Why are celebrities glamorising mental health instead of putting their money where their mouth is?
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry are spearheading a Heads Together campaign to end the stigma around mental health.
Heads Together aims to change the national conversation on mental health and wellbeing and is a partnership with inspiring charities with decades of experience in tackling stigma, raising awareness, and providing vital help for people with mental health challenges.
Throughout the past week, mental health has been a huge topic in the media with Prince Harry confessing to having counselling following the death of his mother, the late Princess Diana as well as getting pop star Lady Gaga involved.
The Prince finally came clean about the death of his mother in an interview with the Daily Telegraph which went live on a podcast.
He disclosed that he has spoken to a professional about his mental health, he describes how he only began to address his grief when he was 28 after feeling “on the verge of punching someone” and facing anxiety during royal engagements.
Describing the “quite serious effect” that losing his mother had on his personal and professional life, he tells how living in the public eye left him feeling he could be “very close to a complete breakdown on numerous occasions”.
The Prince, now 32, turned to counsellors and even took up boxing.
He says he is now in “a good place.”
But he added: “I can’t encourage people enough just to have that conversation because you will be surprised firstly, how much support you get and secondly, how many people literally are longing for you to come out.”
Confessing he was “a little nervous, a little tight in the chest” about the interview, the Prince said he was determined to make a difference while the younger members of the Royal family are “still interesting” to the public, doing his bit before Prince George, Princess Charlotte and any of his own future children step into the spotlight.
It’s easy for Prince Harry to gain access to proper counselling because he has the money and the contacts to receive the best treatments available as have other celebrities who enter The Priory to overcome their drug and alcohol dependency and mental breakdowns.
I’m not trying to put down Prince Harry because from my own experiences it’s hard to admit you have a problem and it’s even harder to seek help for that problem, and mental health still has a lot of stigmas attached to it.
Popstar Lady Gaga also came clean to the media during a Facetime call with Prince Williams by talking about her PTSD and mental illness.
In a video released on Tuesday, the pop star joined the Duke of Cambridge’s Heads Together, a campaign he leads along with the Duchess and Prince Harry to raise awareness on mental illness.
With 1 in every 4 people suffering from mental health issues in the UK, how many of us can receive the diagnosis and treatments required if it costs thousands of pounds.
Many of us are given anti-depressants and a standard 12 sessions of CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) where you apply techniques which you can print off the internet.
For me, this didn’t work, and it’s not surprising as the counsellors themselves tell you that unless you have at least 16 sessions, you are unlikely to succeed with CBT.
After a brush with the criminal justice system, I was finally put on the CMHT (Community Mental Health Team), and they were of no benefit to my health either.
They just considered me as another criminal mental health statistic and refused to even treat me until a year later. After a few months, they were keen to release me due to lack of NHS funding.
There’s one thing trying to end the stigma of having a mental health problem, another also adding a criminal record to that mental illness and then there’s the incredibly important part being diagnosed correctly and given the correct medication, counselling and tools to be able to get better.
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