Jinger Duggar Opens Up About Her ‘Serious’ Mental Health Issues

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Jinger Duggar is literally turning over a new leaf with her upcoming book, The People Pleaser: Freeing Yourself from the Burden of Imaginary Expectations. Set to premiere in January 2025, the 30-year-old reality TV icon shares her personal struggles with people-pleasing behaviors, which she reveals led to self-imposed isolation.

“I was so caught up in what everyone around me thought about me,” Duggar explained. People in an interview published Tuesday, September 24. “And I often saw it just starting to become serious where it started to affect my relationships or just make me reject certain relationships because I was afraid of what that person might think of me.”

The former TLC star explained that the roots of her people-pleasing habits were rooted in her teenage years. “I was like, ‘Oh, I’m too fat.’ Even though I wasn’t,” she admitted. “I was afraid to eat too much because I was like, ‘Oh no, my friends aren’t going to like me because they’re skinnier than me.’” That negative self-talk turned into an eating disorder, a battle she didn’t have to fight alone thanks to the support of close friends and family.

Duggar’s confessions about her struggles aren’t just a throwback to darker days — they’re her way of calling attention to a path many people stumble upon today.

“We wake up, we scroll, we see other people’s perfect lives and we try to compare ourselves to meet their standards of what they expect of us,” she said. “A lot of it is just imagined expectations. So I wanted to write a book that was more relatable, in a way. Like, ‘Okay, we’re all in this place where we’re people-pleasers. I don’t have it all figured out, but this is what I’m learning on this journey of trying to break free from it. There’s an answer, there’s a solution.’”

After Counting on shared the big news about her upcoming release on Instagram, it didn’t take long for the virtual cheers to start pouring in.

“Congratulations and looking forward to reading it (as a pleaser trying to break the cycle!),” wrote one person.

“I’m so excited for your new book! I’m pre-ordering it as soon as I get home from work today! ,” another person exclaimed.

“I’m trying to work on that! Thanks for sharing your healing journey,” a third chimed in.

The Duggars married Jeremy Joseph Vuolo on November 5, 2016. The couple has two daughters: 6-year-old Felicity and 3-year-old Evangeline.