It is February 4th and this auspicious day brings together 2 great celebrations. Firstly it is #TimeToTalk day and secondly it is #ChildrensMentalHealthWeek. At first glance there is no obvious connection but….lets take a close look.
Time to talk day “is all about bringing together the right ingredients, to have a conversation about mental health”. Last year I wrote a piece about the value of talking – not so much going to services and asking for help, but sharing some of the burden that we carry with those around us. I took a bit of flack for writing it, partly because I think I lost sight of the privileged position I inhabit – I’ve led a life that has given me the conviction that I’m worth something, and I know that there are people around me who are interested in me and want to help. It is a lot harder for people who haven’t had these gifts and I know full well that getting help isn’t as simple as asking for it. What I wanted to get across last year is the relief that can come from sharing your worries with people.
I work in a therapeutic community and for all the times I’ve seen people struggle with something that ‘cant be said’, not once have I seen people experience anything like the rejection they expected. Equally in my own life, the things that I thought were too hideous to be unveiled seemed to lose a few warts when brought into the light. Too many people will kill themselves without ever sharing any of their despair and I’d urge everyone to try to make an effort to make mental health (or ill health) something that can be talked about. That might mean taking a risk and sharing something with people you trust, more importantly it might mean letting the people you care about know that that conversation would be ok.
So this is all very worthy, but what does this have to do with Harry Potter? I loved the Harry Potter books and my children are now picking up my old books to follow the adventures of the hero of the wizarding world. Harry has a range of people who care for him and he inspires them to be a force of good in their lives.
My experience of the world tells me that Harry is in a relatively unique position. His parents died in his infancy and he was placed in the care of the pantomime villain-like Dursley family. He spends the first 11 years of his life living in a cupboard under the stairs. He is treated like a servant by the adults and bullied by his stronger, bigger cousin. For 11 years he is constantly criticised, belittled and told that everything is his fault. He is punished for trivial misdemeanours by being locked in the cupboard. His birthday is never marked and his clothes are the massive hand me downs of his larger cousin. We might imagine this leads to further bullying in school. These tend not to be the ingredients for a charismatic leader.
I work with a number of people who have had similar childhoods to Harry. They didn’t go to school and make friends, instead they went to school feeling utterly worthless and fully deserving of any mistreatment doled out to them. Their relationships with their peers and teachers were shaped by their core belief that they were insignificant, that no one would be interested in them, and that any interest that was shown was only to humiliate them more later. The self hatred they experienced led to them acting as if they were deserving of hate. They would hurt themselves or let others hurt or use them. Their experience of others led them to believe that they shouldn’t be in the world. Sometimes they sought death but even in the best of times (which were few) death wasn’t something to run away from. Sometimes they would connect with another person but their conviction that they were unlovable led them to acting as if that was true. It could also lead to them spending time with people who treated them like they thought they should be treated, because care and kindness felt too wrong. They often end up with a diagnosis that labels them as being flawed in some way when all they have done is learn what the world has taught them.
Harry made friends in his first year of senior school. He also found adults who cared for him and one in particular who became something of a father figure. At the end of the first school year this father figure sent him back to the people who kept him in a cupboard. The argument was that it stopped him from being killed. The reality would probably be that he would end up wanting to die.
We cant expect little Harrys to tell us about their misery and neglect. It’s more than likely that they won’t know any different. We need to keep our eyes out for the children who are continuously sad, the children who are never made to feel special and who are dressed in ways that could only bring humiliation. When we see such things, it time to talk. When little Harry’s are talked of as being disordered, its time to talk. When there is no help for people like Harry, or the help only makes things worse, it might be time to shout.
Thanks to @hoppypelican for helping me shape the ideas for this blog.
Keir provides consultation, therapy and training to help people with experiences like Harry’s, via www.beamconsultancy.co.uk
A podcast covering similar issues to this can be found here: https://anchor.fm/wkom