Ruby Wax explains how she was inspired to start Black Dog Tribe

What was really most healing, for me, besides the drugs, was meeting my own people, my tribe. When you meet each other the relief of knowing you’re not alone and that you both feel like the walking dead. It’s such a relief to be with someone who will never say,“Perk up.”

So when “Losing It” went to the West End, every night, after the interval the audience were invited to speak out. Rather than keep quiet, we couldn’t stop them, everyone wanted to talk about it and if they didn’t suffer they knew someone who did. A tough, ‘take no prisoners’ man from Newcastle stood up and said, “I’ve been on anti-depressants for 10 years and I don’t know how to tell my wife.” She was sitting next to him, open-mouthed. A distraught mother stood up blaming herself for passing it onto her child. Some people said they felt taking anti-depressants was a sign of weakness. A woman came to the show driven by her friends, who hadn’t come out of her house in 20 years. It was like a confessional in that theatre. 1 in 4 people have a mental illness there are not enough theatres in the world to deal with the number of people who need to find help.