Máxima grants all children in the Netherlands ‘resilience, self-knowledge and the opportunity to talk about the things that bother them’, she says.
Máxima about mental health of the princesses
That Princess Amalia sometimes talks to a ‘professional’ when she needs it, she already says in the book that Claudia de Breij wrote in honor of her eighteenth birthday. “If I need it, I make an appointment. Just vent, and then I’ll be ready for another month,” she said at the time. But the princess is not the only Orange who sometimes knocks on a psychologist’s door.
Máxima says that her middle daughter, Princess Alexia, also needed this. “Amalia and Alexia have both spoken to people. I immediately said: it’s very nice to talk to someone and just say it, it’s not an issue. We all have moments. If we find help in those moments, why not? Then you have to use it.”
When asked whether the queen herself also gets help from a psychologist, she says: “I did, absolutely.”
The death of sister Inés
One of the reasons why Máxima thinks it is important to dedicate herself to Mind Us is her sister Ines. She passed away almost four years ago after taking her own life. “When she died, she was 33 years old. Then you are flooded with a lot of feelings. Sadness, loss, powerlessness,” said the queen.
She continues: “That it had come to this and you were unable to help her. But we didn’t really know how, it was hard to talk about it. Her death stirred up a lot of feelings. And again and again the question: could we have done more? I soon realized that I was not alone. I heard from many people that they had gone through the same thing with a family member or a friend. How can you really help someone with mental problems? A lot of people struggle with that.”
Máxima wondered if she could have helped Inés earlier. “But we didn’t know, nobody knew. Because we didn’t talk about it. That is exactly what I want to avoid.”
This is what the foundation does
Two topics that are high on Máxima’s agenda are inclusive financing and music education in primary education. Over the next ten years she will add mental health to this: her work for the Mind Us foundation is part of that.
The death of her sister was ‘the starting point of a search’, which partly resulted in the establishment of the foundation and helping young people. “Because three quarters of all psychological problems start before the age of 25,” says Máxima.
Claudia de Breij got a special insight into the life of Princess Amalia. The comedian and princess met six times at the palace, in the royal stables or at the beach bar where Amalia sometimes helps, for the book Amalia† Libelle spoke to Claudia about it.
You can talk about suicidal thoughts anonymously: chat via www.113.nlcall 113 or call toll-free 0800-0113.
Source: AD