This morning I watched an interview with Darren Clark on the Today show here in Australia. Darren is my athletic hero, so to see him talking about depression and the troubles he has been through since he retired from athletics was very worrying. I sincerely hope things are improving as he thinks they are, including some coaching and involvement in athletics.
Any young athletes in Aust, could do a lot worse than learning from his hard won wisdom.
What a whinger. Deal with the real world like everybody else.
Fixed and agreed.
When I saw this first I thought you were talking about the golfer Darren Clarke … the words ‘athletic hero’ and ‘Darren Clarke’ don’t usually occupy the same sentence!!!
You characters obviously know plenty about clinical depression…been there yourselves?
Clark hasn’t said a word about his problem - a brain chemistry problem - for the four or more years he’s been ratshit with it.
Now that he’s coming up for air, the best you can offer is “whiner” and “deal with the real world”.
He is the one dealing with the real world, like he always did to become a two-time Olympic 400m finalist and Commonwealth gold medallist.
But you macho superheroes, dismissive of Darren Clark no less, would know all about that level of reality.
Guys. 20% of the population have a form of depression. Manian Depressive is obviously pretty bad.
Congratulations to DC for having the guts to admit to the problem.
As Kit Kat said have you dealt with it. I have family members who suffer it 2 to 4 times a year. The biggest problem is that they don’t take there medicine or see the qualified people. I have had to take people to hospital for a day so I can get rest. I spent in a 72 hour period getting only 3 hours sleep.
I repeat this is a serious problem.
DC as an athlete was a champ, in my one eyed Australian eyes, as a person I don’t know him so I can’t comment on that.
With so much ignorance, how do you survive in the real world? I hope that someone is there to help you if your "real world’ ever falls apart.
Get bloody real. All the men in my family are at high risk for severe mental diseases like schizophrenia. In fact, it’s almost a certainty that my grandfather suffered from severe mental illness. Depression is something we all go through. Anyone who can’t support themself both mentally and physically should get the help they need and stop flooding the media with stories. You’re incapable of taking care of yourself! Congratulations! Oh… it’s not your fault. The man has no skills; if a high school dropout was telling you about the rigors of the real-world you wouldn’t give him any sympathy.
[Edit]I’m sick of reading these stories in the news. Seattle Times recently had a frontpage story about the success of the stomach stapling surgery. With pictures. No one gives a damn about the 20 plus conflicts classified as wars in the world or the past decade of war in the Congo and Rwanda. People seem to want to read every week about someone’s mental struggle or struggle with eating too much food or even their getting layed off. It’s ridiculous. It’s not that I don’t recognize that mental illness isn’t a problem, it’s that I’m sick of hearing about it. If I got the flu, cholera, or cancer is it worthy of a news story?[/Edit]
Hey! Get a grip! The last time anyone couldn’t grasp the reality of mental problems was World War One. Hopefully these views don’t represent the majority here and are merely “whinging” from people who wish they could accomplish what Darren did, but can’t, and then think Darren has no right to have this sort of problem after such success.
If, on the other hand, you don’t think Darren achieved success, you simply havn’t got a clue what it means to reach that level in the world’s most competitive sport.
BTW, our own Kitkat guided Darren to his successes and I worked on his hamstring injury in 1988.
Part of the story was that he did get some help just not as early as he should (his admission). By him going to the media and talking about his problem and attempt at resolution it might help others to do the same, and help him at the same time.
[QUOTE=nArKeD]The man has no skills; if a high school dropout was telling you about the rigors of the real-world you wouldn’t give him any sympathy.QUOTE]
Dont worry about not getting your views across, because when a high school kid tries to tell me about the rigours of the real-world he gets my sympathy. Real men of the world these high-school kids. And then when they have actually finished high school!