This article links in a little bit with the Chris Benoit article from last week. This week i’m going to be talking about Mental Health issues.
There is still a massive taboo about Mental Health issues in the world in general and even more so in the world of sport where people, who are deemed to not want for anything, can struggle massively with their mental health. The fact of the matter is, every single one of us, either directly or indirectly will feel the effects of mental health, it may be from you dealing with issues personally or by a family member or friend suffering with an issue. I’ve personally battled mental health issues so I can write this article from experience.
In the world of wrestling it’s hard to see how some will not suffer from mental health issues. For a lot of the roster they are on the road, what 300 days a year with the WWE? That’s 300 days away from home, away from the normal surroundings, having little sleep and little down time. For an everyday person this would be hard to manage, so hard had can it be for the people doing it, especially those with children at home?
When you then take into account all the little niggles and major injuries, that can also get to you and can cause mental issues when you aren’t able to do what you love doing and what you are paid to do. It happens to everyone, when you can’t do what you need to do it is easy to spiral out of control.
When you take all this into consideration and have an understanding of mental health issues, it is easy to see why a lot of wrestlers go off the rails when they can no longer compete. Some turn to alcohol, some turn to drugs, and some get so bad they do things that contribute to them ending their life. This is the same for people outside of wrestling who struggle.
Whilst I appreciate what WWE do with regards to getting former talent into rehabilitation centres in order to turn their lives back around after their struggles, are they really doing enough to combat the taboo of mental health issues before they spiral out of control?
I’d like to think that as massive an organisation as they are, they are doing what they can to help those suffering with issues as the main blowouts happen post wrestling for these people. So does the blame then lay at the feet of the GP’s that aren’t forthcoming with support for mental health issues and just throw prescription pills at you in order to “help” when addiction easily becomes such a massive problem when pills are taken on a regular basis.
I’m not saying that support would have prevented whatever made Chris Benoit snap on the fateful day, however it is perfectly plausible that such support could have easily helped in the cases of Joanie ‘Chyna’ Laurer and Axl Rotten this past year alone.
As a side note, I do encourage anyone who is suffering with mental health issues to speak to people about it. You can speak to me directly, i’m sure all the team at SLTD will be happy to speak with you too. Here in the UK we say “It’s good to talk” and in the case of mental health issues that is certainly the case. Also encourage your loved ones, friends, colleagues, whoever you know that has issues, or may have issues to talk, sometimes something as simple as “Hello how are you?” can save somebody.
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