Translated material
"I tried not to think about my mother."
Prince Harry first talked about how he was experiencing the death of his mother - Princess Diana
The British Prince Harry spoke about his psychological problems after the death of his mother, Princess Diana. The Prince of Wales became the first guest of the 10-episode podcast Mad World, the journalist The Telegraph Briani Gordon. "Medusa" tells what Prince Harry was talking about with Gordon.
When Princess Diana crashed in a car accident in Paris, Prince Harry was only 12 years old, but he had to meet the role of a public person and experience sorrow in the eyes of the whole world.
To cope with emotions, the prince tried to keep everything in himself and not think about his mother at all. “My way to cope with this was to put my head in the sand and completely stop thinking about my mother. Because, how will it help me? You yourself will be even more upset, and you can’t return it anymore, ”Harry said.
Almost 20 years have passed before Harry turned for professional help. According to him, he lived all this time, completely suppressing his emotions - and at the same time experienced a great internal tension. The last two years, before going to psychotherapy, the prince lived in an atmosphere of “full chaos”, always feeling on the verge of a breakdown, as if he were about to hit someone. ” During official events with the participation of the royal family, Harry often noticed that he was experiencing anxiety and a condition that is also called the reaction of “beating or running” (as the body behaves in a clash with a threat), but did not understand why. The prince even took up boxing to give a way out to negative emotions and cope with aggression from indistinguishable grief. He was persuaded to turn to the therapist by his elder brother William, who convinced Harry that he was not normal to constantly experience and he needed help.
Until now, the press discussed that Harry’s psychological difficulties were connected with his service in Afghanistan. Now the prince denied these rumors, saying that the reasons for his problems were in the death of his mother, who also had to live publicly. However, the service in Afghanistan in the personnel restoration unit became Harry's turning point: there he saw a lot of people suffering from depression, post -traumatic disorder and other psychological problems. “I am not one of those guys who had to see how their best friend is undermining next to them, and then apply a tourniquet on both of their legs. Fortunately, thanks to the Lord, I am not from these people <...> I know, there is a great benefit to talk about my problems, because if you keep them in yourself, this will only get worse, ”he said.
The story of his search for psychological assistance, Prince Harry told the journalist The Telegraph Briani Gordon. The interview with him was the first release of the MAD World podcast, in which famous people will talk about their psychological problems and how they coped with them. The task of the project is to destroy the stigma around mental disorders, to show that many suffer from this (and everyone can help). Journalist Briani Gordon, who invented this project, knows about such problems firsthand. She herself openly talks about how she suffered from an obsessive-compulsive disorder and how it led to bulimia, random sex and the use of cocaine-she wrote the book Mad Girl about her experience.
In the British (and not only) society, it is not customary to openly discuss psychological problems; Even fewer statements on such topics expect from men and from representatives of the royal family. It is all the more surprising that Harry himself agreed to talk about his experience and did not ask to coordinate the issues of interviews with the press service of the royal court. The decision of the prince to talk about psychological problems was supported by the Prime Minister of Great Britain Teresa May (she called this step “a very important moment” for the whole country), members of the British parliament, users of social networks. Many of them, listening to the conversation with Harry, decided to open and tell about their experience of the loss of parents.
An interview with Prince Harry was released a week before the London marathon. This year, the main charitable organization, which will be transferred to the funds collected, will be the Fund for the fight against the psychological problems of Heads Together , founded by Prince William, his wife Kate Middleton and Prince Harry.
“Probably, several times I was very close to a complete breakdown - when sorrow, all kinds of untruth, false interpretations and everything else are pouring from everywhere,” said Prince Harry.
Olga Kuzmenkova