It was a moment that caught even the most avid watchers of the royal family off-guard.
I just didn’t want to be alive anymore,” Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, told Oprah Winfrey in a blockbuster interview that aired on CBS on Sunday night. Meghan went on to talk openly about the suicidal thoughts she had while pregnant with her son Archie. “That was a very clear and real and frightening constant thought,” she said.
She highlighted a photo of her and Harry taken at a Cirque du Soleil show the day after she opened up to Harry about her suicidal thoughts. Harry told her that he wasn’t sure she should attend, but she insisted, telling her husband “I can’t be left alone,” she recalled to Winfrey.
She drew Winfrey’s attention to a particular part of the photo, in which her hand is clasped tightly with her husband’s. They were both just trying to “hold on,” Meghan said.
Meghan’s candid disclosure about her mental health issues were striking to many, particularly her remarks about suicide ideation. Many took to social media to express shock at her revelations, as well as gratitude for her honesty. For such a high-profile woman to open up about mental health allows those struggling with depression and suicide ideation to feel seen, many said. Experts added that it could potentially save lives.
Among them was Alfiee Breland-Noble, a psychologist and founder of the Aakoma Project, which provides free virtual therapy for teens and young adults, with a particular focus on young people of color.
While Meghan’s case is highly specific, there’s a lot of benefit to hearing her talk so frankly about depression and suicide, said Breland-Noble – doing so brings mental health “out of the shadows.
Breland-Noble, who has studied mental health disparities for more than 20 years, said she was acutely aware of how Meghan’s identity as a multiracial Black woman shaped her experiences, both in the isolation she faced within the royal family and the bullying she received from the British tabloids.
She noted that this was consistent with 2017 data from the National Institute of Mental Health, which found that biracial and multiracial adults were most likely to experience a major depressive episode that year, compared with other racial and ethnic groups. About 11.3% of these adults reported having a major depressive episode.
The pandemic has only elevated mental health issues, including depression, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And younger adults, as well as Latino and Black Americans, have experienced disproportionately worse mental health outcomes because of barriers to care.
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Source: IOL
