With the way the season is going I thought it might be interesting to switch gears and toss in a little nugget I stumbled on. I had no idea at all!! VERY Interesting read!
But seriously though, it takes a tremendous amount of courage for someone to open up the deepest darkest part of their soul the way that Ray Lucas is doing. I have a tremendous amount of respect for him ever since learning of his battles with addiction, depression, etc. Keep on keepin' on Ray!
Suicide and mental illness are horrific things to battle, I suffered from depression as a teenager and toyed with the idea of suicide despite the fact that I was well liked and had a good life. I don't think as a teenager you fully understand the battles you fight with this but now that I am much older I can look back and really see it was a disease and not something you can control or not control. I always feel for people like Ray who deal with the battle and don't fare as well as I have. I never attempted suicide and honestly only toyed with the idea but I couldn't imagine going further with the idea.
This is a few years old. Bryant Gumbel who I believe has one of the better shows out there with Real Sports touched on this issue, and if not for some doctors, he might be dead. The media sells us one thing, but the life of a football player is fucked up. Also too I noticed many of these players think about taking themselves out in some seriously violent ways.
Not really meaning to make light of this but my cousin from Long Island has lived a tough life.. he also has a dark sense of humor. a couple years ago he had to bury a child, very sad. He's been having a hard time coping and he drinks a lot so his wife had him go to a counselor. This is an actual conversation with his counselor. "have you ever thought about committing suicide?" -"yes since I was a teenager" "you have, why?" -"well, I was molested as a child, I lost my mother, brother and now my child... and top of it all I am a New York Jets fan."
Nagle, The fact is it has been tougher than usual this year being a Jet fan. At least for me. Sometimes fans take it harder when their team is expected to be much better than they actually turn out to be, but I had a pretty good idea this was going to be a bad season unless the Jets played Vick, and a couple of other things fell into place. For me, watching things turn out not just as bad as expected but even worse has been pretty hard to take. There's a kind of organizational malaise to this team that it is hard to see them digging out of anytime soon. So much for looking forward to the football season. Luckily there are of course other things in life, but some of them can be stressful, too. Oh well.
Thats a great article a little heavy to start the morning off but, I guess it helps explain the cycle a little better
A lot of people are under the impression that depression has to do with a bad demeanor or a generally negative attitude. It is hard for someone not suffering from depression to quite understand the depths of despair a person can reach, often when the person with the depression is perceived as having a good life or other attributes that another person may wish to have themselves; for example, in Ray Lucas case, an NFL career. Depression is a silent killer. There is nothing fancy about it. It is not Ebola, it is not cancer, it is not a number of other conditions that have dramatic effects on the human body. Some of the most outgoing happy go lucky people that you just love to be around fight a silent battle every hour of every single day that is just draining on the soul. Anyone who has ever experienced genuine loneliness can somewhat understand as depression is a relentless unending state of being surrounded by many people physically, yet still being so utterly alone. It doesn't always make logical sense, but is very real and very devastating for a great number of people.
If Lucas is speaking truthfully, the NFLPA are really a bunch of major assholes. Lucas went to them for help and they said they couldn't help him? That's unreal.
No suprise there... once you stop making money for the league and become obsolete they focus on the young bright money guys... the older vets get the boot
