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I speak out about my depression in the hope it resonates with someone who might be struggling. Just remember we all have mental health and it’s ok to talk about it. In fact talking about it was the first step towards my recovery ? . I delved into the depths of my mental health, ADD, dyslexia and the taboo of suicidal thoughts with the wonderful @bryonygordon which is in today’s @telegraph magazine #petsastherapy #itsgoodtotalk #mentalhealthawareness

A post shared by James Middleton (@jmidy) on Oct 12, 2019 at 3:35am PDT

Early this year, James Middleton spoke publicly about being diagnosed with depression and ADD. After years of struggling without really knowing or understanding what was going on, it seemed like James had finally sought help, with the full support of the Middleton family. He actually credited his sister, the Duchess of Cambridge, and her work on mental health issues for helping him understand what was happening to him. We knew he went into therapy. What we didn’t know was that members of his family joined him in therapy, including Kate:

James Middleton has revealed that his sister, the Duchess of Cambridge, accompanied him to therapy sessions. Speaking to the Telegraph, 32-year-old James said that 18 months ago, when he was in the grips of depression, he attended a therapy session with his family – Kate Middleton included.

When asked which family members accompanied him to his Cognitive Behavioural Therapy sessions, James explained: “All of them. 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.”

[From Hello]

That’s so interesting to me that Kate was quietly attending sessions with her brother and she was not talking about it at the time (which is the right thing to do – this was not her story to reveal). Some of the best advocacy work comes from people who have experienced an issue first-hand, or have been a witness to it in their own family. I wonder if James’ struggles were actually a big part of Kate’s mental health work this whole time. Just regarding Kate: I’ve always maintained that she does give a sh-t about the work she does with mental health, my problem is with the way she explains it, or rather, doesn’t explain it. These are complicated issues but they are rarely presented as more than “Kate wore a dress and did a meeting.” Maybe that was why Kate attended therapy sessions with James too: supporting her brother, of course, but also trying to learn better ways of speaking about these struggles.

Photos courtesy of WENN, Instagram.