A Few Words on Mental Health

by Dwayne Phillips

I attempt to write a few words on “mental health.” It is a troubling topic, and I write with a troubled heart.

In recent weeks we observe Miss Naomi Osaka and Miss Simone Biles taking time away from their professions to work on their “mental health.” I advise these two young ladies to spend some time with my older brother who daily works on his mental health. Perhaps they can learn from his experiences. At 65, he has suffered several strokes in the last several years. His mental health exercises may provide him the ability to walk without assistance. There are dreams of being able to drive a lawn mower across the yard and wishes of driving a pickup truck down the street of his small town.

Oh, that mental health. The mental health that plagues Miss Osaka and Miss Biles is they have lost the ability to ignore persons who are ignorable. That mental health is often necessary in their chosen vocation of professional athlete. I wish them well — I truly do.

I also wish these two young ladies could go back in time ten years and speak with my late mother about mental health. They would have to visit before 7 p.m. as that was when she would lock herself in her back bedroom because she knew that a dozen men would enter her home, use her kitchen, and sleep in her front bedrooms. She didn’t mind them so much, but they played the radio loudly and that kept her awake.

Given time travel is not possible, these two young ladies could visit the memory care area of any local nursing home and speak with persons who suffer mental health issues. Perhaps the experience of those with dementia and senility might help these two young professional athletes.

Please understand that I have no animosity towards these two young ladies. Their current conditions are crippling their pursuit of their chosen professions; that is a bad situation.

I hope that sports journalists gain a better perspective of mental health and the relative severity of its different forms.