Speaker 1: Are you ready for this? Sean Merriman A one A
Speaker 1: hand effect. Boom boom boom, out go the light. This
Speaker 1: is lights out with Sean Merriman. For first off, I
Speaker 1: want to address a couple of things. UM. One, this
Speaker 1: morning I tweeted about, UM, you know that mental health
Speaker 1: is important and also a mental toughness is important. UM
Speaker 1: me personally, I want to just clarify something here and
Speaker 1: what I said. I want to really dig deep into
Speaker 1: exactly what the meaning of that was and what I said. Okay,
Speaker 1: first of all, if you look at any of my
Speaker 1: past talks or um, anywhere I've been publicly speaking about
Speaker 1: mental mental health and how important that is to take
Speaker 1: care of it. Um, because I can tell you where
Speaker 1: I come from. Um, it wasn't taught. It was uh,
Speaker 1: you know, something that wasn't really discussed to talk about,
Speaker 1: mainly because you're a man, right um, and we're told
Speaker 1: not to cry, not to have emotion, suck it up,
Speaker 1: you know, one of those get back in the game
Speaker 1: type of attitudes. And that's how I grew up. But
Speaker 1: later on I completely saw things different as I saw
Speaker 1: how important mental health was two people. Um. And this
Speaker 1: is coming from somebody that, Yeah, I grew up homeless,
Speaker 1: all right. I've slept in cars, I've slept in shelters, um,
Speaker 1: and I've you know, had some very unfortunate things happened
Speaker 1: to me. And that especially when those things happened to
Speaker 1: you as a kid, it stays with you for a
Speaker 1: very long time. And that's why I've always priested about
Speaker 1: mental health being important. And that's number one. That's why
Speaker 1: I started that tweet off by saying mental health is
Speaker 1: important because it is. We don't talk about it enough,
Speaker 1: and especially when you're talking about athletes, and especially when
Speaker 1: you're talking about a man athlete, you know, the males,
Speaker 1: because we aren't um. We aren't accustomed to talking about
Speaker 1: our problems and things that we're struggling with. UM. And
Speaker 1: you know, as a man, you always told to you know,
Speaker 1: those things a weak and soft and you're not supposed
Speaker 1: to be that way. And I don't. I don't believe
Speaker 1: that at all. Uh. The second part of that, I said,
Speaker 1: it's mental toughness, you know. As I told you guys
Speaker 1: just now, I grew up and had some very unfortunate
Speaker 1: things around me, and so did a lot of people
Speaker 1: where I came from, and Prince George's County, Maryland, Washington
Speaker 1: d C. Area. UM went through some terrible things growing up,
Speaker 1: and there was times where I had to be mentally
Speaker 1: tough and if I didn't, I wouldn't have made it
Speaker 1: out them out of those circumstances. And so that's why
Speaker 1: I wanted to really get that across and explain because
Speaker 1: you know, people are taking the first part of that, uh,
Speaker 1: actually the second part of that, not looking at the
Speaker 1: first the first part of that. I said, mental health
Speaker 1: is extremely important and it's something that we don't talk
Speaker 1: about nothing, and I'm glad people are talking about it.
Speaker 1: But on the flip side, also what's going on And
Speaker 1: I've just had this happened to UM someone who was
Speaker 1: having a bad week or bad you know, I had
Speaker 1: had a bad week, and I said, a friend of
Speaker 1: mine said, why why are you having a bad week?
Speaker 1: You know, they lost their keys and cars didn't start. UM,
Speaker 1: they had a couple of bad phone calls, he had
Speaker 1: a headache and things like that, and it was it
Speaker 1: was like, uh, he was complaining about I'm sorry she
Speaker 1: was complaining about the mental health aspect of everything that
Speaker 1: was going on. And you know, I kindly reminded her,
Speaker 1: this has been a friend of seven you almost seventeen years.
Speaker 1: I said, hey, somebody, somebody didn't eat today. Somebody was
Speaker 1: gonna go home today and there's going to be an
Speaker 1: eviction notice on their door, as I experienced when I
Speaker 1: was a kid, someone that right now is getting bullied
Speaker 1: to beat up, and you're sitting here and talking about
Speaker 1: mental health because you had a bad week. Let's guys,
Speaker 1: let's let's start separating the two and what we're talking
Speaker 1: about here. And no matter what situational circumstances I'm going
Speaker 1: through personally in my life, I always know and and
Speaker 1: have known that there are people out here is going
Speaker 1: through things it's ten times worse as as I'm going through,
Speaker 1: And so I don't complain. Yes, unfortunately things happened and
Speaker 1: happened to some very good people. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to sit here and because I'm going
Speaker 1: through a couple of things and screaming and yell mental
Speaker 1: health when I have to just toughen up and get
Speaker 1: through it, because there are a lot of bad things
Speaker 1: happening to people are here far worse than my position,
Speaker 1: And I always keep that in the back of my head.
Speaker 1: So when I talk about, you know, mental health, and
Speaker 1: I talk about being tough, these are this is the difference.
Speaker 1: And I want for me personally, I wanted to clarify
Speaker 1: that because a lot of people are are using the
Speaker 1: smaller things. Now. I don't know what Simone Biles actually
Speaker 1: the statement wasn't directly uh targeted at Simone Biles at all.
Speaker 1: It's more a blanket statement of people using mental health
Speaker 1: as an escapego for going through something that is just tough.
Speaker 1: Life is tough. Unfortunate things happen to people, and those
Speaker 1: things happen, and not everything is a mental health issue
Speaker 1: just because you have a bad day or bad week
Speaker 1: or bad month, Okay, because remember there's people out here
Speaker 1: that's going through things ten times it's worse than you,
Speaker 1: and half the time you don't even know what it
Speaker 1: is because they might be walking around with a smile
Speaker 1: when they face So I don't know exactly what some
Speaker 1: own boss. Obviously she's she's dealing with a lot of
Speaker 1: things behind the scenes that we don't know about, maybe
Speaker 1: even more than she's even talking about. She's in a
Speaker 1: highly pressured industry where the world is looking at her
Speaker 1: and and and um and expecting great things about her. Hell,
Speaker 1: I mean, that's a lot of pressure for any I
Speaker 1: don't get who you are. That's a lot of pressure
Speaker 1: to deal with. And so if she had to step away,
Speaker 1: good for her. Get get yourself together, do what's best
Speaker 1: for you. So what my whole thing of this mental
Speaker 1: health is people using it as an escapego instead of
Speaker 1: being tough. And I'm not talking about physically tough, tough enough,
Speaker 1: suck it up. I'm talking about find a way all
Speaker 1: right and realize that that's there's things going on with
Speaker 1: people are here that are ten times worth ears than
Speaker 1: what you're going through in your position. So when I
Speaker 1: when I talk about the two, just know that that's
Speaker 1: what it is. It's not coming from anywhere else, you know.
Speaker 1: And I'll be the first one to tell you that
Speaker 1: mental health is extremely important. And I've taken necessary steps
Speaker 1: with myself, you know, got into you know, meditating and
Speaker 1: doing high yoga and and just taking better care mentally
Speaker 1: of my of myself and also trying to help other
Speaker 1: people do the same thing around me. Who's not big
Speaker 1: into that that side of of being healthy mentally. So
Speaker 1: when I see people are frustrated and mad and more
Speaker 1: triggered than anything else that I don't care about that part.
Speaker 1: The part that that that I'm trying to get trying
Speaker 1: to get people to understand is that there's things going
Speaker 1: on in people's lives. There's are ten times worse and
Speaker 1: every single thing that happens to you bad in life
Speaker 1: is not a mental health issue, and don't use it
Speaker 1: as such. So you know, anyone out there is dealing
Speaker 1: with something mentally um and and trying to find out
Speaker 1: find a way is living in a dark um you know,
Speaker 1: just a dark cloud over you and just have a
Speaker 1: dark party of life happening right now. I hope that
Speaker 1: you find a way to get through it and it
Speaker 1: will get better. It's always light at the end of
Speaker 1: the tunnel. Just remember that. But the other side, the
Speaker 1: people who are using mental health to uh for sympathy
Speaker 1: or using mental health to uh you know, because you're
Speaker 1: you're going through a rough moment. Just let's let's start
Speaker 1: separating the difference, man, because there's people out here is
Speaker 1: really dealing with things, there's really going through it and
Speaker 1: really need help. So let's support those people that really
Speaker 1: need it and and and and not jump on anybody
Speaker 1: that have a different opinion than you have. So I
Speaker 1: just wanted to clarify that. UM. You know, I love
Speaker 1: going back and forth good or bad, what what people
Speaker 1: um and especially other teams fans on social media because
Speaker 1: I really do take pleasure in that. But also we
Speaker 1: are entitled to our opinion and nobody's opinion is wrong.
Speaker 1: Definitely not mine and definitely not anyone else's. UM. And
Speaker 1: so like I said, if you're going through something, man,
Speaker 1: find help, lean on the people around you. UM. But
Speaker 1: there's light at the end of the tunnel, You'll be okay.
Speaker 1: Thanks guys, listening to another lights Out podcast for me
Speaker 1: Sean Raymond, and uh, thank you all for listening to
Speaker 1: and understanding, because that's that's what the thing is about me.
Speaker 1: We we all, we all have our opinions, we all
Speaker 1: feel a certain way and the reason why we feel
Speaker 1: a certain way about things is because people go through
Speaker 1: different things in life. So I can't say what that,
Speaker 1: what trick is that person over here, what bothers that
Speaker 1: person or whatever? We all dealt with it. But glad
Speaker 1: to have a conversation with you guys, and we'll have
Speaker 1: another lights Out podcast me Sean Raymond next week.