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By his personal account, Sidney Jones IV did not need to face a ton of adversity for many of his life main as much as his ultimate yr on the College of Washington, and that was significantly true when it got here to soccer.
After being a standout participant on a profitable West Covina Excessive College group, Jones went on to change into a three-year starter and finally one of many nation’s high cornerbacks with the Huskies, trying like a possible first-round choose when he determined to forgo his senior season for the 2017 draft.
However then Jones’ soccer profession took a dramatic flip when he tore his Achilles throughout Washington’s professional day, an harm that triggered him to fall to the second spherical of the draft. Jones missed nearly his complete rookie season with the Philadelphia Eagles, then throughout his subsequent two seasons he struggled to earn constant enjoying time, partially because of extra accidents. Jones was finally minimize by the group that drafted him, then later traded away from his second group, Jacksonville, for a sixth-round choose.
These on-field struggles took Jones to a darkish place, main him to battle despair and nervousness. It took a while, however Jones finally discovered assist in the type of a therapist, a call that helped enhance each his high quality of life and his play on the sphere. That journey is why, when Seahawks gamers wore customized cleats for final season’s My Trigger, My Cleats sport, Jones proudly sported a pair of pink footwear with the title and emblem of Psychological Well being America, a non-profit devoted to addressing the wants of these dwelling with psychological sickness and selling the general psychological well being of all.
And it is also why Jones is inspired by the launch of the Seahawks’ new psychological well being program, Psychological Well being Issues.
“It is actually essential to me as a result of it is one thing I have been by personally,” stated Jones, who joined the Seahawks through commerce with Jacksonville previous to the beginning of final season. “Rising up, I by no means actually confronted an excessive amount of adversity, by no means had too many hardships. It was form of a straightforward street—good at soccer, every little thing was going up and up. Then I sustained the Achilles harm earlier than the draft, and that was an enormous shock for me. First surgical procedure, first main harm, and that took me by some darkish instances. I attempted to remain optimistic about it, however I had a second the place I simply did not really feel like myself, and that was weighing on me. I did not discover I wanted assist till perhaps a few years down the street, and I by no means actually received an opportunity to speak about it. However popping out of that, popping out of that darkish house, I received some assist, talked to a therapist and discovered a means.”
Psychological Well being Issues is a program that may deal with destigmatizing, normalizing and inspiring conversations round psychological well being. The Seahawks will companion with the Nationwide Alliance on Psychological Sickness (NAMI) to supply assets and steps to get assist, whereas additionally offering warning indicators of psychological sickness and what to do when these indicators are current, together with steps to get correct assist.
“If you happen to’re going by powerful instances and adversity hits, you want any individual to speak to, you want a assist system,” Jones stated. “Some folks have completely different assist programs—household, mates, therapists—and mine simply occurred to be a therapist who helped me out, and my spouse, she was there alongside this course of with me. It has been a great journey simply studying about psychological well being, studying the significance of it, as a result of these darkish days that you simply face generally, and there is all the time a brighter facet by speaking about it and having a assist system, being vocal about it and never being in your personal field, I really feel like helped the method of getting again to who I used to be.”
Getting again who he was helped Jones get pleasure from the very best season of his profession with the Seahawks in 2021, establishing profession highs in video games performed (16), begins (11), passes defensed (10) and tackles (66). He additionally believes that being more healthy mentally helped him keep more healthy from a bodily standpoint.
“My psychological well being was popping out by accidents,” he stated. “I really feel just like the nervousness and despair form of manifested by my physique, and also you want your physique to carry out. All the pieces was correlated, my psychological wasn’t proper, and it was displaying up in my career. Simply ensuring the psychological is correct, as a result of the psychological controls every little thing. In order that’s crucial to carry consciousness to only so everybody will get an opportunity to be the very best model of themselves.”
A giant a part of psychological well being, significantly in relation to NFL gamers, is creating an atmosphere the place gamers know that it is OK to acknowledge that they could need assistance and that it is OK to hunt out that assist. As former Seahawks linebacker Bobby Wagner stated final yr when discussing psychological well being, “It is OK to not be OK, and it is OK to search for any individual that will help you out by that course of.”
For Jones, three years of remedy, in addition to the assist of his spouse, has helped him get to a greater place, and he’s now keen to be open about his personal struggles in order that others, be it a teammate or only a soccer fan who occurs to listen to his story, know that they can also search out the assistance they could want.
“That is crucial,” Jones stated. “I feel simply speaking and being open, being weak to any individual—you’ll be able to put in your entrance to everyone else, however you have to discover that person who’s a protected house for you, as a result of all of us take care of issues, it is simply how we take care of them.”
With 1 in 5 U.S. adults experiencing psychological sickness, together with 17 p.c of youth ages 6-17 years, and with 50 p.c of lifetime psychological sickness starting by age 14, Psychological Well being Issues could have an emphasis on youth and on the Black group.
“The extra that we’re bringing consciousness and the extra that persons are speaking about it, it permits individuals who aren’t athletes to know that, no matter the place you’re in no matter facet of life that you’ll be coping with one thing,” stated receiver Tyler Lockett. “Now the subsequent step for us is having the ability to attempt to permit protected areas to be given.”
Lockett has been a robust advocate for destigmatizing conversations about psychological well being, brining up his personal struggles with nervousness and despair in press conferences in recent times, and in addition addressing these struggles by his poetry. Lockett sees a world wherein folks current a sanitized model of their lives on social media and worries that folks can be afraid to confess that every little thing is not good in their very own world.
“We do not normalize that we make errors, we do not normalize that we lose video games, we do not normalize that life occurs and trials occur, and due to that we get this notion in our heads that every little thing has to go a sure means—you have to achieve success by 20-something, and life is not speculated to seem like this and seem like that,” he stated. “The extra that we’re in a position to normalize that life goes to look completely different for everyone, we’re in a position to permit folks to take care of their psychological well being and sit with it slightly than all of the highlights on social media, every little thing that is going proper for any individual as a result of we by no means get to see what’s not.
“A number of instances folks undergo issues behind closed doorways and also you by no means actually know their battles. We stock it with us as a result of we expect we’re the one ones… It makes it tougher and tougher to be weak in at this time’s world, as a result of we do not admire vulnerability till any individual commits suicide or till any individual does one thing to themselves in a means that they are crying for assist.”
For Lockett, a objective of sharing his personal psychological well being struggles is making a protected atmosphere the place persons are extra snug being weak.
“Not everybody is in a position to do this as a result of they do not have their protected locations, they may not be capable of pay for remedy, they could evening be capable of search the form of assist they want,” he stated. “We have simply received to normalize a number of issues slightly than making like this massive outdated factor that we expect it is speculated to be, as a result of that does not mean you can be content material, it makes you need to maintain chasing.”
Warning Indicators of Psychological Sickness:
- Feeling very unhappy or withdrawn for greater than two weeks
- Attempting to hurt or finish one’s life or planning to take action
- Extreme, out-of-control, risk-taking conduct that causes hurt to self or others
- Sudden overwhelming concern for no cause, generally with a racing coronary heart, bodily discomfort or problem respiration
- Important weight reduction or achieve
Nervous about your self or somebody you care about?
- If you happen to discover any of those signs, it is essential to ask questions
- Attempt to perceive what they’re experiencing and the way their each day life is impacted
- Making this connection is usually step one to getting remedy
- Speak with a well being care skilled
- Study extra about psychological sickness
- Take a psychological well being schooling class
- Be a part of a assist group
- Name the NAMI HelpLine at 800-950-NAMI (6264)
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