Like Nadiya, I know too well how crippling anxiety can be

Like many others, I was swept along by the 2015 winner of the BBC’s Great British Bake Off, Nadiya Hussain. It wasn’t just her astounding baking skills. Her personality — open, spontaneous, joyous — made her a star. TV loved her, and she seemed to love it. The reality, however, was rather different. She had to make a tremendous effort every time to put on that smiley face. For her life was spent trying to manage anxiety disorder and panic attacks, which arise from a dramatically and irrationally heightened fear…

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