AJ Lee opens up about the positive shift in mental health awareness in WWE.
Former WWE Women’s Intercontinental Champion AJ Lee recently appeared on The Match-Up with Aliyah podcast on iHeart Women’s Sports alongside Esports player Jeannail “Cuddle_Core” Carter. During the conversation, Carter opened up about a common misconception in the gaming world. She explained that raw grind alone is not enough to succeed in competitive gaming, and that players should also prioritize their mental health, diet, and sleep schedule.
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The host then asked AJ Lee if there has been a shift in mental health awareness in pro wrestling compared to when she started her career. She noted that she’s proud of how far it has come along over the years. Lee revealed that despite all the success she enjoyed in the past year, it was her worst mental health year, saying she was so depressed.
“I’m really proud of how far it’s come because I’ve been pretty open about, like, my last year wrestling was my worst mental health year. I looked like I had everything in the world and I’m champion and all this stuff, but I was so deeply depressed,” AJ Lee said.
AJ Lee wanted to become a mental health advocate
Speaking further, AJ Lee noted that part of her journey has been about finding the right treatment for her and being a speaker and advocate to break the stigma surrounding mental illness.
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“Part of my journey after was like finding what’s the right treatment for me and becoming a mental health advocate and becoming a keynote speaker and really trying to send this message to not just people in sports but also like communities of color.
“As a Latina, we don’t talk about our mental health. It’s not a thing that’s like accepted in our culture, and there’s so many barriers to treatment. So that’s been like a huge part of the journey is sort of opening up people’s eyes to when you come from a certain socioeconomic background or cultural background, or there’s language barriers or like you’re in a health care desert like there’s all these different barriers just to get in the door, and then to not even be like represented in clinical trials and research,” AJ Lee continued.
Lee made sure her mental health was protected when she returned to WWE
AJ Lee stated that her main priority upon returning to WWE was to ensure her mental health would be protected. She revealed that 10 years ago, she couldn’t even reveal her diagnosis, but now it has become part of her contract.
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“It’s been this like 10-year journey of trying to sort of make people aware of how important that is on so many different levels and then to come back into wrestling and see that they have also opened up their mind,” AJ Lee said. “The first thing I wanted to make sure going to work was is my mental health protected? Do I feel safe here? Are you guys aware of what that means to need mental health time off? Is that something that is a priority?
“Part of the conversation was really cool in a way that I couldn’t even reveal my diagnosis 10 years ago, but now it was like a part of my contract,” AJ Lee revealed. ” So that is a really cool, beautiful thing. I hope all sports can incorporate that because it is such a different, you know, like you were saying, you do need such exceptional internal health and mental health to just perform safely. So I was so genuinely and pleasantly surprised to see that shift.”
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The post AJ Lee Reveals Mental Health Protections Were Written Into Her WWE Contract appeared first on Wrestlezone.
