Everyone is going through something … even Kevin Love
- HBH
- May 24, 2019
- 2 min read
Updated: Oct 15, 2019
May is National Mental Health Awareness Month. According to NAMI (The National Alliance on Mental Illness), 1 in 5 people will be affected by mental illness in their lifetime. In honor of this month, we want to continue doing our part in helping to break down the barriers to mental health treatment.
“Be strong. Don’t talk about your feelings. Get through it on your own.” – Kevin Love
Most of us have had this internal monologue at some point, right? The one that challenges us to keep our fears, sadness, insecurities or struggles a secret. The one that makes us believe none of our friends or family would understand, that no one else feels the way we do, or that we aren’t “worth” using someone else’s time to address our needs. Research has shown that stereotypes like this will keep people from reaching out for help.
First, know that you are not alone! Kevin Love is not alone. Jim Carrey, Prince Harry, Mark Twain, Catherine Zeta Jones, Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson, etc. are not alone.
“It really makes you think about how we are all walking around with experiences and struggles — all kinds of things — and we sometimes think we’re the only ones going through them. The reality is that we probably have a lot in common with what our friends and colleagues and neighbors are dealing with. So I’m not saying everyone should share all their deepest secrets — not everything should be public and it’s every person’s choice. But creating a better environment for talking about mental health … that’s where we need to get to.” – Kevin Love.
If you haven’t yet read Kevin Love’s candid article on his own struggles with mental health, we would encourage you to check it out here:
This is such an important reminder. The pressure to “be strong” and handle everything alone is something so many athletes — and people in general — quietly carry. When someone like Kevin Love speaks openly about anxiety and mental health, it chips away at that stigma in a powerful way.
The quote about all of us walking around with unseen struggles really hits. You never know what someone is dealing with beneath the surface — which is why creating safer spaces to talk about mental health matters so much.
For athletes especially, mental preparation and emotional health go hand in hand. We recently shared some thoughts on how visualization and imagery can support mental readiness before big events:https://www.traindaly.com/train-daly/blog/visualization-and-imagery-for-athletes-mentally-preparing-for-the-big-event
Seeking help isn’t…
I’ve followed mental health advocacy in sports and have worked on awareness projects before, and this article about Kevin Love really highlights how powerful it is when public figures openly share their struggles — it normalizes conversations that many people still feel afraid to start. From my own experience researching behavioral health and stigma reduction, stories like this can genuinely encourage people to seek help earlier, build emotional resilience, and recognize that mental health challenges don’t discriminate by success or status. I also think content like this is especially important in the broader context of today’s mental health crisis, where issues like fentanyl addiction and untreated anxiety or depression often intersect, making education and honest dialogue even more critical. This post…