Ben Gordon opened up about his mental health issues and his personal experience as a bipolar. In particular, Gordon started his essay talking about his suicidal thoughts he had for about six weeks.
“There was a point in time when I thought about killing myself every single day for about six weeks,” Gordon said that habits that got him in the league didn’t translate in real life.
As a result, after the end of his career, he was suffering from panic attacks and insomnia. Gordon had a illustrious career in the NBA as a “heavy-weight” scorer, coming from the bench.
Namely, he won the sixth-man of the year award in 2005 playing for the Chicago Bulls having an average of 40.1% from the three-point line in his career.
To one point, Gordon was arrested four times in five months as his condition was becoming more and more pressing. He pointed out that maybe the arrests saved him from his “dark thoughts”.
“The only thing that saved me was getting arrested, as weird as that sounds. I got arrested four times in five months. I was out of my mind. So the judge hit me with court-mandated therapy — 18 months.”
He pointed out that he chose to do some extra therapy, after realising that this could help him accept himself.
“It helped me work some things out. But more than anything, I think it helped me embrace the fact that — it’s like, Yo, B, you’re different. And that’s alright.You don’t have to be perfect. Those habits that got you to the league? They don’t translate to real life.”
