This post comes very soon after the death of a well loved and highly talented sportsman, Gary Speed. The reason this comes dangerously close to his death, is because the whole situation has curated strong feelings for me.
Firstly, it reminded me how mental health still remains a well hidden black dog, this gentleman's death came to a complete shock to all surrounding him. This has lead to a very public calling of utter bewilderment and confusion as to how this smiley, charismatic, talented man could've a)been in such despair b) hidden it so deep. To those in mental health services,this is sounds all too familiar because it seems people still have difficulty noticing the subtle signs of depression and what it really is. I read in the newspaper this evening that even his wife had no idea of any issues and they had a happy marriage, friends saying he had made plans with them for next week.
This really highlighted to me how there are probably many more sportsmen out there suffering varying levels of mental health issues, yet where is the help? I'm not talking about high profile spells in the priory, I'm talking about monitoring of their needs and goal setting to help them in order to help them achieve the high standard they are expected to. I would love to get involved in helping in this area, focused work for football clubs/sports to try to help people feel that there ARE other options and ways to get through situations and feelings.
