Silent No Longer

Unlike older generations, young people aren’t shy to open up about their mental health

- Kim Arendse

CAN Harry please stop it now,” a text from my aunt reads.

“Stop what?”

“Stop talking about how he was treated by the royal family. I’m sure he can deal with his issues privately?”

By “it” she means the Duke of Sussex’s recent interviews in which he opened up about his mental health, including his crippling anxiety and substance abuse. He also revealed that his wife, Meghan, was so unhappy during her brief stint as a working royal that she wanted to take her own life.

My 60-year-old aunt had had enough – and she’s not the only one. Many members of the older generation feel talking about mental health is getting out of hand – that it’s a fad, a trend, the condition du jour.

In their day, older people say, they used to just grin and bear it but now every Tom, Dick and Prince Harry is baring their soul. In their day, they had a good lie-down and a strong cup of tea when they were feeling down or stressed.

Naomi Osaka also recently came in for a hammering when she announced she was withdrawing from the French Open and a tournament in Berlin to protect her mental health. The compulsory post-match media conference heightened her anxieties and made her doubt herself, she said, adding she had suffered long bouts of depression.

Mental health’s continued moment in the spotlight has highlighted the very different ways generations talk about and deal with the condition.

The older generation’s “let’s-hush-now, snowflakes” approach is no surprise, says Kim Gabriel-Dixon, a Cape Town-based clinical psychologist.