AJ Lee is completely satisfied to see how WWE has modified its approach to mental health since her first run, with such protections now a part of her contract. Lee is a noted advocate for mental health and has spoken at length about how she had a difficult time with it in her initial WWE run that led to 2014.
Lee returned to the corporate in September of last 12 months, and he or she spoke on “The Match-Up” podcast about how attitudes toward mental health have shifted within the industry and WWE specifically. She identified how she couldn’t even speak about her bipolar disorder diagnosis 10 years ago, but now such things are in her contract.
You possibly can try some highlights from the podcast below:
On how the approach on mental health has modified in wrestling: “I’m really pleased with how far it’s come. Because I’ve been pretty open about how my last 12 months wrestling was my worst mental health 12 months. Like, I looked like every thing on the planet and I’m champion and all these things, but I used to be so deeply depressed. And a part of my journey after was finding, ‘What’s the precise treatment for me?’ And becoming a mental health advocate, and becoming a keynote speaker, like really attempting to send this message to not only people in sports, but additionally communities of color. As a Latina, we don’t speak about our mental health. It’s not a thing that’s accepted in our culture, and there’s so many barriers to treatment.
“In order that’s been an enormous a part of the journey is, form of opening up people’s eyes to if you come from a certain socioeconomic background or cultural background, or there’s language barriers, otherwise you’re in a health care desert. There’s all these different barriers simply to get within the door. After which to not even be represented in clinical trials and research. It’s been this 10-year journey of attempting to form of make people aware of how vital that’s on so many alternative levels.”
On the shift in mental health attitudes in WWE: “To come back back into wrestling and see that they’ve also opened up their mind. The very first thing I desired to ensure that was going to work was, ‘Is my mental health protected? Do I feel protected here? Are you guys aware of what meaning to want mental health day without work?’ Form of identical to, ‘Is that something that may be a priority for that to be a priority?’
“And the conversation was really cool in a way that, I couldn’t even reveal my diagnosis 10 years ago. But now it’s an element of my contract. So that may be a really cool, beautiful thing. And I hope all sports can incorporate that, since it is such a unique — such as you were saying, you do need such exceptional internal health and mental health to only perform safely. So I used to be so genuinely and pleasantly surprised to see that shift.”
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