Powerful post from Freddie Burns on World Mental Health day - Ruck

Powerful post from Freddie Burns on World Mental Health day

WORLD Mental Health Day is on October 10 with an emphasis on “suicide prevention” this year.

The day was first marked in 1992 as part of an initiative of the World Federation for Mental Health.

A lot of rugby players have got involved, but we found this particular post from Freddie Burns to be the most powerful.

The post relates to a mistake Burns made for Bath during their Champions Cup clash with Toulouse last season.

“You’d have thought that playing rugby in front of 16,000 people, surrounded by fellow professionals/friends and being on live tv that it would be impossible to feel alone.

“Well, just under a year ago and due to my own mistake I felt exactly that way. Today is #worldmentalhealthday and I’d like to touch on the events after that moment.

“With my job being open to scrutiny I was always going to take stick for it, I expected nothing less and take full responsibility with what happened. However, whilst people and some pundits (not all) inevitably kept reversing the bus that I had thrown myself under and as I sat in my living room in the pitch black with nothing but a corona (or two) for company, the “are you ok” messages started to come through whether through social media or text they meant the world.

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#worldmentalhealthday You’d have thought that playing rugby in front of 16,000 people, surrounded by fellow professionals/friends and being on live tv that it would be impossible to feel alone. Well, just under a year ago and due to my own mistake I felt exactly that way. Today is #worldmentalhealthday and I’d like to touch on the events after that moment. With my job being open to scrutiny I was always going to take stick for it, I expected nothing less and take full responsibility with what happened. However, whilst people and some pundits (not all) inevitably kept reversing the bus that I had thrown myself under and as I sat in my living room in the pitch black with nothing but a corona (or two) for company, the “are you ok” messages started to come through whether through social media or text they meant the world. I like to think I’m a mentally strong person but without doubt the fact that family, friends, strangers and people from our sport took time to check in on me meant a lot and made bouncing back a lot easier than it potentially could have been. It’s not always as easy to know when someone is having/had a bad day/week/month but simply reaching out makes all the difference. So if you do one thing today, then message the friend who’s gone a little quiet, smile at that stranger on your commute, but most importantly, talk to eachother. It’s ok not to be ok👌🏼❤️

A post shared by Freddie Burns (@freddieburns) on

“I like to think I’m a mentally strong person but without doubt the fact that family, friends, strangers and people from our sport took time to check in on me meant a lot and made bouncing back a lot easier than it potentially could have been.

“It’s not always as easy to know when someone is having/had a bad day/week/month but simply reaching out makes all the difference. So if you do one thing today, then message the friend who’s gone a little quiet, smile at that stranger on your commute, but most importantly, talk to eachother. It’s ok not to be ok.”

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