Linked: NBA star Kevin Love on mental health struggles, success, getting Covid
This quote from Kevin Love is something that just stood out to me because it’s something that I think is so important to understand. Not just for a professional athlete, but for any of us to remember about our own line of work, or to remember when it comes to young people in school:
“You can’t achieve yourself out of depression,” Love says. “You can’t achieve yourself out of that high-level of anxiety.”
You can be productive and successful enough to cure depression and anxiety disorders. You can’t do well at school enough to just not have to concern yourself with your mental health issues anymore, and you probably shouldn’t be recommending to anyone that if they just worked a little harder, and got some success that they’d magically feel better about themselves.
It isn’t true. At the most, some confidence from achieving something can help us feel a bit better temporarily, but it’s not a cure, it is not going to wipe away depression. We should stop pretending that it will, and take a good hard look at what all that extra “hard work” might be doing to make it worse instead.
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