

Professional athletes make a lot of money for what they do for a living but they’re normal people just like the rest of us. They put their socks and shoes on one foot at a time, they breathe the same air we breathe, and they deal with mental health issues on a daily basis just like the rest of us.

Plenty of athletes have opened up and shed some light on their struggles with depression and their mental health issues over the past couple of years and the most recent one is Cleveland Cavaliers centre Kevin Love, who opened up about his panic attacks and mental health issues in his letter in The Players’ Tribune titled ‘Everyone Is Going Through Something’.

The 29-year-old is currently in his 10th NBA season and he’s experienced it all from finishing dead last in the league to hoisting the Larry O’Brien Trophy above his head. However, this season he experienced something entirely new to him, something so overwhelming that it left him thinking he was about to die. He experienced his first panic attack.



Love experienced his first panic attack just 10 games into the season in a game against the Atlanta Hawks. Stressing out about family issues and the Cavs’ 4-5 start to the season, Love really felt it all weigh him down early on in the game. Once the second half started, that’s when it all hit the fan.



Coach Lue called a timeout in the third quarter. When I got to the bench, I felt my heart racing faster than usual. Then I was having trouble catching my breath. It’s hard to describe, but everything was spinning, like my brain was trying to climb out of my head. The air felt thick and heavy. My mouth was like chalk. I remember our assistant coach yelling something about a defensive set. I nodded, but I didn’t hear much of what he said. By that point, I was freaking out. When I got up to walk out of the huddle, I knew I couldn’t reenter the game — like, literally couldn’t do it physically.



Coach Lue came up to me. I think he could sense something was wrong. I blurted something like, “I’ll be right back,” and I ran back to the locker room. I was running from room to room, like I was looking for something I couldn’t find. Really I was just hoping my heart would stop racing. It was like my body was trying to say to me, You’re about to die. I ended up on the floor in the training room, lying on my back, trying to get enough air to breathe.



The next part was a blur. Someone from the Cavs accompanied me to the Cleveland Clinic. They ran a bunch of tests. Everything seemed to check out, which was a relief. But I remember leaving the hospital thinking, Wait … then what the hell just happened?

After experiencing the panic attack and getting examined at the hospital, the five-time NBA All-Star started to worry about the news of his own inner struggles getting out across the league, considering the way boys are taught to handle themselves growing up. Love started seeing a therapist that the Cavs set up for him and the meetings have helped him tremendously as they taught him how important it is to open up and speak about your issues. That’s not the only person he credits, though.



One of the reasons I wanted to write this comes from reading DeMar’s comments last week about depression. I’ve played against DeMar for years, but I never could’ve guessed that he was struggling with anything. It really makes you think about how we are all walking around with experiences and struggles — all kinds of things — and we sometimes think we’re the only ones going through them. The reality is that we probably have a lot in common with what our friends and colleagues and neighbors are dealing with. So I’m not saying everyone should share all their deepest secrets — not everything should be public and it’s every person’s choice. But creating a better environment for talking about mental health … that’s where we need to get to.

Love credits DeMar DeRozan for helping him go public about his own personal issues after the Toronto Raptors’ guard went public about his own battle with depression a week ago.



Because just by sharing what he shared, DeMar probably helped some people — and maybe a lot more people than we know — feel like they aren’t crazy or weird to be struggling with depression. His comments helped take some power away from that stigma, and I think that’s where the hope is.



The Cavs’ big man hasn’t found all the answers yet and is still learning a lot about himself and mental health issues, but he ended his letter on a very powerful note.



I want to end with something I’m trying to remind myself about these days: Everyone is going through something that we can’t see.



I want to write that again: Everyone is going through something that we can’t see.



The thing is, because we can’t see it, we don’t know who’s going through what and we don’t know when and we don’t always know why. Mental health is an invisible thing, but it touches all of us at some point or another. It’s part of life. Like DeMar said, “You never know what that person is going through.”



.@DeMar_DeRozan opens up about mental health, and his decision to share some of what he's going through: "It's all about helping others." pic.twitter.com/lUWgQr8s34 — ESPN (@espn) March 4, 2018

No matter what our circumstances, we’re all carrying around things that hurt — and they can hurt us if we keep them buried inside. Not talking about our inner lives robs us of really getting to know ourselves and robs us of the chance to reach out to others in need. So if you’re reading this and you’re having a hard time, no matter how big or small it seems to you, I want to remind you that you’re not weird or different for sharing what you’re going through.



Just the opposite. It could be the most important thing you do. It was for me.

You can read the entire letter on The Players’ Tribune.



You’re even more powerful now than ever before @kevinlove!!! Salute and respect brother! ✊🏾💪🏾🙏🏾 https://t.co/6nL6WoZMCm — LeBron James (@KingJames) March 6, 2018

(H/T The Players’ Tribune)