Jae C. Hong/AP
Kevin Love in action for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
- Kevin Love experienced a panic attack for the first time during a game this past November.
- In a post for Derek Jeter's Players' Tribune, Love explained that he has started to see a therapist and is learning to talk about his mental health issues.
- Love has opened up about his own struggles to improve awareness of mental health issues.
NBA star Kevin Love wrote a candid piece for the Players' Tribune about experiencing a panic attack during the middle of a game, and his struggles with mental health.
"It came out of nowhere," Love wrote. "I'd never had one before. I didn't even know if they were real. But it was real - as real a broken hand or a sprained ankle."
According to Love, he ended up on the floor of the Cavaliers' training room, struggling to breathe.
The Cavaliers helped Love find a therapist, although at first, he was skeptical of the benefits of talk therapy. But his experiences changed his mind.
"In the short time I've been meeting with the therapist, I've seen the power of saying things out loud in a setting like that," Love wrote.
For Love, getting comfortable opening up meant he had to move past a lot of the impressions he had developed growing up as a boy, especially within the hypermasculine world of athletics.
As he says, "Growing up, you figure out really quickly how a boy is supposed to act. You learn what it takes to 'be a man.' It's like a playbook: Be strong. Don't talk about your feelings. Get through it on your own."
Now, Love is opening up about his experiences to bring awareness to just how prevalent mental health issues are in our society.
"Everyone is going through something that we can't see," he wrote (emphasis his).
Love was also encouraged to write his piece after another NBA star, DeMar DeRozan, also admitted to dealing with mental health issues. Hopefully, with a pair of high profile athletes opening up about their own struggles, the stigma towards mental health in society will begin to diminish.