Nadiya: Anxiety and Me

Since Nadiya Hussain won Bake Off in 2015 she’s rarely been off our screens. But behind the scenes Nadiya suffers from extreme anxiety and debilitating panic attacks, which she’s had since childhood. For decades, she has kept her anxiety a secret, ashamed to speak out.

She’s never had a proper diagnosis but thinks she has an anxiety disorder, and with around 5 million people suffering from the condition in the UK, Nadiya is not alone.

In this one-off documentary for BBC One, Nadiya sets out to find the cause of her anxiety, exploring the most effective, available treatments, whilst having therapy herself, in the hope of managing her anxiety.

She speaks bravely and honestly about what it’s like to live with anxiety and panic attacks; undergoing a course of cognitive behaviour therapy, each session is a step into the unknown. At times, it’s a difficult process, revealing buried memories and key moments from her past. These sessions are raw and honest, but Nadiya hopes her openness will inspire others to seek help rather than suffer in silence.

She wants to understand how anxiety is affecting the nation’s health, meeting fellow sufferers in the hope of understanding her own issues. Nadiya talks to Laura Bartley about her experiences of treating her anxiety with medication, visits a school in Brighton to see how they are tackling anxiety in their students, and goes online to meet Barry McDonagh, who offers support and therapy to an online community of around 250,000.

Nadiya wants to find out if her anxiety was something she was born with, fearing she might pass it onto her children. At Kings College London, Nadiya hopes groundbreaking research into the role of genetics and environment on anxiety disorders can give her the answers she needs.

Raw, open and honest, this documentary will speak to the millions of people in the UK suffering with anxiety disorders, shining a light and starting a debate about on an increasingly pressing issue.