Food personality and cook has a complicated long-term relationship with mental wellness.
“I would describe mental wellness as my dance partner,” Goodwin tells SBS. “I have to focus on my dance partner and hold them just right. Not too tight, but I mustn’t let go either.
“Sometimes we’re in sync and sometimes I lose the beat altogether and have to go back to class to re-learn the steps. Sometimes my dance partner gets the sh*ts because I have two left feet. They leave the building and I have to coax them back by doing all the things that make me a better dancer.”
Goodwin's analogy is insightful. It describes the fragile hold we all have on mental wellness and the changing nature of mental health. To her, mental health concerns can not be expressed in generalised terms as they are not simplistic concepts. Mental health is complex, circumstantial and variable.
Mental health is also quite personal. For Goodwin, who first came into the public eye during the inaugural season of in 2009, living with depression has been an ongoing battle. Her first hospitalisation for treatment, which lasted six weeks, was in 2020 and there’s been more since.
“Depression doesn’t really have a start or end point. It’s not a linear path. It’s an ongoing process to be well.”
Goodwin mentions that during former depressive episodes, she “lost joy in everything”, including the joy she held food and cooking that’s usually so visible when you see the star on television.
Depression doesn’t really have a start or end point. It’s not a linear path. It’s an ongoing process to be well.
However, the cook reports that she has since regained a feeling of mental wellness. They are together once more and dancing again.
“I don’t really know to explain ‘how’ I started to regain that feeling [of wellness], only that it was not the flip of a switch. It was more a process that involved lots of different things – professional health care, medication, time in nature, time with family and a reassessment of my work life.
“Basically, it was any number of things that worked together to bring me back to a life of joy and purpose.”
Cooking food for dear loved ones was one of those elements of life that Goodwin has always enjoyed. So when her mental wellness dance partner returned, she felt inspired to cook again.
“For those who do find a creative outlet in cooking, it can be one of the self-care activities that may prove so important to your mental wellbeing. For me, being able to tap into things that once brought me joy, including cooking, music and art was a sign of healing.”
Why it's important to talk, talk, talk
These days, Goodwin can be often found in her home kitchen cooking up a delicious meal for her beloved family, or sitting at their dining table sharing food and conversations about mental wellness.
“Whenever [I sit] around the table together with my family, we each have to share our highlight of the day. In recent years, largely because of what happened with me, we have also added the question ‘how’s your head?’
“That’s resulted in some pretty enlightening dinner table conversations but also, it means that my adult sons know that it’s not a topic that they need to keep to themselves.”
In recent years, largely because of what happened with me, we have also added the question ‘how’s your head?’
As a result, the matriarch believes her sons are able to speak about mental health to her, their father, their partners and each other “without even the slightest shadow of fear or stigma around it”.
“We can support each other through tough days instead of having to bear them alone. We all understand that there doesn’t have to be a concrete reason for a day to be hard. We don’t have to rush in with solutions – we can just hear each other and hold out our arms to each other. I absolutely credit this openness about this difficult subject, with candid discussion in the non-threatening arena of the dinner table.”
It’s this sort of open and honest talk about mental health issues that Beyond Blue and Goodwin want to be replicated around dinner tables across the country. The organisation estimates that around in Australia will face a mental health condition in their lifetime. So there's plenty of Goodwin-styled, honest table chit-chat that's yet to take place.
Goodwin, who’s an ambassador for the charity, has recently thrown her weight behind Beyond Blue’s . Happening throughout October, the fundraising initiative encourages people to host a meal and talk about mental health with fellow eaters.
Her hope is that, by gathering for a feed, people may start to normalise the topic of mental health as a natural part of dinner-table conversation. Once this happens, individuals may also feel a lot freer to talk about their own well-being and seek help when they need it. “That would be, for me, the greatest outcome of all,” she says.
Of course, some people may find mental health to be a confronting topic to talk about or listen to. But, explains Goodwin, if there is someone in your life who is suffering, by simply listening to them without judgement “you can be a safe place for them to land”.
“If you are suffering yourself – talk, talk talk. Shine a light into those dark corners. Fear, shame and despair will shrink away from the light.
"Conversations save lives.”
If you or anyone you know needs support, please contact on 1300 225 636, on 13 11 14 or 1800 55 1800.
