In his memoirs The alternativeThe Duke of Sussex, released this Tuesday, January 10, talks about the symptoms he suffered after his experience on the battlefield.
He revealed that he killed 25 “enemy fighters” during his missions in Afghanistan. Prince Harry really trusted his memories, baptized The alternative, published this Tuesday, January 10, about his experiences as a helicopter pilot in combat zones. “We shoot when we have to, we take lives to save lives,” explained the man, who spent ten years in the British Army with two deployments to Afghanistan; country, from September 2012 to January 2013.
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Naivety
These revelations caused great resentment, especially within the British Army, who resented this grand opening. “It’s dirty and naive stupidity on the part of Harry, his publisher (…),” assessed Major Chip Chapman at the Times Radio microphone. However, few British tabloids have noted the passages in which the prince recalls his post-traumatic stress disorder, which occurred after returning from Afghanistan and was widely referenced in his autobiography.
“I was bored to tears”
Cressida Bonas, his companion at the time, and his cousin Eugene would have been “shocked” to learn how much he had changed when he arrived in England. “They told me that I look completely different,” he wrote. More solid. More massive? Older? Yes, yes, all of it. But not only. Another thing that they could not define. This is how Meghan Markle’s husband describes the symptoms she would develop in the following weeks, which would increase over the years.
“I got up every morning, went to the base and did my job without enjoying it,” he says. I couldn’t find any sense in it. I was bored. To cry about it.” At the time, the youngest son of King Charles III was reportedly “begging” his superiors to send him back into battle. What would they give up? Prince Harry, moreover, would have mixed feelings.
“On the one hand, I was full of doubt and confusion, and on the other hand, too,” he recalls. But what? Sadness? Torpor? Some time later, during his tour of the United States, Prince Harry met war wounded. The latter trust him that sport has been their therapy. An exchange that gave him the idea to create the Invictus Games, a competition for war veterans, wounded soldiers and people with disabilities.
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“More and more lost”
An initiative that would not relieve his ailments. “I was expecting magic,” he says. I thought that the terrible and noble task of creating the International Warrior Games would launch me into a new phase of my life, the post-war phase. It didn’t happen that way. On the contrary, I felt more and more indifferent. More and more hopeless. More and more lost.” By the end of the summer of 2013, Prince Harry was vacillating between “access to lethargy” and “horrendous anxiety attacks”.
Hours before the public appearance, Archie and Lilibeth’s father starts “sweating” and during the event itself is “mind clouded with fear and the desire to escape”. “The panic often started in the morning when I put on the suit (…),” explains Prince William Jr. As I buttoned my shirt, I felt my blood pressure rise. When it came time to tie my tie, my throat tightened. By the time I got to my jacket and shoelaces, my cheeks and back were sweaty.”
“A Kind of Metamorphosis”
A fear which, according to him, would give “metastases”. “Soon, it was no longer just public appearances that provoked it, but all public places. (…) I had no choice anymore. I started staying at home.” At this moment, his friends no longer recognize him. “Maybe that’s what was happening,” he suggests. A kind of metamorphosis (…) and I would have no choice but to be this new person who was afraid of everything for the rest of my life.
Prince Harry also says he “Googled” to look for a diagnosis when the answer was “right in front of his eyes”. “I met many soldiers, many young men and women who suffered from post-traumatic stress. (…) It didn’t occur to me that I was also affected by it.” The Duke of Sussex would go in search of a cure for his ailments, excluding taking medication though.
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A trip to the South Pole
He is also said to have expressed his dismay to King Charles III. At the end of the meal, he lowered his head and said softly. “Maybe it’s my fault. I should have gotten you the help you needed years ago.’ I assured him that he had nothing to do with it. But I appreciated his apology. As his 29th birthday approaches, Prince Harry has reportedly seen his anxiety “increasing”.
He would then decide to travel to the South Pole. An experience that would calm him down. Prince Harry, however, is keen to point out that “his war did not start in Afghanistan”, but indeed in August 1997, after the death of Lady Diana. In a May 2021 documentary series hosted by Oprah Winfrey, she revealed: Me that you don’t see(Me that you don’t see), using EMDR, a specific therapy, to deal with this trauma.
Source: Le Figaro
