David Harewood

Happy Place

Fearne Cotton

Society & Culture, Mental Health, Health & Fitness, Relationships, Personal Journals

4.6 • 15.2K Ratings

🗓️ 13 September 2021

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Psychosis is very rarely talked about, even within spaces dedicated to mental health. Actor David Harewood had an episode that saw him sectioned at 23 years old, and wonders that psychosis is still seen as the ‘scary’ mental health issue, a perception he’s now working hard to change.

We often hear about post-traumatic stress, but in this chat with Fearne, David discusses the concept of post traumatic growth, and what that’s looked like for him. Plus, he explores how this journey of discovery has changed his perception of his father, who also had psychosis.

David’s book, Maybe I Don’t Belong Here, is out now.

CONTENT WARNING: as David recalls racist abuse, this episode contains offensive and distressing language.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello there, I'm Fern Cotton and this is Happy Place. The show that helps us better understand
0:07.1	and sympathise with experiences that might not necessarily be our own. Today, a man I'm
0:12.8	learning so much from, it's David Harewood. No one talks about losing your mind, but you're
0:20.7	literally hearing voices and seeing things. I mean, the hallucinations and delusions
0:26.4	part of it, I still to this day would say it was one of the most extraordinary things that
0:33.0	ever happened to me. Now, hearing Martin Luther King's voice in my head literally like his
0:37.7	big whisper in my ear and I, it was extraordinary and the power of that. And as an actor now,
0:45.0	I have no fear. I just have zero fear. David is of course an incredibly successful stage
0:51.2	and screen actor, but in 2019, he made an award-winning BBC documentary that introduced him to a
0:58.2	whole new audience. David Harewood, psychosis and me, saw him piecing together what happened
1:05.2	when he experienced an episode of psychosis when he was sectioned at 23 years old.
1:11.0	Now, he's written a brilliant book. Oh, this book is just so moving and brilliant. It's called
1:20.2	Maybe I Don't Belong Here, which continues to explore his diagnosis as well as meditating on
1:26.1	the role racism has played in his trauma. Oh, this is, it's an extremely moving conversation. David
1:34.8	is exceptionally candid and direct about what he's been through. So a warning before we begin that
1:41.4	this conversation does include some distressing language. But it's important to point out, it also
1:48.6	includes moments of absolute joy and laughter because we touch upon the concept of post-traumatic
1:56.2	growth, the process that David gong through and that I'm also keen to learn so much more about.
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