How to Survive in Extreme Isolation: Ingrid Betancourt and Oliver Chittenden

Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt was held hostage by FARC guerillas for six years. In this collaboration with mental health platform Head Talks, she tells Oliver Chittenden how she survived.

A crusading campaigner against political corruption in her native Colombia and an influential voice in both national and global political affairs, Ingrid Betancourt was captured by FARC rebels during her presidential campaign and held captive in the jungle for six years.

Tortured and humiliated, chained day and night, and constantly on the move, Ingrid endured conditions that few of us can imagine. As the global fight against the coronavirus pandemic continues to keep many of us confined and isolated from friends and family, her story of courage and resilience in the face of unimaginable anguish provides lessons relevant to every human life.

In this free livestreamed event, the first in a series of collaborations between How To Academy and Head Talks, a mental health platform dubbed ‘the TED Talks of the Mind’, Oliver Chittenden will explore Ingrid’s remarkable story, both confronting the horror of her experiences and investigating the strategies that helped her survive.

She says: ‘I was in a situation where I had to make a decision: I could follow the path of cynicism, or that of some kind of spiritual discipline and faith. The first would be easy, the second very hard. The first is about ego, and what is happening in front of you. The second is about the battle inside you, beyond these events, that one that gives life meaning. I chose the hardest path, but once I had decided to follow that path, it was like having wings. I wanted to look at everything another way.’

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Wellbeing in a Time of Crisis is a series of free, livestreamed digital events held jointly by How To Academy and Head Talks.

As the global coronavirus pandemic continues and social isolation becomes the new norm for millions across the globe, we are partnering to address the urgent need for high quality, accessible and free advice on preserving good mental health and wellbeing through the spring and summer of 2020