Sarah Ferguson discusses the importance of mental health
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In line with the launch of her debut novel, the Duchess, known informally as Fergie, spoke honestly about how the pandemic has given her time to reflect. She said: “I did have and still have mental health issues, which I work at literally every day, I really do, and I have been in therapy for 24 years.” Childhood abandonment issues along with years of tabloid attacks and hurtful headlines were the reasons why she started to seek therapy.
“Sometimes I talk to my therapist on a weekly basis, and then sometimes, when it gets really tough, I jump in and get a quick hit of trying to understand the negativity of the demons of my mind,” continued the Duchess to Hello!.
“There are shadows, of course, for anyone that is as creative as I am. The shadow is very dark, because the light is very light. But that’s the whole package of Sarah – and it’s what made me write the book and talk to you today.”
The novel titled Her heart for a Compass was co-written with Mills & Boon author Marguerite Kaye and takes readers on a historical romantic journey.
The writing process allowed the Duchess to explore unknown elements of her past, so much so that she based the protagonist on her real life great-great-aunt Lady Margaret Montagu Douglas Scott.
Dedicated to her daughters Princess Beatrice and Eugenie, the Duchess writes the words: “My beautiful girls, who have not waited until they are 61 years old to follow their hearts and to live life on their own terms.”
Explaining her choice of words in the interview, the Duchess says how it was in September 1988 when she became sensitive and insecure to every tabloid headline and story focusing on ‘Bad Fergie’.
She comments: “The worst thing about that was I believed every word of it. I couldn’t come to terms with who this person was.”
Alongside unwanted tabloid attention, the Duchess had to cope with childhood memories of her mother leaving her family to marry professional Argentinian polo player Héctor Barrantes, before being tragically killed in a car accident in 1998.
“It was a long time ago and I love, I love my mum,” says Sarah. “She was brought up in a way where she had no understanding of what she was doing and it wasn’t her fault, so I forgave her.
“But as I grew up and had my girls, every time I’d look at them, from 12 to 18, I’d think: ‘How can my mother have left me?’ And that is where the rot set in with feeling that I was not good enough.”
In order to overcome demons the Duchess encourages her daughters to “learn from your mother’s mistakes.”
There are many different types of therapy available today, each with different methods to help individuals work through their specific needs.
Many talking therapies are available on the NHS.
They involve working directly with a trained therapist who helps you find the answers to problems you are having. Some examples include:
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is used mainly by those with depression, anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorders to help change patterns of unhelpful behaviour and thought.
Counselling is where you confide in a counsellor to help you find ways to deal with difficulties such as addiction and chronic pain.
Behavioural activation is done either in a group, individually or over the phone with a therapist and aims to give those suffering with depression the motivation to make small positive changes in life.
According to the NHS, talking therapies can for many adults be more effective than medicine.
You do not have to be suffering with a diagnosed condition to have therapy either. It can help with difficult past events, concerns about getting older and relationship problems.
Talking to a stranger is usually easier than someone you know and no matter what type of therapy you choose to partake in, the aim is to always make it easier to cope.
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