Diana's emotional health

[TLLK]

I said They (other than Diana) did not talk about it

Charles did mention that Diana was not feeling well not long after her pregnancy was announced. He had to explain her absence at an engagement.
IMO it wasn't the business of anyone other than the couple to discuss when out in public. :shrug:
She had to contend with the same symptoms while pregnant with Harry.
A Royal Mom Complains of Morning Sickness, but a Top Doctor Explains It's a Healthy Sign

[sandy]

Right before the official announcement of the pregnancy, Diana fell asleep during a concert.

[TLLK]

@sandy-The fatigue that  can be experienced in that first trimester is incredible. Not surprised that she dozed off.

[amabel]

I said They (other than Diana) did not talk about it. Diana talked about it via Morton. You had said nobody else confirmed she had bulimia. I said that the Queen and RF would no do that and talk publicly about it.  I said I believed Diana's story of her feeling sick. YOu were saying nobody else confirmed she was sick. I said they would not have (at the time). I doubt Diana lied about her being sick.



[/quote
Well I find it hard to believe that M Colborne might not have said that he had been asked to stay in and look after Diana because she was feeling ill.. but he didn't say that.  he said that they spnet hours together with Diana unhappy and cross,  if she had been ill, I doubt  if Charles would have proposed that one of his male aides stay and keep her company.

[Duch_Luver_4ever]

Diana drugged by royal physicians worried about illnesses | Daily Mail Online

I dont know if it was the appalling state of psychotherapy at the time, or the good old boys of the medical community looking after their own, or the state of royal connections being valued over medical knowledge, or the desire to bow and scrape to the royals that caused that horrible state of affairs.

Its interesting to consider alongside the Diana tapes in the Nat Geo doc where she mentions it in greater detail than in the US version, and Harry's statement about the older generations (ie the generation these doctors were) and their maladjusted approach to mental health.

Thank goodness one of that generation saw things as they were, just a young girl overwhelmed by massive life changes (and unknown to the doctor, a marriage that was a lie, I wonder if Diana substituted sea monster for discretion with the doctors as the dream subject, instead of Camilla as she said she dreamt of her constantly ), not some genetic aberration that would darken the family line for eons to come, what utter nonsense!! But my take is that is the start of the royal and friends campaign against her as being "mad".

[royalanthropologist]

By her own admission, Diana was behaving in very alarming ways at that point in her marriage. Bulimia brings about certain symptoms which can be alarming to someone that does not know them. A husband who has married out of duty is also unlikely to have the patience that is required to give the person the right sort of comfort and support.

All Charles saw was a transformed girl who was "difficult". Madness is a very ancient label for women who are unhappy in their marriages. Charles consulted the doctors and they effectively they told him she was mad. He sought a second opinion and they said she was emotional. He chose to ignore the reasons behind her negative emotions (CPB etc.) and just left.

She eventually decided to treat herself and made significant strides to recover. Unfortunately, the damage to the relationship was so severe that the marriage could not survive even when Diana had recovered from depression. I also think that part of it was post natal depression which happens to the best of us but apparently Windsor women do not have it.

[Duch_Luver_4ever]

I think the whole thing helps Diana's enormously, and I am very upset over the trouble the misdiagnosis caused her, both in the way the RF treated her and the delay in treatment. We knew the other docs were waddling in on duck feet with little more than valium to offer, but didnt know they had that kind of crazy (pardon the pun) diagnosis.

After the incident with the cereal before the wedding to one of her sisters laughing(I believe it was Jane, I dont want to think about Sarah seeing her do that and not get her to seek help) seeing her eat and be sick right before the wedding, to the whole "is that going to reappear later" the idea that food was part of the problem, and the idea of using Dr. Lipsidge right away should have been paramount.

From the get go Diana knew what she needed and as we look back with what we know now, we can see that she knew more than that parade of quacks, im glad Dr. McGlashan was able to get rid of the other docs and at least start some therapy. It would have been nice for Diana to continue, but I dont think she was either ready, or it was the right fit.

[TLLK]

I dont know if it was the appalling state of psychotherapy at the time,

TBH Diana would have been offered the best possible care that would have been available in the early 1980's even if it seems strange and outdated to us today.  Also consider that very few people were comfortable discussing mental health issues then and we know that William and Harry have extended family members who have been diagnosed and treated for mental illness (depression, schizophrenia etc...) over the centuries/decades. We're still dealing with terrible stigmas towards these conditions that often come with a genetic tendency. I'm not surprised that they've chosen to raise awareness about mental illness and to try and battle the stigmas attached to them.  I believe that at times we forget how far this branch of medicine has progressed over the decades. IMHO we do need to dial back our expectations from 2017 to the early 1980's when we read this material   Also, I believe that  this needs to be restated again, that treatment is less likely to be successful if a patient is not ready to admit there is a problem. In the early 1980's iwe know  that Diana was not ready to admit that she had an issue with anxiety, depression or an  eating disorder. Also we should recall that Sarah's anorexia nervosa while an eating disorder was entirely a different beast from Diana's bulimia. To ask that lay people should have recognized that the two women required treatment from the same psychiatrist is a stretch IMO. Another hindsight is 20/20 moment is present in this case.

I'm glad that Diana eventually recognized that she needed care from a mental healthcare specialist because it quite likely saved her from serious and lasting health issues. I hope that others will recognize it and seek treatment too.

@sandy-Yes I am sorry that these notes have ever seen the light of day.  :( The doctors who corresponding with each other have passed on so whomever had possession of their records and correspondence has found a lucrative market.  <_<

[TLLK]

Im just left with the thought that with all the older, wiser heads around, somebody should have been more helpful, as while when she made the tapes she described she knew what she needed, she did have a hard time with describing what she needed, by her own admission. She also felt a lot of pressure to do her role, so I think that also played into her early unwillingness to seek help.

:goodpost:@Duch_Luv-Yes Diana was under enormous pressure from the palace, the public, the press and herself. IMO she truly wanted to prove that she was up to the task. Also I see there are parallels to Diana and CP Victoria both being diagnosed with eating disorders. Two young adult women adjusting to their new roles and understandably struggling at times. Another thing that they shared was that they both struggled academically during their school years. Victoria having been diagnosed with a learning disability when she was younger and I suspect that Diana also had one. I believe each was already dealing with some self esteem issues so each would want to try and compensate for this IMHO.

People who suffer from eating disorders are experts at hiding their symptoms. They have to be because if discovered, someone is going to do their best to stop the behaviors that control their food intake. They are desperate to have control over something in their lives and their food is one of the easier ones. As the weight was coming off, both were receiving compliments on their figures and new sophisticated looks. Both were still undergoing physical changes due to pregnancy/delivery/postpartum period-Diana and final growth spurt-Victoria. Wear some looser clothing and likely people are not going to notice the change over time. Diana and Victoria were able to keep these behaviors secret for a long time and they could count on their families' busy schedules and their own assurances to people that they were "fine."

In all honesty I find it fruitless to try and assign blame to anyone (Windsors, Spencers, Bernadottes...) for Diana and Victoria suffering from their respective eating disorders. I'd rather focus on how to prevent them from occurring to anyone else and to see that those who are diagnosed with them to receive treatment.

[royalanthropologist]

I will respond to this question:

"Knowing Diana was misdiagnosed and she wasn't the unstable mess the Courtiers, His friends and family all publicly said she was why didn't he refute it as untrue?"

The very same reason that her brother and sons are not refuting it. They are no longer interested in the drama and would rather make no comment at all. The latest article is nothing to do with Charles. The complaints are better directed at the author/publisher rather than trying to rope Charles into the mix. I also happen to know that any time a member of the BRF denies something, some nutters immediately seize it as a conspiracy theory. "He was leaned on, it is all PR" etc. Better to let sleeping dogs lie.

Diana was not popular in either the BRF or Charles' circle of friends. It is not surprising that those people do not have a good word to say about her. I wonder why you find this surprising? Likewise Diana's friends and accomplices do not have a good word to say about Charles. Anthony Holden is a case in point. There was never a single point in Diana's life when she ever defended Charles public on anything. If anything, she reveled in all his mishaps. Why do you think he would want to defend her after he divorced her? BTW that line about "mother to his children" does not wash with me. He was the father to her children but she had no problem embarrassing him in the media and conniving with his enemies.  Why should he then become her keeper and protector?

As for distance from the children, Ken Wharfe and others have reported that at one point Diana was trying to use the children as a weapon against Charles. She put it out that he was not a good parent or that he was absent. Apparently the decision to formalize the separation was precisely because Diana in one of her revenge modes cancelled an agreed time with the kids. Charles so furious that he immediately demanded a formal separation to ensure that Diana would no longer use the children as a weapon.

Of course when she died, he was their sole parent and he undertook that role well. Those who imagine W&H enjoy having their father slandered and insulted in the media might be in for a big shock. Those children were witnesses at their father's second wedding and actually invited Camilla to be a witness at William's wedding. The imagined family tension does not exist. They have an arrangement that works for them. It is just outsiders that want drama and revenge.

[TLLK]

Princess Diana's paranoia 'fueled' after Martin Bashir tell-all

A ?very close? friend of the late Princess Diana unearthed what the effects of the Martin Bashir BBC interview had on her.

Royal Rota podcast hosts Lizzie Robinson and Chris Ship spoke about how the late Princess of Wales? paranoia was fueled following the famous 1995 interview.

Lizzie said: "I had a chat with one of Diana's very close friends, Dr James Colthurst. Dr Colthurst was the friend that did the interviews with her for the Andrew Morton book.

"So he used to go, ask the questions, record them and then take the recordings over to Andrew Morton to write up.

"He was talking to me about the things that Diana was saying."

She continued: "She'd talked openly about how she felt for that book but her character hadn't changed.

"She was still the same person that he recognised.

"But during that period where she met Bashir, had done the interview and was sort of around him, he said that the change in her was so noticeable to him and their friends.

"There was truth in what she said, of course, it was just the way the context around that interview."

The late princess's brother Earl Spencer too noticed a change in his sister's demeanor.

Chris added: "Earl Spencer said it as well, he noticed a change in his sister.

"He noticed she was becoming much more paranoid, much more looking over her shoulder, worrying about things, thinking that everyone was against her, convinced that the system, the state was against her.

"She might have had those paranoias beforehand but they were being fuelled by what she was being told by Martin Bashir."