Prince Harry has opened up about how his time in Afghanistan was the trigger for him to get help dealing with his mother’s death.
Harry, who served on two front line tours with the Army, was filmed in conversation with Paralympic medal winner and former Invictus Games captain Dave Henson for Forces TV.
The Prince, who spent 10 years in the military, admitted that he has “plenty of issues” and had felt helpless at times.
Prince Harry's experiences in Afghan were the trigger to deal with his own mental health problems https://t.co/IZYkBpWS0v @KensingtonRoyal pic.twitter.com/0qN6ZCxK0l
— Forces TV (@Forces_TV) June 21, 2017
But he said Afghanistan was the moment he realised he had to deal with his problems and that the Invictus Games he set up for wounded service personnel had been “a sort of cure”.
He revealed: “Going through Invictus and speaking to all the guys about their issues has really healed me and helped me.
“I’ve got plenty of issues but none of them really relate to Afghanistan, but Afghanistan was the thing that triggered everything else.
Prince Harry (left) opened up to Paralympian Dave Henson (right) in an interview for Forces TV (Chris Jackson/PA)
“Not to get too personal, if you lose your mum at the age of 12 then you’ve got to deal with it and the idea that …. 15, 17 years later I still hadn’t dealt with it, Afghan was the moment. I was like ‘right – deal with it.’
Harry was recently praised for revealing he sought counselling as he confessed it was not until his late 20s that he processed his grief for Diana, Princess of Wales who was killed in a car crash in 1997.
The Prince told Henson: “For me, Invictus has been a sort of cure for myself…There were many times in my early life and also many times in Afghan and coming back from Afghan when you actually feel helpless.”
Prince Harry says he has been “healed” by the Invictus Games and speaking to others about their own problems (John Stillwell/PA)
He added: “Once I plucked my head out of the sand, post-Afghan.
“It had a huge, life-changing moment for me as well – ‘Right, you are Prince Harry, you can do this, as long as you’re not a complete tit, then you’re gonna be able to get that support, because you’ve got the credibility of 10 years’ service and therefore, you can really make a difference’.”
Harry described how his own struggles had manifested themselves and said that recognising this meant he could help others.
“You can tell the signs in people…. in my case, suit and tie and every single time I was in any room with loads of people which is quite often, just pouring with sweat, heart beating bop, bop, bop, bop – literally like a washing machine – just like ‘oh my god get me out of here now. Oh hang on I can’t get out of here – I’ve got to just hide it’,” he said.
“You go through all that stuff and then you meet other lads who’ve had a similar journey … and you can help them and you can have a bit of banter….Once they realise ‘Hang on I’m not the only person here – There are so many other people who have suffered and recovered – I’m going to go and sort this out and get help’.”
Prince Harry: My Journey will be broadcast on Wednesday June 21 at 8pm (UK) on Forces TV.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here