Some of the biggest gifts an athlete can bestow upon a young fan, and the most impactful, life-lasting gems a celebrity can drop on the youth is openness about their vulnerabilities.
More than scoring buckets, providing tours of locker rooms, memorable athletic moments and inspirations of one day becoming a pro, when a rich and successful player such as the Toronto Raptors’ DeMar DeRozan shares his human side and speaks out about his depression, personal struggles and how he immerses himself in his family to cope with it, that type of real talk deeply resonates with everyone.
Its one of them things that no matter how indestructible we look like we are, were all human at the end of the day, the 28-year-old Raptors all-star told thestar.com in Toronto. We all got feelings . . . all of that. Sometimes . . . it gets the best of you, where times everything in the whole worlds on top of you.
Bleacher Report on Twitter
DeMar DeRozan opens up about his struggles with depression and anxiety: “We’re all human at the end of the day”, per @SmithRaps https://t.co/XAAhHt5WA1
The average person tends to view celebrities, especially athletes, as superheroes with no emotions. People tend to forget that having money and fame doesnt exempt you from having the same physical and mental challenges as everyone else. Mental health problems are non discriminatory and affect a wide sector of individuals.
During All-Star weekend, Derozan tweeted out.
DeMar DeRozan on Twitter
This depression get the best of me…
It was a Tweet that gave us a real glimpse inside the mind of a max-money athlete that has everything in material wealth that a person can dream of, but still battles with depression, the same as a bum on the street with no family would.
Fortunately for DeRozan, he has a very supportive family and when times get hard, he immerses himself in being a great father, husband and protector. He draws strength from them. A strength that being the game’s best mid-ranger scoring assassin can’t provide him, even if it appears as if DeRozan’s exhibiting the strength of 100 men every time he steps out on the floor.
For his candidness and honesty, he received an outpouring of support from fans on Twitter, some who shared his struggles with depression. After all, it’s a problem that according to the World Health Organization (WHO), 350 million people worldwide suffer from.
It probably immediately made him feel better because admitting his human imperfections and giving insight into his laid back demeanor which could have been misconstrued as anti-social or complacent in the past, didnt hurt his public image at all. If anything, it made him even more relatable and gained him a legion of new fans with genuine love for him as a person.
