too busy at times, being restless, curious, a bit frantic – but says that when her calendar starts to fill up too much, and she starts going to dinner parties with people she doesn’t know, she twigs that depression might be rising again, and uses her mindfulness practice to rebalance. This time, however, mindfulness wouldn’t cut it, and she requires treatment in a facility get back to her usual self, which you could call ‘bubbly’ or witty and vivacious, and Trump once called ‘aggressive with a smile’.

She is very open about mental illness and destigmatising it, and runs a charity called the Frazzle café (frazzlecafe.org) for people to meet and talk in a supportive environment. She has an OBE for her services to mental health. She studied at the RSAMD in Glasgow and says she loves the city.

I’m Not as Well as I Thought I Was is published by Penguin Life.