Romesh Ranganathan is cautious about discussing his mental health
Romesh Ranganathan has to be "careful" when talking about his mental health struggles as he knows it can be an uncomfortable topic for others.
Romesh Ranganathan is wary of opening up about his mental health issues.
The 47-year-old comedian is currently in "one of the best places I've ever been" having previously experienced suicidal thoughts but finds it difficult to judge how candid he should be on the matter as he knows it can be harmful to others.
Romesh told BBC Radio 4's 'Desert Island Discs': "You've got to be careful because it's triggering (for other people).
"The way that I try and tackle that is to talk about it, I'm trying to normalise feeling like that, not that it is normal, but I'm trying to destigmatise it to make the conversation normal.
"You would talk about physical illness openly, ideally you would talk about (mental health) openly, and you'd express all those things, but you do also have to be mindful of the fact that people may have been affected by that.
"And then if I suddenly say I had thoughts about taking my own life and somebody's lost someone through that or they've had those moments themselves, you've got to be sensitive to that.
"You don't always get it right, but I think the rewards outweigh the risks."
Romesh also revealed that he is "taking a step back" from his career to spend some more time at home, although he stressed that he won't be retiring.
'The Weakest Link' presenter said: "I do feel like I'm sort of settling into winding things up, like not winding things up, but I'm taking a step back.
"I want to be at home a bit more. And by the way, this is not an announcement of retirement, but I do feel like, relatively recently, this is quite fortuitous that we're talking about this at the time we are, because I have just hit this period of thinking I am probably going to just be a bit more measured in what I do going forward.
"I think I might take a bigger break between bits. I've told you, I've not hit the thing yet, maybe this next thing could be it, but it's not going to be it if I don't go off and just live life."
