Duchess Kate Has Attended Therapy With Brother James Middleton
James Middleton, Kate and Pippa Middleton’s younger brother, has been quite open about his struggles with mental health, openly talking about it several times in the past. With World Mental Health Day on October 10th, we are taking a look at one of the most significant factors that James has highlighted about his recovery in the past-the support from his sisters.
While doing an interview for the Telegraph, James talked about how his whole family went one step further and joined him in person for some of his cognitive behavioural therapy sessions, including his two older sisters Kate and Pippa Middleton.
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“That was actually a very, very big thing,” James said. When specifically asked whether the Duchess of Cambridge went along, James simply confirmed it.
“All of them,” he said. “Not necessarily at the same time, but either individually and sometimes together. And that was so important because that helped them understand me and how my mind was working. And I think the way the therapy helped me was that I didn’t need my family to say, ‘What can we do?’ The only thing they could do was just come to some of the therapy sessions to start to understand.”
He then went more in-depth about the struggles he faced before attending therapy, among them being suicidal thoughts. When he finally admitted himself to a private psychiatric hospital he was asked about having thoughts of ending his life, and now he recollects that moment: “I remember thinking, ‘I might have to answer this one truthfully because I want them to help me.’ So I said, ‘Well, actually, yes, but I don’t think I’ll ever action it.’ In my report, it said I had suicidal thoughts but wasn’t a threat to myself.”
James also revealed how he sometimes struggled to admit how much he was struggling with his family. “My mother will see how much I’m eating and know that there’s something wrong,” he explained. “She’ll see the way that I look at her and know that there’s something wrong. It’s the same with all my family. We are very close and I think that can be… a challenge. And I do remember feeling that I almost had to say to them, ‘I’ll be back, but this is a process and it’s going to take time for me to recover’.”
After nearly a year of cognitive-behavioural therapy and the unlimited support that his family has been giving him, James has been able to overcome his depression.