Ruby's Sane World (video)Ruby's Sane World (video)
All In The Mind
Comedian Ruby Wax speaks about why our minds can send us mad and how we can rewire our thinking.
28:50•26 May 2013
Ruby Wax on Taming a Wild Mind with Humour and Neuroscience
Episode Overview
- Mental illness is common, and the inner critical voice is something everyone experiences, not just those with a diagnosis.
- Depression can feel like being drugged or turned to cement, and does not automatically make someone more creative or productive.
- Mindfulness, defined as intentional awareness of the present moment without judgement, can create a small gap before automatic reactions.
- Habits of thinking can change through practice and neuroplasticity, gradually weakening old patterns like anger and aggression.
- Open discussion, curiosity and non-judgemental support help reduce stigma, whether in institutions, theatres or workplaces.
“Everybody has a critical voice. Otherwise, you'd be run over with a car.”
What drives someone to seek a life without feeling constantly under siege from their own thoughts? This conversation with comedian and writer Ruby Wax offers a funny, sharp and very candid look at how a busy mind can spin out and how it can be trained back towards something more manageable.
Ruby talks about a lifetime of "going to bed for a few days" every five years before her depression was recognised, joking that her mother’s 87-year "change of life" was brushed off as nothing serious. She cuts through myths about depression being creative, saying it feels like "lying there like a block of cement" where a manicure or jumping off a cliff feel equally meaningless.
You’ll hear her describe the inner critical voice as universal – "everybody has a critical voice" – and link it to the brain’s ancient alarm system that now treats missed parties like life-or-death emergencies. Ruby shares how her aggressive interviewing style on television forced her to rethink herself; learning to "teach myself curiosity" and see each person’s mind like a Rubik’s cube to be understood, not attacked.
A major thread is her turn towards neuroscience and mindfulness, including a master’s in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy at Oxford. She explains mindfulness as being "intentionally aware of what's going on in the moment without any judgment", using it to create a small gap before reacting in anger, and joking that yelling at someone is like a cigarette: briefly pleasurable, but damaging in the long run.
Ruby also talks about workplace stigma, medication, therapy, and why asking questions and staying mentally flexible might slow down cognitive decline. With her trademark dark humour and blunt honesty, she mixes brain science, personal experience and comedy into what she calls "infertainment" – information that might make you laugh and think at the same time.
If you’ve ever wondered whether your own inner critic is running the show, this chat might get you thinking about your mind in a new way.
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