Can you define what genuine mental health issues are?

Think it's worth pointing out that he doesn't actually say he had depression nor is that word used at all. It reads to me as someone who was perhaps grieving after a significant loss. Whilst both are awful their is a difference between depression and grieving.

Can you?

Probably more than almost anyone a "professional sportsman" is defined by his job. For most of us a job is just a job. Personal life, public life, work, social media etc. all merge into one for guys like Hardaker. I strongly believe you can't run away from yourself, so moving half the way round the world takes Hardaker no further from whatever is going on in his head, but it does get him away from a lot of the outside stuff that is affecting the way he does his job.

FWIW I thought he was no worse than the rest of the team when I saw him play this year, I really don't know much about how he was affecting his teammates though.



If he comes back next season he's got to change some of his more harmful behaviours.

Boredom is a problem I think for sportsmen. You can't train all the time, there is a lot of downtime and there is the comedown from the adrenaline of playing. I get the impression Hardaker is affected more than others. $h1t happens to everyone in their personal life. It's understandable if you down a bottle of something and don't fancy coming into work for a couple of days. The problem with Hardaker seems to be that he has no credit in the bank to do this due to the times he's acted like a bell end for apparantly no other reason than actually being a bell end.



If he comes back he has to train well, behave properly, bin social media and watch what he drinks - if at all during the season. If he does all that he should play well and he should be in a much better place to handle the everyday stresses of life (alcohol is a depressant - it just makes things worse).

No. I wouldn't try. It's useful for pharmaceutical companies to categorise people so they can then prescribe them expensive medication but it's a very slippery road. Everyone has mental issues of one sort or another, to different degrees. I've recently seen my Dad die with/of dementia; I've seen numerous friends suffer extreme reactions to relationship problems/breakdowns; I've seen a work colleague die from the effects of his inability to come out; another work colleague - physically a giant of a man - attempt suicide due to relationship problems; another has just returned after 6 months off with what was called work stress/anxiety. I'm not a doctor but I would say telling any of these people to man up wouldn't have been a cure. They were all people who had an illness at a particular time in their lives. They were all genuine. I don't particularly like Hardaker as a person from what I can see. He is a very lucky person to have the talent & lifestyle he has. But mental health affects everyone either directly or indirectly.

It isn't 'do-gooders' who will claim this is you adding stigma, its anyone with half an ounce of sense and the ability to read your post.



If a player claimed to have broken a leg would you decide that they hadnt? if they claimed to have torn a hamstring would you claim they do that for sympathy? If they had a fractured jaw would you suppose the possibility that was just an excuse?



Firstly, you arent a qualified mental health professional, secondly you have no first hand knowledge of this specific case, literally the only point of your post is to stigmatise Hardaker for admitting his problems. To paint him as possibly cynically manipulating sympathy for mental health problems to cover his 'being an a hole'



If you honestly can't see how people who are struggling with their mental health, who have maybe self-medicated, taken undue risks, made poor decisions, locked themselves away, avoided things (all pretty much textbook manifestations of mental health issues) would maybe keep quite about them lest people think they were making it up for sympathy then i have sympathy for you and those around you.

I purposely didn't mention Hardaker or anyone else for that matter in my post, because you're right, I'm not close enough to the detail.



How many players have you seen come out after being found acting like an a-hole and talk about a broken leg, torn hamstring, broken jaw etc etc



Whilst up on your high horse, you might not see what's happening down on the ground, in the real world. Unfortunately, some people cynically use depression to excuse poor behaviour.



I'm well aware, poor choices/behaviour can be one of the ways depression manifests itself, but it's no coincidence how often it's trotted out by the 'bad lads' nowadays, usually just when they need some good press - like when looking for a new club or contract usually....



As a sport I think we're very pro-active in supporting players with any issues - some will take advantage of that. That's my opinion, based on life experience of people genuinely suffering, and blaggers alike.

Are we pretending context doesnt exist? What relevance does your post have other than to highlight the possibility that he, like others, could be faking it?



So you understand you are treating mental health differently to other illnesses.



Some people fake cancer and other illnesses...



We are so proactive about mental health issues that 6 years ago one of our biggest names killed themselves,

we are so proactive about it that one of SL's most successful players nearly fell out of the game because of depression and mental health struggles not more than a year ago,

we are so pro-active about it that our current Man of Steel was left struggling for weeks because of it and a previous man of steel has barely played in over a year because of it.

We are so pro-active about it that one of the greatest centres of his generation spent a year in the bush because of it,

we are so pro-active about it that one of the best players in the game isnt playing right now because of it.



Yeah, we are doing wonderfully.

To be fair I don't think any sport manages it well at all in part because its just very hard to assist someone who is suffering mental health issues.

Yep. I think we're very poor as a sport in this regard, but then I don't know of a sport that's particularly any better. In society as a whole we're still rubbish in terms of mental health issues in my opinion.

Of the players you're referring to above;



1 - A serial offender with a questionable lifestyle choices and a serious drug addiction

2 - A serial offender with questionable lifestyle choices, drink and recreational drug habits, was a bully as a kid and never grew up out of that mentality - fame and fortune only made him worse

3 - A serial offender with questionable lifestyle choices, drink and drug habits who's had some personal issues

4 - A good 'country' boy, who didn't settle in the bright lights of the city

5 - A bloke who's mixed up in all sorts of bad news, mainly centred around his choice of associates who are heavily linked to drugs, gambling and crime



Now any one or all of these could be suffering from any range of mental health issues and in a couple of cases, I'm sure that is the case, but equally, they could also simply be grade A geese.



People will come out and say maybe drink, drugs, serial offending are all symptoms of a mental health issue, and maybe they are.... Forgive me for being cynical when they only bring this to the table when they're needing the positive press.



The rugby team I'm involved in has blokes with very similar lifestyles as some of the above, are they suffering from mental health issues - no... They're just d!cks, but bet your bottom dollar, if they were in the public eye and getting grief for their behaviour, they'd be happy to trot it out as a 'please forgive me, I'm a battler doing my best' piece.



Having personal issues, misbehaving, losing your job etc etc doesn't mean you've got depression. Going through a tough time, and handling it he wrong way isn't a clinical illness.

As someone whos suffered mental health issues for over 20 years, i could be very cynical about someome leading a chequered life and stating they're having problems. But the reality is that it doesn't discriminate much in the same way that physical illnesses don't, but even though a small minority lie about cancers etc too (even those that live a less than desirable lifestyle) your first response wouldn't be to question whether they're telling the truth would it?! So don't do it with mental illness either!