This week, the Instagram account of Kate Middleton’s brother James went public, revealing his life of idyllic British countrysides, homegrown vegetables, and so, so, so many dogs. And just as he started gaining attention for his arguably great Instagram, the 31-year-old spoke out about his struggle with depression in the Daily Mail on Friday night.
Writing for the tabloid, James states that although he knows he’s “richly blessed” and lives “a privileged life,” he has not been immune to depression. James writes of dealing with insomnia, struggling to communicate with family and friends about what he was going through, and being unable to “feel joy, excitement or anticipation” from 2016 until starting therapy this past year. He continues, per the Daily Mail:
I also felt misunderstood; a complete failure. I wouldn’t wish the sense of worthlessness and desperation, the isolation and loneliness on my worst enemy. I felt as if I was going crazy.
In December 2017, after 12 months of struggling, James says that he packed his car and took his dogs to the Lake District in Northern England without telling anyone where he was going. There, James realized he needed help. And now, after working with professionals, he is speaking out about his experience — thanks, in part, to his sister’s charity work.
I feel compelled to talk about it openly because this is precisely what my brother-in-law Prince William, my sister Catherine and Prince Harry are advocating through their mental health charity Heads Together. They believe we can only tackle the stigma associated with mental illness if we have the courage to change the national conversation, to expel its negative associations. So it wouldn’t be honest to suppress my story. I want to speak out, and they are my motivation for doing so.
James also opened up about dealing with severe dyslexia his childhood, as well as his recent Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) diagnosis. At the end of the piece, the Daily Mail notes that it donated to Heads Together and the Pets As Therapy charity instead of payment for the article. Read the full piece here.
