Kate Middleton went to therapy with her brother, James

From Cosmopolitan

James Middleton has revealed that his sister, Kate Middleton, attended therapy sessions with him as part of a family effort to rally around him in the midst of his deep depression.

James Middleton spoke candidly this weekend to the Telegraph about his struggle with mental health, and how he eventually managed to come out the other side. "How lucky I am," he told mental health activist and interviewer, Bryony Gordon. "The way I was a couple of years ago was about as far the other end of the scale as it could be."

James first opened up about his depression in January this year, when he wrote an essay on his experience for the Daily Mail. He referred to the condition as "a cancer of the mind", and spoke about how he was left unable to communicate with his loved ones. Now, in this latest interview, the Duchess of Cambridge's brother has spoken bravely about the suicidal thoughts that crossed his mind.

After reaching out for help with his mental health, medical experts asked whether he had experienced any suicidal thoughts. "I remember thinking, 'I might have to answer this one truthfully, because I want them to help me.' So I said, 'Well, actually, yes, but I don’t think I’ll ever action it.' In my report it said I had suicidal thoughts but wasn’t a threat to myself," James shared.

It wasn't that he wanted to end his life, it was "just not wanting to live with the current mindset," he said.

As a family, the Middletons are close - and ultimately, they all pulled together to help James through his dark period. After attending cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) sessions on his own for a year, his mother Carole, father Michael, and sisters Kate and Pippa joined him.

"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."

For James, therapy felt like "sitting in a chair with a ball of wool made up of eight different colours, and then a therapist is sitting opposite you with a needle untangling it. When we started mapping everything out, and it was on a page, it was absolute chaos."

But after spending time working through the chaos, the fog of depression began to lift.

Now, eighteen months down the line, James has just announced his engagement to French financial expert, Alizee Thevenet.

If it hadn't been for tackling his depression head on, he pondered, "Would I be in this place now? To have fallen in love with her, and for her now to be my fiancée in essentially the space of a year and a month? Probably not."

If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health issues contact a GP or freephone Samaritans for confidential support 24 hours a day, on 116 123.

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