Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden has spoken out about her battle with anxiety for the first time. In an interview with Swedish TV station SVT ahead of her upcoming 40th birthday, the mother-of-two acknowledged her “very complicated” struggle.
“The performance anxiety I had is still there,” she says. “I’ve been given different kinds of tools and learned to manage it.”
Princess Victoria suffered from anorexia in her early 20s, and sought treatment in America after her battle went public, the Telegraph reports.
In the recent interview, she says she has learnt to deal better with anxiety as she gets older.
Kendall Jenner
We’re given glamorous glimpses of Kendall Jenner’s life on social media – exclusive parties with famous friends, sipping cocktails on super yachts and lounging about her multi-million dollar home(s) – but the reality-TV-star-turned-model has revealed that her life isn’t all rosy on her personal website, kendallj.com.
After listing her personal peaks of 2016 (maybe don’t compare them to your own… unless you too have a slew of magazine covers, a new house and travels to Barbados, Barcelona, Paris and Cannes to show for the last 12 months), Kendall turns to the pitfalls – the first being her struggle with anxiety.
“Anxiety was a huge hurdle for me to deal with this past year (and security concerns didn’t help), but I think I’m finally learning how to cope,” she writes. She then links to another post, where she credits breathing exercises and mindfulness to helping her handle her anxiety.
Hayden Panettiere
Hayden Panetierre has spoken out about her struggle with postnatal depression since returning from treatment at a facility in May last year.
She spoke on Good Morning America this week about how she has dealt with everything,
“I think I’m a better mom because of it, because you never take that connection for granted,” she said.
“I think it helped me identify what was going on, and to let women know that it’s OK to ask for help and that it’s OK to have a moment of weakness and it doesn’t make you a bad person. It doesn’t make you a bad mother. It makes you a very strong, resilient woman. You’ve just got to let it make you stronger.”
She has previously said of the mental illness, “There’s a lot of misunderstanding — there’s a lot of people out there that think that it is not real, that it’s not true, that it’s something that’s made up in their minds, that “Oh, it’s hormones.” They brush it off. It’s something that’s completely uncontrollable. It’s really painful and it’s really scary, and women need a lot of support.”
Amanda Seyfried
Amanda Seyfried recently revealed she is pregnant with her first child with fiancé Thomas Sadoski.
Opening up to W magazine, the first-time mum revealed her battle with OCD and how she’s glad the stigma around mental health is shifting.
“I also feel like there’s so much less stigma about everything, like mental health,” she tells the magazine.
“If I’d only known when I was obsessive-compulsive about stuff when I was ten, I would have shared it with my parents and not thought that I was crazy. But I thought I was crazy. You can’t step on this tile or…all those weird superstitions. You would share it with people and they would help you out and make you feel better about it. They’d say, ‘That’s really normal. Don’t worry. That’s just your anxiety running high and trying to control it.’ That could have saved ten years of my life feeling that I wasn’t normal. And I really hope the younger generations are hopefully feeling safer in being who they are.”
It’s not the first time the actress has opened up about her mental health, speaking to Allure magazine back in October.
“I’m on Lexapro, and I’ll never get off of it. I’ve been on it since I was 19, so 11 years. I’m on the lowest dose. I don’t see the point of getting off of it. Whether it’s placebo or not, I don’t want to risk it. And what are you fighting against? Just the stigma of using a tool?
“A mental illness is a thing that people cast in a different category [from other illnesses], but I don’t think it is. It should be taken as seriously as anything else.”
Sylvia Jefferies:
The Today show newsreader revealed that early starts on the show took a serious toll on her wellbeing after she joined the morning program in June 2014.
“It’s very easy to slip into an unhealthy lifestyle and a low mood when you’re excessively tired and sleep-deprived,” she told The Daily Telegraph. “I’ve always been a happy, glass-half-full person but I found I was more susceptible to sinking into a low mood and my mental state was changing quite radically.”
Jeffreys attributes exercise and a healthy diet for pulling her out of what she calls “the blues.”
Jesinta Campbell:
Newlywed Jesinta Campbell has been an advocate for mental health and has shared her support for husband Buddy Franklin as he dealt with his own mental illness. Now the Aussie model has revealed she regularly seeks professional help to keep her own mental health in check.
“I am not ashamed to say that I see a professional regularly myself,” she tells OK! magazine. “I don’t have any fear of talking about it and being open about my mental health or helping those around me feel more comfortable talking about it.”
The now Mrs Franklin says finding a safe environment to “download all my worries and stresses” is extremely important to her, and something she feels passionately about.
“I’ve found it really helpful and feel so much better after a session,” the 25-year-old said, adding that she feels “mentally lighter” afterwards.
Back in October Jesinta posted a heartfelt message on Instagram to her now-husband following the AFL Grand Final, describing him as her inspiration in his ability to overcome his personal issues following his own battle with depression which was made public last year.
The post read:
“What a week!! My heart swells with pride for your victorious year. What you have achieved personally I admire far more than any goal, milestone or win you could ever be a part of!! It was amazing to witness you play in another GF this year and although the loss is sad, I feel like we’ve won on so many different levels this year and that’s what truly matters in life ✨ You have inspired me so much.”
Jessica Marais:
Aussie actress Jessica Marais also spoke with Nova FM about her struggle with bipolar, saying: “I never as a public figure think that I can instruct people on how to deal with issues like that. But what I will say is that I’ve learnt to be more open with the people close to me when I’ve had struggles of my own.”
Hayden Panettiere:
Gwyneth Paltrow:
On postnatal depression: “When my son, Moses, came into the world in 2006, I expected to have another period of euphoria following his birth, much the way I had when my daughter was born two years earlier. Instead I was confronted with one of the darkest and most painfully debilitating chapters of my life.”
Winona Ryder:
“You can’t pay enough money to cure that feeling of being broken and confused. It’s not like everyday’s been great ever since. You have good days and bad days, and depression’s something that, y’know, is always with you.”
Halle Berry:
“I was sitting in my car, and I knew the gas was coming when I had an image of my mother finding me. She sacrificed so much for her children, and to end my life would be an incredibly selfish thing to do. My sense of worth was so low. I had to reprogram myself to see the good in me. Because someone didn’t love me didn’t mean I was unlovable. That’s what the break-up of my marriage reduced me to. It took away my self-esteem. It beat me down to the lowest of lows.”
Brooke Sheilds:
“If I had been diagnosed with any other disease, I would have run to get help. I would have worn it like a badge. I didn’t at first—but finally I did fight. I survived.”
Jim Carrey:
“I was on Prozac for a long time. It may have helped me out of a jam for a little bit, but people stay on it forever. I had to get off at a certain point because I realised that, you know, everything’s just okay. You need to get out of bed every day and say that life is good. That’s what I did, although at times it was very difficult for me.”
Lena Dunham:
“Promised myself I would not let exercise be the first thing to go by the wayside when I got busy with Girls Season 5 and here is why: it has helped with my anxiety in ways I never dreamed possible. To those struggling with anxiety, OCD, depression: I know it’s mad annoying when people tell you to exercise, and it took me about 16 medicated years to listen. I’m glad I did.”
Ellie Goulding:
“I was sceptical [about having cognitive behavioural therapy] at first because I’d never had therapy, but not being able to leave the house [because of panic attacks] was so debilitating. And this was when my career was really taking off…
“My surroundings would trigger a panic attack, so I couldn’t go to the studio unless I was lying down in the car with a pillow over my face. I used to beat myself up about it. There were a couple of times after I released Delirium when I was doing promo and thought, “Oh god, it’s coming back, it’s coming back,” but it didn’t. I think my body has become quite good at controlling anxiety.”
Cara Delevingne:
“I think I pushed myself so far [at school] that I got to the point where I had a mental breakdown. I was completely suicidal, I didn’t want to live any more.
“I thought that I was completely alone. I also realised how lucky I was, and what a wonderful family and wonderful friends I had, but that didn’t matter. I wanted the world to swallow me up, and nothing seemed better to me than death.
“It’s about finding people around you who have your best interests at heart. I had a lot of people around me who were just after what I gave them, not looking after me. So it’s about finding people who care about you, and support you. And I’ve now been able to become a support for other people as well.”
Catherine Zeta-Jones:
“This is a disorder that affects millions of people and I am one of them. If my revelation of having bipolar has encouraged one person to seek help, then it is worth it. There is no need to suffer silently and there is no shame in seeking help.
“I’m not the kind of person who likes to shout out my personal issues from the rooftops but, with my bipolar becoming public, I hope fellow sufferers will know it is completely controllable. I hope I can help remove any stigma attached to it, and that those who don’t have it under control will seek help with all that is available to treat it.
Chrissy Teigen
Everybody’s favourite social media queen Chrissy Teigen has recently discussed her ongoing struggles with post-partum depression in an emotional tell-all open-letter. The 31 year old model and television personality gave birth to her first child, daughter Luna, who she shares with husband John Legend, in April 2016.
The mother-of-one, who is known for her honest admissions to fans, explained that: “I had everything I needed to be happy. And yet, for much of the last year, I felt unhappy. What basically everyone around me—but me—knew up until December was this: I have postpartum depression”
After going to see her doctor, Teigen was diagnosed with post-partum depression and anxiety. Each year, 1 in 7 Australian women who give birth are affected by the mental illness.
Teigen is not the only well-known celeb to speak out about the difficulties one faces post-childbirth, as Adele recently revealed in *that* Grammy’s-acceptance speech: “…in my pregnancy, and through becoming a mother, I lost a lot of myself. I struggled, and I still do struggle being a mum – it’s reallly hard”.
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
8 essentials every mum needs according to Renée-Claire Bargh
Native ad body.
5 Wellness Rituals To Enhance Your Mood
