'I would get an Uber from The Priory to the theatre' - Deliciously Stella tells Bryony Gordon about her secret breakdown

Bella Younger had tens of thousands of followers on Instagram, a blossoming career as an Instagrammer and comic, and an Edinburgh Fringe show on the horizon, when she found herself in the throes of a breakdown so severe she ended up being admitted to the Priory, unable to even feed herself.

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Speaking to Bryony Gordon for her award-winning podcast, Mad World, Bella - also known by her Instagram handle, 'Deliciously Stella' - tells how her overnight fame brought with it crushing pressure to post every day. 

Her brilliant satirical posts in which she made fun out of clean eating bloggers had gone viral, and with them came the pressure to keep posting, to keep being funny, to keep her finger on the button. 

"I had repetitive strain injury in my thumb, because I just scrolled all day," she says. "I was doing all these interviews with the US, and Russia. 

"It was crazy, and that’s when I started getting offered money to do stuff and I really thought that Instagram could be come my career."

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After months coping with shaky mental health, and moving back in with her worried parents, Bella, 30, tells Bryony how she became so stressed preparing for her Edinburgh show that she was checked into The Priory. 

"I lost all ability to do anything," she says. "I couldn’t stand up without fainting, I couldn’t feed myself, I couldn’t do anything. I just sort of collapsed. My whole body shut down.

"I was so terrified, so I got checked into The Priory because I became afraid to get out of my bed.

"I would get an Uber from The Priory to the theatre."

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