Outward appearances can be deceiving.
People that seem as though they have it all are often dealing with their own destructive demons behind closed doors.
That was the case with Iowa Hawkeyes standout Sean Welsh, who, despite various accolades and successes, confessed to problems he suffered from in his personal life.
Welsh wrote on the school website about his ongoing struggle with depression.
From ESPN:
Iowa offensive lineman Sean Welsh opened up about his battle with depression Wednesday in a post he wrote for the athletic department’s website.
The redshirt senior has been a regular on the Hawkeyes’ front line for the last three seasons, earning a second-team All-America nod from USA Today and several all-conference accolades during his career. Welsh said he first started dealing with the symptoms of depression during his redshirt freshman season in 2014.
“Football, the driving force for many years of my life, went from a source of purpose to a source of apathy,” he wrote. “I started to feel a myriad of negative emotions: sadness, anxiety, dread and anger. They hit me like a bombardment from the moment I woke up to when I went back to bed.”
“If you think you suffer from depression, see someone. If you suspect a loved one suffers, get them the help they need. And if you know of someone struggling with depression be understanding and caring — you will make a world of difference.”
Welsh said he temporarily left the program to seek help on two different occasions despite having success on the field and in the classroom. He wrote that he left spring practice in 2015 to see a therapist and treat the disease. He also struggled through a bout of depression during training camp in August 2016.
Welsh said doctors have told him his depression is a genetic condition that will stay with him throughout his life. He said he decided to share stories about his run-ins with the disease publicly in hopes of raising awareness for how to manage it.
Last fall Welsh was a part of Iowa’s leadership group, a member of the Academic All-Big Ten team and won the program’s Hustle Award. He is one of three Hawkeye players who will be representing his teammates at the Big Ten media days in Chicago next week.
Welsh’s message is important, it lets others know they aren’t alone, and it raises awareness about the warning signs.
Richard Kravitz M.D, M.S.P.H., Professor of Internal Medicine at UC Davis said:
“Depression doesn’t always look like debilitating sadness. Patients are reluctant to consider depression as a cause of their symptoms—in part because they may equate it with weakness, but also in part because they simply don’t associate those symptoms with depression.”
According to suicide prevention organization Overnight.org:
Twenty-five million Americans suffer from depression each year. Over 50 percent of all people who die by suicide suffer from major depression. If one includes alcoholics who are depressed, this figure rises to over 75 percent.
Depression affects nearly 5-8 percent of Americans ages 18 and over in a given year. More Americans suffer from depression than coronary heart disease, cancer, and HIV/AIDS.
Depression is among the most treatable of psychiatric illnesses. Between 80 percent and 90 percent of people with depression respond positively to treatment, and almost all patients gain some relief from their symptoms. But first, depression has to be recognized.
Good for Sean Walsh for putting himself out there and talking about this issue. With more awareness and understanding, a lot of suffering and tragic deaths can be abated.
What a bunch of BS Depression comes from a chemical imbalance in the brain. give a kid a bunch of sugger and they will bounce off the walls with energy. then they will crash. he is a football playerand the natural high he gets from the dopamine produced from the bodies self defence is like any drug. it was produced when needed to override the pain signels so the body could perform and get itself out of danger. as the body continues to produce it the body no longer responds and it takes ever more to produce the same level of responce. now the body must return to a normal state and with the amount of energy expended the body must recover. to do so it must go into a lower level state of activity. today this is classified as depression. they are told by doctors that this isn’t normal and to take a pill to cure it. well in doing so it does damage to the body. when we repeat actions to our body they become permanent. now it takes more pills so they can feel normal. many suffer from depression that comes form other sources. it still must come from the imbalance in the brain. the swing from high to low. this swing the high isnt very high but the low isnt proportionally lower. the doctors answer is always drugs. the problem is that no matter how many studies you do the results are different for every individual. I know the answers is not found in drugs. small well regulated amounts can help a little. the main problem is the advertizments. they tell us take a pill and everything will be ok. when the result isnt forthcoming the people take more. perception is 99% of the problem just as the problems built up over time they must be handled the same. until we stop the promised miricles the problems will continue with depression. why do doctors and the drug company’s do this? Money. we wont find a cure until the profit is removed. What do i know I am just a senile retired old man.
Grampa
Perhaps a lot said about depression is BS; but certainly not all of it, and quite possibly not a majority of it.
I went through 6 months of clinical depression when I came back from Desert Storm; and wasn’t identified by the military, but by a clinical social worker friend of the family. Didn’t use drugs, and only did counseling for several months to get back to “normal”; but that normal wasn’t where I was before I left. Some changes in personality do become permanent; the question is whether you can live with them or not. Those who can’t, drugs, counseling or otherwise, suicide one way or another.
By the way, depression and suicide ARE genetic in my wife’s family. Multi-generational, going back over a hundred years.