World Mental Health Day was on Tuesday, and as New York Jets defensive lineman Solomon Thomas and several other pro athletes did work and put out PSAs on taking care of your mental health, First Take host Stephen A. Smith opened up a little about his own mental health issues.
Stephen A., Molly Qerim and Chris “Mad Dog” Russo were talking about the value and importance of athletes taking care of themselves mentally. Stephen A. said it’s tantamount if you’re going through a crisis to seek assistance. He said while he’s never contemplated suicide or self-harm, the 2017 passing of his mother really shook Smith at his core. So much so he said he felt like it affected how he worked on First Take.
“I’ve never been to that point, Doggie, but I acknowledge that when I lost my mother, I was in a real, real bad state,” Smith said. “And, you know, I did a disservice to Molly. I did a disservice to Max Kellerman when he was sitting on this show and various others.”
Smith added that it was evident because while he would look on the outside like he had it all together, that wasn’t the case internally.
“There were days, man, that I was here, but I wasn’t here because the level of misery that I felt was so profound,” he said.
Stephen A. Smith gave kudos to athletes like Thomas and Dak Prescott of the Dallas Cowboys for being so open to talk about their struggles with depression and anxiety and dealing with suicide.
“I can only imagine how much it’s ravaging them emotionally and spiritually when you just feel like the days are just perpetually dark and there’s never going to be any light,” he said.
Call it whatever you want, when a big name person claims to have “mental health” issues, it’s jumping on a bandwagon seeking even more attention than they already have. Im not one to claim mental health problems when something doesn’t go my way or when someone I know dies. My mom died almost 2 years ago and while I was sad, I didn’t claim to need mental support. Dying is part of living and one needs to accept that, plain and simple. If a person commits suicide and then everyone around them said it was because of bad mental health, I disagree. A person only commits suicide when they are too weak minded to deal with solutions to problems. It’s a cowards way out. The sooner society stops blaming mental health for all of its problems, the better off everyone will be. Just my opinion and I know I’ll get a ton of hate but it won’t change my opinion on the matter. And no, I won’t need to seek any kind of help because people will say “mean things”.