Ricky Rubio is back and basketball celebrates. The Spanish base had withdrawn and had abandoned the NBA to take care of your mental health because had hit rock bottom. It was his decision to return little by little to what makes him happy. No pressure. The first he was summoned for the National Team in a great gesture of Sergio Scariolo and now signed for Barcelona. And when he was introduced in the Camp Nou auditorium he smiled and told everything he experienced. Because talking is part of the recovery process and helps others as an example that it is possible.
“I developed chronic stress and had to regulate it. I didn’t label it anxiety or disorder. I had symptoms of mental health problems, but I wanted to understand it. My psychologist helped me work on myself,” she confessed.
“I thought basketball was over. But I worked and I hope it helps people who have a hard time. I was in the dark and it comes out with help”he continued.
“I live day to day. We try to control the uncontrollable and you don’t know when life is going to take you down a different path. You have to live day to day,” she added.
At the beginning of this year, the point guard posted a crude letter on his social networks with his decision to play and terminate his contract with Cleveland. “July 30 was one of the hardest nights of my life. My mind went to a dark place. I kind of knew I was going in that direction, but I never thought I wasn’t under control of the situation. The next day I decided to leave my professional career. When the time is right, I would love to share my entire experience with all of you so I can help others who are going through similar situations,” he wrote.
That moment arrived and Rubio was able to talk at length about his experience: “When I left basketball, I felt like the most cowardly person in the world. The player had eaten the person and didn’t really know who it was. It was a life lesson. We dramatize and do not realize the damage we experience. I take a positive note that I pamper myself more.”
How do you take your return to high competition now? “I took it as a game. I had strange feelings, because normally we play automatically and we think about the day of the game, the training happens… and we think about the final result when the game is over. You don’t enjoy it and now I’m playing,” she said.
One of the keys that made him come back was knowing that his case can help the anonymous people who are out there suffering and unable to talk about what ails them.
“Help is key in a process like this. Mental health, yes. Talking about it is a victory for society, something that came to the NBA with players like Kevin Love or DeMar DeRozan. But you can help people. We all need help at some point. A word, a hug, a ‘I’m here’, everything helps. I have saved myself and now I am at ease. I’m proud of me. I give basketball a new chance