Over the years, Kendall Jenner has always been incredibly open about her struggle with anxiety, which she referred to as a “huge hurdle” in her life back in 2016.
In 2018, Kendall explained that she’d “struggled with anxiety and panic attacks” since she “was a little girl,” and that it was so “debilitating” that she’d often wake up in the night having “full-on panic attacks.”
Three years later, the model opened up some more in a series for Vogue with clinical psychologist Ramani Durvasula. Here, Kendall acknowledged the backlash that her comments about anxiety can trigger online as she pointed out that having a “privileged” lifestyle doesn’t exempt her from mental health struggles.
"There’s going to be those people that say, 'Oh, OK, what does she have to worry about? What does she have to be anxious about?'" she said at the time. "I'll never sit here and say that I'm not fortunate. I know I live a very privileged, amazing lifestyle — I'm a very blessed girl."
"I still have one of these, you know what I mean?" Kendall went on, pointing to her head. "And that thing up there sometimes doesn't always... I don't know, it's not always happy, and it's not always connecting, and I'm still a human being at the end of the day."
"No matter what someone has or doesn't have, it doesn't mean that they don't have real-life feelings and emotions,” she concluded at the time.
And two years later, Kendall has admitted that having mental health struggles amid her many “blessings” often leaves her with feelings of “guilt.”
Now 27 years old, Kendall also said that her anxiety appears to be getting worse as she gets older, and that it has ultimately put her off having children.
Speaking to Scott Disick in this week’s episode of The Kardashians, Kendall kickstarted the conversation by saying that she thinks that one of her dogs has “separation anxiety,” adding: “Maybe I’m the problem, I don’t know. Maybe he feels my anxiety, I could be the problem.”
Scott then asked: “Do you have that much anxiety?” To which Kendall replied: “Yeah, I’ve been really bad lately. It’s one of the reasons why I’m actually scared to have children.”
“Honestly, the scariest part for me is, I’m like, am I just going to get worse throughout life?” she went on. “Because I feel like it’s worse than ever right now, and I’m just like, the older I get, is it just going to get worse and worse and worse?”
She went on to add that she thinks there is a “common misconception” that famous people don’t have problems, adding to Scott: “Like, we’re all human, and we all feel everything.”
“It sucks that people judge you; how the fuck can you be anxious when you’re pretty, you’ve got money, you work, got a great job,” Scott agreed as he imitated the critics. “Great, I’ve got all those great things on paper, but I don’t feel great — so fuck you.”
Speaking in a confessional, Kendall opened up about her feelings of guilt in this regard, explaining: “I have definitely struggled with a little bit of guilt for even feeling anxiety or feeling unwell because I do have a lot of blessings and I am a really lucky person.”
“But we all have shit to a certain degree,” she added. “So I think just a little more compassion would be nice.”
Kendall also said that she was around 8 years old when her anxiety first started, but at the time, she thought that there was something “physically wrong” with her.
“I made my mom take me to a heart doctor and a lung doctor and a brain doctor,” she explained. “At that time, too, people didn’t really talk about anxiety like they do now. I never knew what it was until later in life.”
In an interview with Vogue last year, Kendall offered fans some advice on how to cope if they also live with anxiety.
She shared at the time: “If I need to wind down, I really make a point to take 15 minutes to meditate to settle my anxiety so I can get a good night’s rest.”
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