“DON’T feel sorry for me,” warned Ruby Wax darkly as she delved into an especially dark and chilling account of her mental breakdown.

“I got a show out of it. And people like it! The bipolars always come up to me afterwards and say: I laughed... I cried.”

And that sets the tone for the irreverent night at The Mill exploring the light and shadow of psychotherapy to mark Banbury Therapy Centre’s third birthday.

Talking about how she unwittingly became the poster girl for mental illness, Ruby aims her caustic wit at deglamorising the affliction with a healthy dose of humour. After all, her nervous breakdown did not strike during some grand Kafkaesque episode but while she was painting the house beige. Again.

Pointing at a huge screen of the human brain, she marvels at its complex beauty while taking a sideswipe at how our caveman instincts are just not suited to the toxins of modern life “because we can’t eat traffic wardens.”

You could hear a pin drop as Ruby recalled her ‘tsunami of all depressions’ as she stumbled, lifeless and shielding her “dark, dead shark eyes” into a hopeless world while her own inner soundtrack looped, telling her over and over again what a loser she was. And all the while, friends tell her to ‘perk up!’ adding to the swamping quicksand of misery.

Not only has she been there, which makes for a riveting story, Ruby is a survivor. Now a qualified psychotherapist, she herself notices how incredible it is that she went from juddering wreck in The Priory to here, in front of us, in all her loudmouth glory. The world is a much more inspiring place because of it.

Adding to the mix, psychotherapist Carmen Joanne Ablack treated the stage like her very own safe place with an intensely personal collection of thoughts about her career. Poet, comedian and therapist Liz Bentley rounded off the evening with an impish, festival-friendly performance speckled with ukulele songs and jokes about everything from the Samaritans to failed job interviews.

The crowd's applause was warm and nurturing for this most deserving of causes – with the spotlight firmly shining on the positive.

* Call into The Banbury Therapy Centre at 69 Oxford Road for a free assessment or visit www.banburytherapycentre.com