Intrusive Thoughts, Exhaustion & Crippling Shame: Kimberley Nixon’s Postnatal OCD Reality
5/19/20261 hr 41 min
TRIGGER WARNING: this episode contains some difficult conversations, including discussions around suicidal thoughts. We know this can be a lot to take in, so please do take care of yourself while listening and know that it's completely okay to step away and come back when you're ready 💛
May is Maternal Mental Health Month, a reminder that keeping the difficult conversations going matters more than ever.
Our guest this week you'll know from iconic films and tv shows such as Fresh Meat, Wild Child, and Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging. But after the birth of her son, Kimberley Nixon found herself in some of the darkest days of her life.
Kimberley opens up to Giovanna about experiencing dark and intrusive thoughts, being diagnosed with postpartum OCD, and why she felt it was so important to share her story.
Kimberley's brilliant new book She Seems Fine To Me is out now.
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsGiovanna Fletcher· Host0:00
Hello, and welcome to a brand new episode of Happy Mum. Um, before we go into this week's chat, I just wanna do a little bit of a trigger warning at the top. We talk about postnatal OCD, and with that, Kimberly talks a lot about, uh, suicidal thoughts. Uh, so if you feel like this isn't the episode for you to listen to right now, that's okay. There are many others for you to go back to or, uh, to discover. So if you do need to step away, that's absolutely fine. [upbeat music] I have been following Kimberly for, for a while. She is an amazing actress. She's a BAFTA-winning, a BAFTA-winning actress. Um, she's been in Fresh Meat, Wildchild, Under Salt Marsh. She, in recent years, has been talking a lot about maternal mental health, and she's become a real leading voice in this field and, and letting people know that we can talk about these difficult subjects. And actually, we, we discuss in this episode how freeing it actually is. I think when we are going through something in this way with a feeling of not being enough, a feeling like the world would be a better place without you in it, being able to, to take back the control and talk about those thoughts, those feelings, and doing so to, to help others, it, it actually helps you back in return. You know what I mean? It's kind of like you- you're no longer giving control to that beast. Kimberly is funny. I think that's really