Gail Porter seems to have a golden retriever sort of personality. When I speak to her, she’s in London and about to meet her 22-year-old daughter, Honey, for lunch. She’s full of enthusiasm and sparkle. On this superficially chatty level, you wouldn’t be able to tell that this Edinburgh native has been to some dark places, and suffered from various mental health problems, including bipolar disorder and anorexia, across her nearly 54 years. But, then, that’s the thing about these conditions. You never really know what’s quietly bubbling beneath the surface. That’s why the television personality has joined the Scottish Government’s new adult mental health campaign, Mind to Mind. Porter was part of the launch video, where she sat down at Hampden Stadium with a group including digital creator Howey Ejegi, as well as former professional footballer Zander Murray, founder of Diversity Scotland Tony McCaffery and founder of Street Soccer Scotland, David Duke, to discuss their personal experiences. (Presumably this video featured an almost entirely male group, since blokes are considered less likely to talk about their feelings). Essentially, the campaign encourages people to share their problems, and it incorporates a website that includes personal stories and advice on how to handle stress and anxiety. As Porter says, in the video, “The more you talk about it, it’s like a burden is taken off you.” This ambassador was happy to get involved. “It’s amazing and I was really pleased to be asked, along with the other great people,” she says. “A guy sent me a message today on Instagram saying it’s not often you see people in the public eye talking frankly. And he said it’s really helped. I was like, oh God, that's so good. I think that's the biggest thing that I found when not feeling mentally stable. I thought I was overthinking things, or being really selfish and that I mustn’t share my problems. And then as soon as you get into a conversation, someone goes, oh yeah, I’ve felt like that. You’re not wasting anyone's time, because they probably want to talk about it as much as you do. Everyone seems to put their head down, get on with it. And that’s very Scottish as well, isn't it?” Over the last few years, Porter has been remarkably open about her struggles. There was 2020’s BBC documentary, Being Gail Porter, which also covered homelessness and alopecia, as well as her mental health. She realises that there is no magic bullet. When it comes to improvement, it’s all about small and consistent actions, like talking. She’s also an advocate for having a routine and walking, though you won’t catch her doing cold water swimming, since she once contracted pneumonia after a dip. In the Instagram reel that Porter shared, as part of the Mind to Mind campaign, she says that she turns to her favourite films and music, if she’s feeling low. “It’s really easy to get into that thing when you just go, I’m going to put that on and sit and wallow, and I used to do that all the time if I was sad. I’d play music that would remind me of someone that wasn’t around. I was just torturing myself,” she says. “Instead I listen to Madonna and The Stone Roses, Utah Saints and Kylie. I do like Queens of the Stone Age, but sometimes you just need something that's fun, and you can sing along to, like The Kids from Fame.” When it comes to a good film to lift her mood, she rates the 1971 comedy drama, Harold and Maude. “It’s a really sweet, crazy story, and I also like to watch things like Elf or Anchorman - something really stupid,” she says. She’s also cheered up by her favourite food. It’s nothing lavish, just Marmite. Apparently, her friend, the Edinburgh-based television chef, Tony Singh, brings her travel-sized portions to take on her trips. She’s currently shuttling back and forth between Edinburgh, Glasgow and her home in London, where she’s doing talks and hosting charity events, including one for Choose Love. Porter does seem more of a giver than a taker. When she’s out and about in the Capital, she’ll allow additional time on errands - or, as she calls it, as a true Edinburger, ‘getting the messages’ - in case she needs to stop and talk to neighbours and friends. “I’ll give myself that extra hour to make sure everyone else is all right, and they can give me a hug if I need one,” she says. Porter has had a few low ebbs in her lifetime. She had a tough time in 1999, at the peak of lad culture, when FHM projected a nude photograph of her onto the Houses of Parliament. They didn’t ask for her consent, and she didn’t get a fee. There was no official apology, either, though she tells me that she did once meet one of the men responsible. They crossed paths in the same radio studio and he looked very sheepish. Later, he sent her a box of wine, but she gave the bottles away to her neighbours. Then there was losing her hair in 2005, the breakdown of her marriage to Dan Hipgrave from Toploader in the same year, and being sectioned back in 2011. She says that, at the time of the hospitalisation, all she really wanted was someone to chat to. Although she’d tried and failed to get an appointment with her GP, they’d been generally unsympathetic. “That was pretty bad, my work was running out. I’d gone through a divorce and money was going out but nothing was coming in. Even though I was appearing on television programmes, they all wanted to speak about alopecia, like I was an expert, and they weren’t paying a fee. I was going to the local library and book shops and saying, can I get a job? And they’re going, ‘don’t be daft, you’re Gail Porter’. I like working. It keeps me happy. Then I just had a bit of a wobble,” she says. “I phoned an ex and he said, just pop to this cafe and I’ll come meet you. And he phoned the police.” Porter was taken to a psychiatric ward and kept there for 28 days, but only because they didn’t seem to know what else to do with her. As she says, she had no plans to harm herself or anyone else. “They didn’t know how to deal with the sadness,” she says. “They just put us in pyjamas and let us watch telly, and that was about it. It’s almost like they had no idea how to cope with people that were not physically ill and they couldn’t see anything wrong with us. Where do we put you? We don’t know. Chuck them all in together. There were two guys there who thought they were Jesus, which is quite funny, because I was like, what’s the plural? Is it Jesi? There was an artist in there who’s really successful now, who was having a wobble. And he actually went in himself because he couldn’t get any help anywhere. He’s doing great now. We keep in touch. And then there were people that just had nowhere to go. And, you know, it was just a bizarre experience.” You’d hope that wouldn’t happen today. That’s thanks in part to a better understanding of mental illness. Porter also has more of a handle on her own triggers. For example, she knows that she has a laudable tendency to say yes to everything, especially when it comes to unpaid charity gigs. “I say yes to a lot of things. But sometimes I start to get anxious, thinking, I don’t know if I can do that. And then I start to panic. And then I think, oh no. And then my emails are all coming at once, or my jobs aren’t coming in and my rent is coming up, or it’s near mum’s birthday - she’s passed away. I know when things are going. I can just feel it,” she says. “When that starts, I’ll make sure I get Alexa to wake me up, because if not, my thing is to stay in bed and hide. That's not good for you. You can have a day in bed, don’t get me wrong. But sometimes I would just switch the phone off and if I didn’t have anything on for five days, no one would see me. I try not to get myself into that situation.” At that point, she knows it’s time to reach out to friends, or just go for a walk and get the messages from the shop. “Sometimes I do withdraw a bit, but the older I get, the more I can put things into perspective and think, right, I’ve got a roof over my head. I’m happy. I’ve got no hair, but it only takes five minutes to get ready in the shower. There’s always a positive,” she says. “Also, to know that by doing things like Mind to Mind, you’re helping other people. That helps.” For more information on the campaign, https://www.nhsinform.scot/mind-to-mind