Princess Victoria Opened Up About Struggling With An Eating Disorder

We've made plenty of progress on destigmatizing mental health problems, but it's still always refreshing to hear someone of influence open up about their own struggles.

According to People, Princess Victoria of Sweden spoke about her previous eating disorder to Swedish station SVT, recalling that while she eventually overcame the anorexia that she developed as a teenager, the anxiety she struggled with still persisted.

"I used to think I was stupid and slow," the Princess, who also has dyslexia, told SVT. "The performance anxiety I had is still there."

However, she said, "I’ve been given different kinds of tools and learned how to manage it."

While it might be easy to speculate that her high-profile position (being a princess is no easy feat, after all) might have contributed to her anxieties and mental health problems, Princess Victoria was quick to dismiss the idea.

"There are as many reasons to feel bad as there are people," she said, adding that over time, she's been able to ease her anxiety.

Overcoming her own struggles has only made her more empathetic towards others who may be facing similar problems — the Princess told SVT that she was concerned with "all the perfect images that are uploaded," on social media, and the repercussions they could have on young people's mental health.

Her concern echoes a study from earlier this year that found that Instagram was the worst app for your mental health, which experts have attributed to the fact that it's an app where personal photos often take center stage — often allowing us to only see the filtered, cropped, and edited images of someone's life.

While Instagram is certainly not the culprit for all mental health problems, and whether or not it impacts your mind's well-being depends on a variety of factors, it's yet another reminder that, as Princess Victoria said, "there are many reasons to feel bad" — and they're all valid.