"The more I reveal the more I heal"
This past weekend our first ever Mental Wealth Expo went down at the Marriot Marquis in Times Square. A day full of mental health education and healing one of the featured live Podcasts was none other than "Checking In" With Michelle Williams featuring special guest former NFL football star Jay Barnett.
Jay Barnett who now works to helps other heal based on his own journey explained how he went from being a football player and self-harming himself to now helping those find a proper coping mechanism to deal with their mental health.
"I was a free agent back in 2006 spent a few years in the arena league, but for me the journey started after football ended, football was my coping mechanism, it was how I coped and how I escape, when my parents divorced when I was 13 and my mom moved us I became a cutter, and as a cutter I wanted to numb the pain and if you know anything about self harm your trying to cause external harm to quiet the inner harm and for me it was one of those situations that in my early 20s I was still cutting, nobody knew this but I was still dealing with the pain of my father divorcing my mother but he also divorced me, and that left me feeling abandoned, left me feeling neglected. so when football ended it was the same feeling, I didn't have this space, men are often looking for spaces to cope with our pain, that's why it's important to have these conversations because I want men to have healthy coping mechanisms"
Watch the full podcast above!