As a child of the 1980s I grew up watching Ruby Wax on television with a mixture of fascination and fear.

Her toe-curling interviews with celebrities raised a chuckle and effectively punctured her subject's untouchable aura, but always left me with the impression of her as a particularly terrifying individual.

Swallowing my trepidation, I had to interview La Wax last year and found her to be quieter and more thoughtful than her TV persona but also chatty and warm and with a distinctly softer accent.

Like many larger-than-life entertainers, throughout her comedic antics she was fighting a battle with depression. What most impresses about Wax is her decision to use her profile to campaign to raise awareness of and funding for depression and mental health issues. Her one-woman show, Losing It, toured the country last year and last night her latest documentary, Ruby Wax's Mad Confessions, featured interviews with MPs discussing their own mental ill health.

In this climate when so many are clinging to sanity amid the pressures of debt, insecure employment, rising costs and with a Cabinet of millionaires who treat the economy like an amusing board game, the threat to the nation's mental wellbeing could not be greater.

Mental illness is not something which affects a small group of society. We must all work to maintain good mental health. None of us is immune from stress, anxiety and exhaustion; awareness helps us recognise what is at the manageable end of the spectrum and when to seek help. Advocates such as Wax are working to close the chasm between "us and them".

There was a time, not so long ago, when discussing cancer was taboo. Hopefully one day, thanks to personalities like Wax, mental health will undergo the same transformation.