Mr Welby has spoken openly of his own mental health struggles. He revealed he was suffering from depression last year in a Thought for the Day broadcast on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme and separately said he was taking anti-depressants.
Speaking this week to the BBC’s religion editor Martin Bashir, he described “an overwhelming sense the world is getting more and more difficult and gloomy”.
Explaining how his own mental health has affected his behaviour, he said: “You turn inwards on yourself a lot. You become, frankly, narcissistic. And when you have good friends or family who spot it, they can say ‘might it not be an idea to talk to someone’. Which I did.”
He added: “There is nothing pathetic about it. It is no more pathetic than being ill in any other way. And we just need to get over that.”
BBC News – Coronavirus: Archbishop Justin Welby says austerity would be catastrophic – ‘wealth is not an idol to be worshipped but an asset to be deployed for the benefit of all people’:https://t.co/cjgVF7exKK
— Leigh Daynes (@LeighDaynes) May 18, 2020