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Vogue Williams says 'perfect life' is a myth

Vogue Williams - "You put a perfect life forward, but no-one has a perfect life."
Vogue Williams - "You put a perfect life forward, but no-one has a perfect life."

Vogue Williams has said she chose to detail her experience of anxiety in her new book because she didn't want people to think that "everything is rosy" in her life.

Ahead of the start of her new self-titled documentary series on RTÉ2 next Tuesday, the model and presenter was a guest on the Late Late Show, where she discussed the series and her just-published book, Everything

During the interview, she was asked by host Ryan Tubridy why she had decided to write about her anxiety - an issue which also features in the upcoming documentary series.

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"I think with my book, I wanted to first of all just be completely involved in it," she replied. "I wanted to write it; I didn't want a ghost writer. I wanted to be honest about everything."

"I'd touched on my anxiety before and I had a lot of people mailing me about it, telling me about their stories," she continued. "And I know a lot of people go through it and have it.

"As you said, with Instagram, my life looks great on Instagram. But everyone puts their 'best foot forward' on Instagram. I'm not putting negative things on Instagram - you put positive things on Instagram."

Williams told Tubridy that her anxiety can "come out of absolutely nowhere". 

"I've found great ways of managing it now myself," she said.

"A couple of years ago I really, really did struggle and I went on medication for six months - something I never wanted to do."

"I wanted to be honest about everything"

When asked what was happening in her life at that time, she replied: "I was just going through a lot in my own personal life and I was very busy at the same time. 

"I wasn't able to sort of process everything and because I suffer from anxiety anyway, that whole thing on top of me was just maybe too much of a burden at that time." 

Williams described her anxiety as "very physical".

"I would be tense all day; my heart rate would be racing, I wouldn't be able to sleep," she recalled. 

"Sleep was what really got me because I could be living on an hour-and-a-half's sleep a night and have a 15-hour day the next day. 

"I think after about a week of that - when my anxiety was really bad - I said, 'Ok, I have to just really do something about this'." 

"You do, obviously, have to find your own coping mechanisms," Williams concluded. 

"I turned to CBT [Cognitive Behavioural Therapy], I go see a therapist. I just think it was important to put things like that in the book because I don't want people to think that everything is rosy. No-one has a perfect life. You put a perfect life forward, but no-one has a perfect life."  

If you have been affected by issues raised in this story, please visit samaritans.org, contact the 24-hour helpline on 116123 or email: jo@samaritans.org.

Vogue begins on Tuesday October 3 on RTÉ2 at 10pm. 

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