Hello, I'm Gemma and welcome to another episode of Good Influence. This is the podcast

where each week you and I meet a guest who will help us pay attention to something we

should know about as well as answer some of your questions.

This week we're talking about depression. Looking back on ourselves before and after

being diagnosed, the individual differences in how we approach treatment and how talking

about mental health publicly can help all of us understand each other better.

So joining me this week is Emma Gunner Wardner. Perhaps better known by her online nickname,

Emma Gunns. Emma is a beauty and lifestyle writer and brand consultant. After spending

10 years as beauty editor at Ok magazine, she is currently a freelance journalist and

podcaster. Her podcaster Emma Gunns show features interviews with lots of different guests

and has now amassed over 10 million downloads.

I just felt like everything was a challenge. I just felt like everything was like waiting

through treacle.

So Emma, we're going to talk about depression today. Always a very easy and light breezy

topic. So it's probably a good place to start if you want to tell us a bit of your kind

of mental health journey and why are we talking about depression today?

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for asking me, Gemma, because I appreciate it. I think it's

something that we need to talk about more all of us. So my mental health journey, if

you'd asked me that a little while ago, I might have said, oh, that started when I was

diagnosed with depression aged 37. But actually, it's become really clear to me through things

like therapy and through actually leaning into that after the diagnosis. It's made

me sort of look back and realize how evident the signs of anxiety and depression were

...