♡ ◞ —— HEADCANON ! / MENTAL HEALTH .
IMPORTANT NOTE : THIS IS MOSTLY CENTERED ON ANNA’S MENTAL HEALTH UP TO THE EVENTS OF FROZEN . THIS IS BECAUSE MOST OF THIS IS REWRITTEN FROM MY PREVIOUS BLOG . A FUTURE META WILL DELVE INTO ANNA’S MENTAL HEALTH FROM POST - FROZEN TO THE SEQUEL AND BEYOND .
DEPRESSION . despite anna’s sunny demeanour , she has experienced depression . for thirteen years , she was isolated from the outside world . she grew up without her sister , believing she was responsible for elsa suddenly shutting her out but never being able to pinpoint why . can you imagine how she would feel ? the loneliness she felt was utterly unbearable . the only human contact she had from the ages of five to eighteen was with her parents and the limited palace staff . —— of course , agnarr and iduna did as much as they could for anna , trying their best to ease her loneliness and shower her with the affection she craved , but they also had a kingdom to rule , often leaving them with limited time to spend with their daughters in times when their duties had to take precedence . thus anna’s childhood was largely spent alone , talking to the portraits upon the walls , or to a closed door that would never open . unsurprisingly , this isolation did have a severe impact on her mental wellbeing , something which was only exacerbated once her parents passed away , her only source of love and affection stripped away from her .
ANXIETY & PTSD . anna also suffers from mild ptsd . it first manifested following her the loss of her parents , countless sleepless nights plaguing her as every time she would close her eyes , she would see visions of a sinking ship , of thrashing waves and desperate cries . it is at this point that anxiety attacks became somewhat commonplace , the worst of which occurring the first time she went into their bedroom following their death . she would try her best to control them with various coping mechanisms she had picked up over the years , distracting herself with activities such as painting and horseriding , but often there were days where such coping techniques were not enough . on these days , she was unlikely to leave her bedroom , and she could go all day without eating . —— over time , the anxiety attacks did lessen and the nightmares did stop coming ; however they returned once more following the great thaw , nightmares of not reaching elsa in time or of succumbing entirely to her frozen heart growing frequent in the initial months after frozen . often when she would wake from these nightmares , highly distressed , she would sneak into elsa’s bedroom in sought of comfort , crawling into bed beside her sister . —— again , these do thankfully lessen over time . by the time frozen 2 occurs , these nightmares are exceedingly rare , with anna only suffering one every three months or so .
SELF - ESTEEM . anna’s issues with self - esteem is something we see more of in the first movie , though they are present in the sequel . her self - esteem is also something that grows over the course of the two movies , which i will touch on later . but first , i wanna talk about when her self - esteem is at it’s lowest . for my interpretation of anna , i’ve always pulled a lot of inspiration from the outtake ‘ more than just the spare ’ . anna begins this song by questioning her value when measured against elsa , feeling that she cannot compare . ( ‘ she’s the scholar , athlete , poet - i’m the screw up , don’t i know it ‘ ) whether it’s true or not , anna clearly perceives herself as lacking the skills elsa possesses . while i do imagine that agnarr and iduna tried to discourage the notion of ‘ the heir and the spare ’ , treating their daughters as equals ( and absolutely never referring to anna in such a way ) , i still believe it’s a phrase that remained in the back of anna’s mind growing up , leaving her often feeling that she had to prove her worth and that she was more than just the spare .
beyond this , whilst anna possesses numerous admirable traits many would strive to display , she initially does not realise just how special these traits actually make her . she tells hans that she is not ‘ that princess ’ and that it’s ‘ just her ‘ , the connotations of which implying that she is lesser to elsa . of course , this is in part a reference to status , and in part a reference to their starkly contrasting personalities ( the implication being that he would be met with a much frostier , pardon the pun , reception had he run into elsa instead ) but still it can be inferred that it ties in to anna’s insecurities regarding her own personal worth in comparison to elsa . thankfully , we get to see anna’s confidence and self - esteem grow over the course of both movies . in the sequel , we can see she is much more comfortable in herself , and it is clear that nobody sees her as lesser to elsa , any suggestion that she may be ‘ the spare ’ totally gone .
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