The Prince of Wales has said there is a need for more “male role models” to talk about and normalise understanding of men’s mental health.
Prince William appeared on an episode of BBC Radio 1’s Life Hacks and opened up about how he takes a “long time” to understand his emotions during a panel discussion about mental health and suicide prevention.
“We need more male role models out there talking about it and normalising it so that it becomes something that is second nature to all of us,” the prince said.
“Not one person in this world has all the tools for every eventuality or mental state that is going to come across.
“I like to go around looking for new tools to put in my toolbox when I might need it and if we look at it like that, it does normalise the idea that the brain just needs sometimes a little bit of help.
“It’s OK to ask for support, ask a mate, reach out.”
Over the course of the hour-long episode he also opened up about his own mental health and the importance of learning to love who you are as well as taking time to understand how you feel.
“I take a long time trying to understand my emotions and why I feel like I do,” he said.
“And I think that’s a really important process to just do every now and again to check in with yourself and work out why you’re feeling like you do. Sometimes there’s an obvious explanation, sometimes there isn’t.
“If we talk about that more and educate people more, then hopefully the idea of suicide gets keeps being pushed further and further away because you know that tomorrow actually you might wake up and you might feel very different.”
William also recalled a time where he noticed his mental health was “deteriorating” after working as a pilot for the air ambulance service between March 2015 and July 2017, and the importance of taking “stock” of how you are feeling.
He said: “If you listen to the body and have time to process your thoughts and your feelings, it will present itself to you.
“It’s really important you have those moments where you take stock.
“It wasn’t until I stepped away from it on a sort of longer break that I looked at myself and went, ‘My god, I’m carrying everyone’s emotional baggage’.
“It was really weighing me down.”
The Prince of Wales continued to explain how the nature of emergency service jobs can take its toll on people due to how emotionally and physically demanding the work can be.
He said: “It’s not until you step away from it, either that you retire or you have a break, which many of them don’t get long enough breaks, are you able to process what kind of attritional, mental, emotional experiences you’re having each time. “
The prince said he was “quite emotionally available”, but it sometimes came at a cost.
“It helps me put my own life into perspective but also I carry with me their burden sometimes and that’s the bit I find very difficult is I feel other people’s pain and that overwhelms me sometimes,” he said.
“You want to fix it but you can’t necessarily fix some of the stuff and emotionally I find that very challenging.”
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