I CAN'T quite imagine sitting in front of national television cameras and a studio audience with my ex-husband, current partner or any other family member, screaming and shouting at each other publicly about our issues.

Great as the temptation would be, it's better to keep a dignified silence even in the face of often extreme provocation or slander, than to dig out the linen you haven't quite got round to putting Vanish on and hang it ten feet up in the front garden.

But some people, not thinking straight or perhaps not in the best of mental health, decide that the answer to all their problems is to go on national television and be 1) filmed 24 hours a day, sleeping, having sex and flossing your teeth; 2) take a lie detector test about cheating/stealing; or 3) tell their significant other that the child they brought up isn't actually theirs.

Reality TV initially caught on around the late 1990s and since then hasn't shown much sign of waning in popularity.

However, following the apparent suicide of a Jeremy Kyle contestant, a government investigation will be undertaken into production companies' duty of care to participants.

The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee announced the inquiry following the death of Steve Dymond just a week after he was filmed on the show.

The show has now – rightly, I believe –been taken off air permanently. Mr Dymond had failed a lie detector test which he had taken to prove to fiance Jane Callaghan that he had not been unfaithful, and their relationship subsequently broke down.

Jeremy Kyle was car crash television – and a million viewers loved it. But I often wondered what prompted people to put themselves through such scrutiny other than the fact they were extremely vulnerable members of society.

Years ago, a distant relative of mine, who was going through a particularly difficult time with drugs and alcohol, appear on the Tricia show.

He had gone on the show to tell his wife she was too fat when she was actually bordering on anorexia. I was really shocked to see him and the abuse that he got.

I later found out he'd just done it for a night in a London hotel and a £100 appearance fee and had made the whole thing up.

But the disturbing thing about shows like this is while they masquerade as trying to help people, all they are really doing is exploiting them. They may try to offer a lot of support before and afterwards, but really they are taking people's lives, making a snap judgement about it and portraying that on TV.

Two Love Island contestants have also taken their own lives in separate incidents- but the money-making prime time show has not been axed.

Being in poor mental health is difficult as it is in the age of social media and reality TV. People are either constantly feeling inadequate against people's seemingly perfect lives or they are oversharing their emotions publicly or posting their visit to Accident and Emergency.

Our lives and our minds are not enriched by this. In fact, it takes up valuable space where sense and knowledge should live. And the impact on mental health is, tragically for some, just too much.