For any human being on the planet, a strong and stable mental health is a basic necessity to function to one’s fullest potential. Without said mental health, individuals can make mistakes that they may regret later on, not take advantage of opportunities presented to them and not reach the fullest potential in whatever it is they are doing. As the majority, if not all, of the people reading this are college students, think about your mental health for a moment and how much of a struggle it is to stay sane sometimes. As if balancing priorities, managing hectic course schedules and being involved around campus in clubs and organizations are not enough, there are some that take on the additional task of playing a sport. For any college athlete, a lot of time is given to their sport in practice, games, offseason training and so on.

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Just imagine how much time one has to invest in their sport if they make it to the pros. Not only to they have to train, practice and play ridiculously long seasons, but they also have to travel and be away from their personal lives quite often. Some athletes manage the balance between their professional and personal lives better than others. However, for some, like Cleveland Cavaliers’ center Kevin Love, it has been a struggle.

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Recently, Love has opened up to the public about his endeavors with mental health. Much earlier in the year, in a November home game against the Atlanta Hawks, as it was revealed, Love had a panic attack courtside during a timeout. As Love himself described the incident “It's hard to describe, but everything was spinning, like my brain was trying to climb out of my head. The air felt thick and heavy. My mouth was like chalk. I remember our assistant coach yelling something about a defensive set. I nodded, but I didn't hear much of what he said. By that point, I was freaking out." Love had been dealing with some family problems and fallen short on adequate sleep prior to this incident. Following this occurrence, Love also left a game in late January and was absent at the following day’s practice in light of another panic attack. He had never been one to open up about his feelings, so he largely held back on the issue until Raptors’ guard Demar DeRozan brought his bouts with depression to the public eye.

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Shortly after DeRozan’s revelation, Love wrote an essay published in the Players Tribune, which is an outlet designed for professional athletes to write articles, entitled “Everyone is Going Through Something.” In the essay, Love recounts his panic attacks and keeping his struggles a secret for so long. In the essay, Love also mentions that he felt somewhat impervious to mental health problems in stating “...for 29 years [Love’s age], I thought about mental health as someone else’s problem.” He also talks about seeing a therapist to work out his issues and visiting his family more often. The full essay can be found at this link: https://www.theplayerstribune.com/kevin-love-everyone-is-going-through-something/.

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As mentioned, DeRozan was the first to open up about his mental health issues. He first did this during the NBA All-Star Weekend when he tweeted out “This depression get the best of me…”, which left the Raptors’ fan base, DeRozan’s teammates and those around DeRozan in appall. In a subsequent interview with The Toronto Star, DeRozan discussed the tweet and his bouts with depression. He offered insight into his private life during the interview in saying “I have various nights...I’m so quiet, if you don’t know me. I stay standoffish in a sense, in my own personal space, to be able to cope with whatever it is you’ve got to cope with.” That coping generally came with improvement in every aspect of his life, but the aforementioned tweet came at a really low point for him, when the weight of the world was on his shoulders. He fights the issue as much as he can and looks to improve the lives of whomever he encounters. As he was raised in Compton, California, he had experienced enough heartache and disappointment, and had seen those around him succumb to their demons. However, DeRozan does not want that for the people around him today. He wants people to be able to express their emotions without fear of judgement. The overwhelming support he and others have received will certainly contribute to that effort.

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In addition, he inspired Washington Wizards’ guard Kelly Oubre Jr. to open up about his complications with depression and anxiety. Like Love, Oubre wanted to keep his complications a secret and was raised to stick it out and, according to Oubre “...never let anybody see you weak,” per RaptorsRapture.com. Despite this, Oubre was able to shamelessly discuss his depression on a recent NBC Sports podcast. Channing Frye, Love’s teammate, has also spoken out on his mental health debacles.

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Needless to say, DeRozan has been a catalyst in these happenings, and has opened the door for athletes to discuss their human side. Often times, professional athletes are revered as invincible heros or objects of peoples’ amusement and entertainment, and they are not seen as everyday humans that go through everyday problems, whether it be personally or professionally. With a simple tweet, DeRozan has started an imperative discussion. Most people cannot imagine the amount of pressure on a professional athlete to perform well. Just as DeRozan said in the aforementioned interview, "It [life] gets the best of you, where [at] times everything in the whole world’s on top of you.” Many struggle with maintaining a structured home life and performing well at their nine to five jobs. Just as the sporting world is gaining awareness of the impact of concussions and other injuries, so too, and probably more importantly, is the sporting world now gaining an awareness of the cognitive struggles these athletes go through. Athletes are people too; they have families, friends and colleagues just as most people do. They just have to put up with a lot more than most people, and there will likely be a positive dialogue regarding this issue, all started by a simple seven-word tweet.

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Currently, 20 percent of people experience mental health problems in the United States, according to Forbes. This means that about 12 members of an NFL roster, five members of an MLB roster and one starter on every NBA team could be experiencing these kinds of issues. Think about how many people have opened up about this. From the stories told by these NBA players, likely very few have opened up. Now, hopefully, DeRozan, along with Love, Oubre and Frye have displayed that it is okay to be open and honest, and to find help wherever it may come from.