Kevin Love opens up on mental health and the need normalize it

good for Love

 

Too much money to spend, then got depression. Good for you, Kevin. You need more Love, and more money.

 

I definitely have had my fair share. Most people don't understand. Its really hard to describe to somebody it has never happened to. It's really hard to sort out. Stress is a killer.

 

Kevin Love: "Without DeMar coming out, I wouldn't have pressed 'send'." Says that he has started reading the 4,000+ emails he has received and that the whole process has been therapeutic. Also mentions that LeBron shook his hand and told him that he helped a lot of people by speaking out.

 

Long article, with more detail from Love, other players, and update on League movement on Mental Health policy.



some tidbits

• The willingness of Love and DeMar DeRozan to step out of the shadows and reveal their struggles has set the NBA on an important path of self-discovery. It has prompted the National Basketball Players Association to hire Dr. William Parham as its first director of mental health and wellness, and it has convinced commissioner Adam Silver and union head Michele Roberts that hammering out a comprehensive mental health policy needs to be a priority.
• Apparently, some Owners want access to player files if this happens.
  • Yet there remain many obstacles to confront, chief among them the stigma attached to mental health that prompts many players to suffer in silence. The union also insists that mental health treatment be confidential, but some NBA owners, who in some cases are paying their players hundreds of millions of dollars, want access to the files of their "investments." That is not, however, the league's position. "The NBA fully supports protecting the confidentiality of players' mental health information and, accordingly, committed to the players association that any mental health program we undertake would do so," NBA spokesman Mike Bass says.
• Perhaps the thorniest problem facing NBA teams is not identifying who needs help. It's convincing those players they need help. "We can offer all the services in the world," explains Boston Celtics GM Danny Ainge, "but if they won't use them, we can't help them. Too many of these guys don't realize how badly they need help until it's too late."
• "It's an epidemic in our league. I'm talking about everything from ADHD to bipolar to anxiety and depression."Rockets assistant coach John Lucas

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Kevin Love knows where to give credit where credit is due. BeWell.