BLUE and white striped cushions were my thing.

You can't stop, it's like junk or cocaine. My house became a fire hazard because I had so many blue and white striped cushions."

Ruby Wax is amusingly using one of her own experiences to explain why we feel the need to accumulate, why we obsess and why our deep inner thoughts do their damnedest to tear us apart.

The quips and one-liners are as funny as always from the star of The Comic Strip Presents, Absolutely Fabulous and Girls on Top but there is also a serious side to the material for her new show opening at Edinburgh Festival Fringe tomorrow.

After years of struggling with depression, Ruby's interest in researching just how the brain works has seen the classically trained actress and comedian now become a qualified therapist with an MA from Oxford University in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. Sane New World follows on from the book of the same name, which she calls a manual to survive the 21st century.

"I mix it up with my own experience sometimes of getting up in the morning with 40,000 things I have to do that second or the world will explode," she says. "It's not like I'm being holier than thou but I'm explaining why we're obsessed and why those inner thoughts are around: the I shouldn't, I didn't, I'm going to fail."

Putting her own unique spin on the scientific theories behind her studies Ruby offers a fascinating insight into how our brain works and, more importantly, ways to train it to change our behaviour.

The closest thing most of us will get to a consultation with Ruby, she takes time to answer questions from the audience during the show.

"People want to share their own experiences and I love it, then I feel I'm with my people," she says. "It's not like you're telling them something they have heard before, so everybody is interested. It's really exciting to say, oh I'm just the messenger, I'm not the smart guy, I'm just telling you what's going on."

While stand-up comes with its own stresses, trying to squeeze a laugh out of every line, this format gives Ruby the opportunity to talk to relax and about a subject she knows well.

"You're talking about something everyone has flowing through their veins - everyone has got that dopamine thing that makes them buy 100 pairs of shoes. It's not the shoes themselves, it's the hit. We're all natural born junkies, we fuel ourselves with our own home-made chemicals. Everybody wants to know that stuff about: why can't I stop? Is it my fault?

"If they didn't laugh, which hasn't happened, they're leaning forward anyway. It's not like they're walking out of the building because you didn't say something funny enough about cats."

l Ruby Wax: Sane New World Tickets, priced £15, from www.arfringe.com/show/42/ruby_wax_sane_new_world

angela.mcmanus@eveningtimes.co.uk