Nadiya Hussain has never spoken to her parents about mental health: ‘There’s a stigma in the Bangladeshi community’

Nadiya Hussain has revealed that she has never spoken to her parents about her mental health.

The former Great British Bake Off winner discussed her battle with anxiety in a candid BBC documentary Nadiya: Anxiety and Me, in 2019 after years of struggling in silence.

The 36-year-old has now explained why she decided to publicly discuss the matter, stating: ‘Within my family, my community or Bangladeshi people, there’s this silence that I’m just afraid will never go away.’

‘Even now, to this day, I have never openly spoken about my mental health to my parents,’ she added in an interview on That Gaby Roslin Podcast.

Nadiya noted that her parents had watched the documentary, but she has yet to talk to them about it.

The chef explained: ‘There is no terminology for mental health illness within our community. Often there are different words used, such as, “She’s gone mad, or they have been possessed, or they’re on drugs”… there is no actual word to explain mental health issues/illness.

‘So how can you talk about something that isn’t even in their vocabulary?’

Nadiya explained that she was hoping to use her position to spread mental health awareness in the Bangladeshi community.

However, the author admitted that she had a long road ahead of her, stating: ‘Even people in my own generation do not like the word, they say “I don’t want my family/kids to have that label, so I don’t want to see a doctor.”‘

‘There’s a massive stigma attached to it even within my generation who understand it. There is a lot of work to be done, and it won’t be done via one documentary or a couple of books.’

Despite the matter, Nadiya gushed about her strong relationship with her parents.

‘No matter what I do, no matter how many episodes of cookery shows or books I publish, none of that will make me higher than my parents in terms of hierarchy, and it shouldn’t because they are up there exactly where they should be,’ she said.

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