SECRET ILLNESS! JAMES MIDDLETON REVEALS DESPERATE BATTLE WITH DEPRESSION
James Middleton has talked about his battle with depression.
The 31-year-old British businessman has revealed how he hid it from his family and turned to therapy to help him cope.
Kate Middleton’s younger brother explained how he felt like ‘a complete failure’ as his mental heath deteriorated.
He was also diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) but managed to turn his life around after receiving treatment.
Middleton dubbed his depression ‘the cancer of the mind’ as he struggled to function and sleep properly.
He revealed: “Each night sleep eluded me. A cacophony of imaginary noises rang in my head. It felt as if ten different radio stations were competing for airtime and the din was ceaseless and wearying.
“During the day I’d drag myself up and go to work, then just stare with glazed eyes at my computer screen, willing the hours to tick by so I could drive home again. Debilitating inertia gripped me. I couldn’t respond to the simplest message so I didn’t open my emails.
“I couldn’t communicate, even with those I loved best: my family and close friends.”
Middleton decided to change his life in December 2017, however, he hit a new low before that breakthrough happened.
“So just over a year ago — in December 2017 — after enduring a progressive deterioration in my mental health over 12 months, I packed my dogs into my car and, telling no one where I was going, drove to a wild part of the Lake District I’ve loved since I was a child.
“In the days before, I’d finally confronted the fact that I couldn’t cope any longer, that I wasn’t all right; that I desperately needed help. And this recognition led to a sort of calm: I knew if I accepted help there would be hope. It was a tiny spark of light in the darkness.”
After he started getting treatment he was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and he began to understand his behavior.
Middleton had been diagnosed with dyslexia as a child but now he had other symptoms to deal with.
He added: “And it was a revelation when I was told I had it. It explained so much. It is the reason I have trouble focusing; why my mind wanders off into extravagant daydreams; why simple tasks such as making my bed assume the same enormity as filing my tax return.
“ADD explains other things, too: why I’m restless, energetic and impulsive; why I start tasks but can’t complete them; why sometimes I seem impatient and don’t listen because my mind is galloping off on some flight of fancy.”
He now claims that he has a new ‘zest for life’ after coming to terms with and getting treatment for his illness.
And he admits that his Royal relatives helped him talk about it more freely.
He added: “I feel compelled to talk about it openly because this is precisely what my brother-in-law Prince William, my sister Catherine and Prince Harry are advocating through their mental health charity Heads Together.”
Prior to getting treatment he suffered from terrible anxiety and depression while his GP diagnosed him with arrhythmia an irregular heartbeat.
At this lowest point he struggled to function properly.
He said: “The best part of 2017 passed in a fog. I barely functioned, stopped talking to my friends, went through the motions of living and working but achieved nothing at all.
“I came very close to shutting my company down. And still my heart was thudding as if it was straining to leap out of my body.”
The turning point came when he started receiving treatment from psychiatrist Dr Stephen Pereira who diagnosed his ADD and got him on the correct medications.
“Once I started to understand the condition, everything about me began to fall into place and make sense.
“As well as unraveling the tangled muddle of my life, I still have sessions of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to help me change the patterns of my thoughts and behavior.”
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