What happens during an interview
You agree to an interview and are fully prepared and briefed. The journalist has contacted you to arrange an interview time. What can you expect? Emma Harding and Stuart Baker-Brown offer this advice:
I always let the journalist know that they are dealing with a very delicate subject and ask them to give the subject and my personal information the care and respect it rightly deserves. From my own experience, all the journalists that I have dealt with have been very cooperative and understanding.
Stuart Baker-Brown
Fact checking
Emma Harding: “Some journalists are more clued up and some are out for gory details. They tend to be very keen on getting examples and checking facts such as spelling, dates and places etc. They usually ask for details of your life history, particularly your childhood and any ‘trigger’ factors leading up to your own personal experience and they quite often use these to spice up the piece even when you don’t feel they are necessarily relevant."
How it started
"You can almost invariably expect questions on how your mental health issue developed, what you and/or people around you noticed first and what it was like. Many people are interested in what it actually feels / sounds / looks like to hallucinate. I havefound it helpful to say a bit about how I came to my delusional beliefs, as there were some quite logical reasons!”
Living with an illness
“A common question is whether you feel completely ‘cured’ or whether you still have any problems. Journalists sometimes ask directly whether you have used street drugs. Despite this people are rarely antagonistic or rude and often refer to the stigma associated with mental health problems and ask how it feels.
Many journalists finish an interview in a positive way by asking what you would advise people reading /watching / listening to do if they feel they or someone they know is in a similar situation to yourself.”
