Sweden’s Crown Princess Victoria suffers from a rare disease that makes her unable to recognize herself
Bridie Wilkins
Crown Princess Victoria’s health: the Swedish royal has been diagnosed with prosopagnosia – here is everything she has said about it.
Wonder why Crown Princess Victoria seems to just tear up the hair? There is a reason. The royal suffers from a rare disease called prosopagnosi, also known as face blindness, which means she struggles to recognize people’s faces, including her own.
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Crown Princess Victoria revealed that she had been diagnosed with the condition in 2008, and in an interview with Sweden Parenting power newspaper, she said: “I have a very hard time remembering names and faces, and that’s a big disadvantage in my capacity because I obviously meet a lot of people. I really try to learn names and faces but they just do not stick.”
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Then the newspaper added that Victoria was one of about 200,000 people in Sweden who suffered from prosopagnosia. According to NHS1.5 million people in the UK are now believed to have the permit.
It is not known when Crown Princess Victoria contracted the disease, but the NHS states that “facial blindness often affects people from birth and is usually a problem a person has for most or all of their lives”. There are two types of the disorder: the developmental stage, where a person has it without having brain damage, and acquired prosopagnosia, where a person develops it after a brain injury, often after a stroke or head injury.
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Crown Princess Victoria rarely tears down her hair
How is Crown Princess Victoria doing? “People can cope by using alternative strategies to recognize people, such as remembering how they walk or their hairstyle, voice or clothing,” the NHS said. However, it adds that “these types of strategies do not always work – for example, when a person with prosopagnosia meets someone in an unknown place”.
In terms of treatment, the NHS states: “There is no specific treatment for prosopagnosia”, while “compensatory strategies based on contextual cues” may be the best way to manage symptoms.
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