Prince Harry opens up about British vs American attitudes to therapy
Prince Harry has had a rare and honest conversation about his mental health, taking a deep-dive into his experience with therapy and welcoming how seeking support is praised in the US – where he now lives with his wife Meghan Markle and their two children – in comparison to the UK.
Speaking on the Masters of Scale podcast, the Duke of Sussex noted the "immense cultural differences" between Britain's stiff-upper-lip attitude to therapy and America's "I’ll get my therapist to call your therapist" way of thinking.
"You talk about it here in California, 'I’ll get my therapist to call your therapist'," he said. "Whereas in the UK it’s like, 'Therapist? What therapist? Whose therapist? I don’t have a therapist. No, I definitely don’t, I’ve never spoken to a therapist'."
It's one of the reasons the royal – who is also the chief impact officer at BetterUp, a mental health coaching initiative – opted to share is experience, in the hopes of breaking down the stigma surrounding mental health, particularly in the UK. "99.9% of people on planet Earth are suffering from some form of loss, trauma or grief," Harry pointed out. "It doesn’t matter what age you are, but the majority of us have experienced a lot of that in our younger years, therefore we’ve forgotten about it."
He went on: "[But] the body doesn’t forget, the body holds the score as we know. And, therefore, just as much as there’s a mental health aspect to it, there’s also the emotional aspect to it as well."
"I think the more that we can talk about it, the more we understand it. The more we understand it, well, the more we understand each other."
Referencing his own history of mental health issues, the Duke recalled the panic attacks he developed in his twenties and how he self-medicated with alcohol to cope with the grief of losing his mother, Princess Diana, at such a young age.
Looking to the future, and on the topic of his role at BetterUp, the 37-year-old said that his goal is to "drive advocacy and awareness for mental fitness."
For information, support and advice about mental health and where to get support, visit Mind’s website at www.mind.org.uk or call Mind’s Infoline on 0300 123 3393 (Monday to Friday, 9.00am to 6.00pm).
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