Watch: ‘The Great British Bake Off’ Winner Details “Scary” Mental Health Diagnosis
Georgina “Georgie” Grasso is taking in a new mental health diagnosis.
The Great British Bake Off star, who won season 15 of the U.K. series in 2024, recently learned that she has bipolar II disorder after previously sharing her experience with autism and ADHD.
“I keep saying to myself ‘I’ve got bipolar’ trying to figure out what that means,” Grasso captioned the update on Instagram Aug. 16. “I know im still me. But everything I thought I knew about my mental health, isn’t what I thought it was.”
In fact, confirmation of having bipolar II—a condition marked by periods of depression and hypomania without experiencing full manic episodes, per the Cleveland Clinic—came as a “shock” to Grasso, despite her doctor mentioning it as a possibility last year. As Grasso put it, “It feels scary, and it’s taking me a while to absorb.”
And while the former nurse is “scared to be judged” given the stigma around mental health, her symptoms have been the most frightening part of her reality.
“Ive had 4 severe hypotonic/ manic episodes over the last 8 years, the last one being last year, but you’d never have known,” Grasso recounted, adding that she’d been “clearly in a ‘depressive’ episode for the last couple of months.”
She continued, “What scares me most is I have no control over anything I’m doing and it’s tunnel vision.”
However, receiving the correct information in her 30s after being misdiagnosed with ADHD has provided the reality star with much-needed clarity.
“Lots of things make more sense,” she said. “My struggle to hold down jobs. Why for periods I’m amazing at my now job at content creating, then for weeks and months I physically cannot do anything. It gives me a bit of relief.”
Photo by Ian West/PA Images via Getty Images
As such, Grasso—the first Welsh winner of the beloved cooking competition at 34 years old—hopes treatment will make her “stable” so that she can continue supporting her three children who are also “on the spectrum,” though she added her medications “come with side effects which do worry me.”
She also hopes that she will one day be able to share the “highs and lows” with her community.
“You guys know how much I advocate for mental health. And how much I did for ADHD,” she wrote in the caption, “I’ve got loads to learn about bipolar and am in no position to be spreading awareness about it until I know a lot more.”
Keep reading to learn what other stars have shared about their mental health.
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