Main causes of stress
I don't want to sound ungracious, but I find dealing with the media incredibly stressful. When I do TV or radio, I go into a "rabbit caught in the headlights" stage. I am capable of talking but when I look back, I wonder why I say such idiotic things and I never feel that I come across as myself.
The most stressful thing is the time lag between doing an interview with a journalist and waiting for the article to appear. It literally gives me sleepless nights. I wonder if what I said could be taken out of context. If I made a joke and accompanied it with a laugh, could it appear in the newspaper without the joke and seem very sarcastic?
I also find driving very stressful. I only passed my test this year and am very conscious of traffic when I'm driving.
Coping with stress
As much as possible, I get my husband to drive, so that's one way of coping.
I try to be extremely careful when I do interviews so that I won't say anything that could be misinterpreted. But I've also come to realise that it's all part of the job. It was definitely worse at first. I remember waiting behind the barrier to go on the Pat Kenny Show one night and I literally thought I would die, my heart was racing so fast.
Everyone has a stressful part to their job and I get such immense satisfaction out of writing that the other parts of it are manageable.
The stress of Christmas
People will hate me for saying this, but Christmas doesn't stress me because I have all my presents bought in November.
In conversation with Alison Healy