Prince William warns 'stiff upper lip' can damage mental health

[webfact]

Prince William warns 'stiff upper lip' can damage mental health

By Estelle Shirbon

REUTERS

 

Britain's Prince William is seen speaking to Performer Lady Gaga via a Face Time call, to discuss mental health issues raised in the Heads Together #oktosay film series, in this undated handout photograph taken in London, and received in London on April 18, 2017. REUTERS/Heads Together/Kensington Palace/Handout

 

LONDON (Reuters) - Prince William has warned British men that keeping a "stiff upper lip" by bottling up emotions was detrimental to mental health, stepping up an awareness campaign that includes a video chat with Lady Gaga.

 

The comments by Queen Elizabeth's grandson came a day after his younger brother Prince Harry spoke about his struggles coping with the loss of his mother Diana in an unusually revealing interview.

 

The princes, together with William's wife Kate, are spearheading a campaign called Heads Together that encourages people to open up about mental illness and seek help.

 

"There may be a time and a place for the 'stiff upper lip', but not at the expense of your health," William said in an interview the Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM), a charity dedicated to preventing male suicide.

 

The British phrase "stiff upper lip" describes an ability to keep emotions under control whatever the circumstances.

 

Suicide is the biggest killer of men under 45 in Britain, and William said seeing the impact of suicide through his work as a an air ambulance helicopter pilot had been a "tipping point" in his decision to campaign on mental health issues.

 

Heads Together released a short film showing William discussing mental health issues with the U.S. popstar Lady Gaga, who has gone public with her own struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after she was raped aged 19.

 

The four-minute video shows the prince sitting at a desk at Kensington Palace, his London home, and talking via a laptop computer screen with Lady Gaga, who is in the kitchen of her home in Los Angeles.

 

The pair discussed the importance of talking about emotions and not feeling judged for opening up about mental health difficulties.

 

In the past, maintaining a stiff upper lip was seen as a very British virtue, epitomized by the royal family's stoic attitude amid crises ranging from the 1936 abdication of King Edward VIII to the death of Princess Diana in 1997.

 

Harry's decision to reveal he had sought counseling in his late twenties to help deal with his grief for Diana and had experienced two years of "total chaos" as he tackled repressed emotions was a striking departure from past royal attitudes.

 

"We will all go through tough times in our lives, but men especially feel the need to pretend that everything is OK, and that admitting this to their friends will make them appear weak," Harry told CALM in a joint interview with William.

 

"I can assure you this is actually a sign of strength."

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-04-19

[faraday]

Good bloke.

Think him & Kate will be great monarchs if Lizzie gives 'em a chance.

[maewang99]

yeah, that's the 'real' brain!

hey, we've got a long way to go in the 'mainstream' on this topic....

what we consciously decide and control is actually 'fake'...

what we ****really**** think is in an alternate 'real' brain.... the one that easily puts grammatically correct sentences together, or incorrect ones.... as fast or faster than the little 'fake' brain can think up some kind of nonsense...

.... and pretty much makes all of our decisions in some manner.... 

and then tricks us into believing we decided on them!

that there is something 'out there'.... that we can't see... but it's out there somewhere.... and big and powerful... maybe it's the Creator of the Universe.... 

or Donald Trump and Kim Jung Un as our personal surrogates.... from watching too much of a particular TV show maybe that the 'real' brain can't tell if it is 'fake' or 'real'... or 'them' or 'us'..... yes maybe????  but except for some new fangled solid fuel rockets... not much more than just a show so far...  of our Latest and Greatest rock em sock em personal Surrogates.

.. but do watch out for 'fake' news.



















 

Edited April 19, 2017 by maewang99

[faraday]

2 minutes ago, maewang99 said:

we got a long way to go in the mainstream on this....

what we consciously decide and control is very different from the 'big brain'.... the same one that lets us put sentences together as fast as we can consciously think... and pretty much makes all of our decisions but tricks us into believing we decided on these things ourselves!      

the least funny example... that there is something 'out there'.... that we can't see... and that is very powerful.... maybe bad.... but something much bigger and powerful than us or our tribe.... and maybe so big it was the 'reason' and Creator of.... the Universe!

  

No we haven't.

The so called 'Talking Therapies' were developed by Freud, & now Counselling is accessible quite easily.

 

[al007]

I am a great admirer of these young Royals, I believe Prince Williams views, on accepting mental illness as equal to physical illness to be 100% correct

 

The problem is I believe all terrorists are mentally ill, at what stage do they cross the line from mental ilness to terrorism

 

Further many in prisons are there because they are mentally ill

 

A very complex matter with no simple answers

[gazza4]

I was told, many years ago, by my then doctor, to "de-anglesize" if I wanted a longer life.

He was giving me the same advice as Prince William