Prince Harry says just a tight dress shirt collar felt like he was suffocating, and he’d have panic attacks in the car on the way to work

Prince Harry has opened up about his struggles with mental health, revealing that he experienced panic attacks while serving in the Army. As reported by UNILAD, the Duke of Sussex said something as simple as getting dressed for his professional duties would trigger an intense reaction.

These moments of distress became a regular occurrence during his time in the Army. “I started to realize that I probably had become seriously depleted when just putting a simple dress shirt on, the tightening of the collar, literally felt like I was suffocating, and I would be experiencing panic attacks just in the car on the way to work,” he said.

The revelations came during a recent MasterClass episode, where Harry discussed his life following the death of his mother, Princess Diana. He said serving in the British Army at age 20 acted as a distraction from what was going on in his mind.

The adrenaline that kept him going eventually came crashing down

For years, Harry relied on numbness and emotional shutdown to keep moving forward. Whenever people asked about his well-being, his standard response was, “I’m fine.”

Harry described adrenaline as a constant driving force that kept him focused on little apart from the task at hand. It was only after returning from Afghanistan in 2013 that he began to understand how his lifestyle was contributing to his trauma, as the things he saw and experienced appeared to trigger other traumas stored within him.

In 2020, after stepping back from royal duties and relocating with his young family to Canada, Harry experienced what he called an adrenaline crash. He said he slipped into depression for about two weeks and felt that he could not function without adrenaline.

Before their relationship became strained, Harry and his older brother, Prince William, frequently worked together on mental health initiatives and used their platform to encourage others to speak openly. In 2016, they joined the Princess of Wales to launch the Heads Together campaign, which brought several mental health charities together to reduce stigma.

Harry’s wife, Meghan Markle, has also spoken about her own mental health struggles. During her 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey, she described experiencing a frightening thought of taking her life while pregnant with their son, Archie. Harry and Meghan recently moved back to the UK, and their children, Archie and Lilibet, are now enrolled in local schools.