Prince Harry's Mental Health Activism

Prince Harry is confronting the stigma associated with mental health by opening up about his own struggles.

Transcript

00:00Asking for help is courageous.

00:02It will improve your life and lives of those around you immeasurably.

00:07I've been there, you've been there.

00:19We all have mental fitness and some people struggle more than others.

00:23What we're trying to normalize is that conversation.

00:30I can safely say that losing my mom at the age of 12 and therefore

00:40shutting down all of my emotions for the last 20 years has had a

00:46quite serious effect on on not only my personal life but also my

00:50work as well.

01:01I've seen those that I've served with suffer, struggling to seek

01:05out the help that they desperately need.

01:07And we know there are more just like them who continue to suffer

01:11in silence.

01:17All of a sudden all of this grief I'd never processed started to come

01:21to the forefront.

01:30Support for mental health has been an afterthought for far too long.

01:45We do not want prejudice and fear to stand in the way of people

01:49getting the help that they need by putting our heads together.

01:51We can all make a big difference.

02:00Society seems to be focusing on symptoms of everything and if there's an

02:04argument or there's an issue, everyone focuses on actually that.

02:07It's like, whoa, take a step back.

02:09How have we got to this point?

02:10Why are we in this situation?

02:11And it's like, you're right, you trace it back and there you go.

02:20During my time in the army, I saw how important physical conditioning

02:23was and how we always warmed up before every run or loaded march to

02:28reduce the risk of injury.

02:30We should have the same approach to conditioning on mental health too.

02:33Mental health challenges are not a life sentence.

02:37Recovery really is possible, but it can't happen if we aren't willing to

02:43have that conversation.

02:50To hear Prince Harry say that asking for help is not a sign of weakness,

02:54it's a sign of strength.

02:56It's just going to show people all around the world, no matter how good

02:58their family is, no matter where they're from, it's okay to reach out for help.