Bree Tomasel: On mental health, career and why New Zealand is now home

Originally hailing from Queensland, where she grew up on a Stanthorpe apple farm, Bree Tomasel is perhaps best known on this side of the ditch as the co-host of Celebrity Treasure Island and a radio host on ZM.

But behind the banter, Tomasel has battled anxiety, ADHD, struggled with her sexuality, and survived a harrowing attack as a young child. She shares her story in her new book UnApologetically Me.

The attack she endured as a nine-year-old child has echoed through her life, she tells RNZ's Sunday Morning.

"We were sitting there - me, my mum and my nan - all having a cup of tea. And there was two men that came to the door and broke in, and we were involved in a home invasion where they held us at knifepoint for ... what felt like hours.

"It was probably about 10 minutes to 15 minutes all up, while they stole bits and pieces from the house and threatened to kidnap me.

"In that moment I truly believed that I was going to die. And growing up in the country, [in an area with] a population of 6000, I lived a very sheltered amazing childhood and never really had thought anything bad could happen - and I think it changed me as a person forever."

Despite Tomasel's outward appearance of breezy self-confidence, the attack has left her with anxiety problems and panic attacks, she said.

"I had my first panic attack couple of weeks after that initial attack, and they've never stopped ever since. I go through really good patches, and then I can go through really bad patches, as I talk about in the book. But anxiety has been at the forefront of my life since that day."

When she started working in radio in Australia she found her home, she said, but initially felt compelled to keep her sexuality a secret.

"There was someone back home in Australia that said to me they thought it wasn't a good idea if I shared that part of my life on the radio, and it could be bad for my career.

"And that moment sat with me for a very, very long time, because it was already concerns and thoughts and worries that I'd already had, and to hear it come out of someone who I looked up to that knows radio, was terrifying to me.

"So, I feel like my whole life, especially in my 20s, I danced around. I'd tell certain people and hide it from others, and eventually it all came to a head I think."

Her brain is like a laptop with hundreds of tabs open at the same time, she said.

"I'll be sitting down sending an email, doing some prep for the radio show, watching a TV show on my phone like just my brain is just going 100 miles an hour."

A formal ADHD diagnosis has made it easier to manage the symptoms. And the reaction she got when she discussed her mental health on air was "immense."

"Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people just being like, 'I feel the same', and 'you've made me feel less alone', and 'it's not just me'.

"And I knew in that moment that I'd done what I set out to do."

She concludes at the end of this "non memoir", which she calls "silly scribblings", that success comes when you have the courage to accept who you are.

"I feel like this is one of those moments where it really, truly pushed me to be completely and utterly myself. And I hope that I've done that in the book with how honest I've I tried to be."

Meanwhile she has no plans to return to Australia, she said.

"This is home to me. I have a beautiful partner, we bought a house together. We put in a veggie patch last weekend, we've got two dogs, and hopefully one day we'll have a family and stuff. So, there's no plans to go back home."