Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. My name is Lindsay Young and I am
Speaker 1: a staff writer and assistant editor here with the Minnesota Vikings.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for joining us for another episode
Speaker 1: of our Getting Open series, which really focuses on all
Speaker 1: things mental health. Over the past several weeks, we have
Speaker 1: talked to a number of people connected to the Vikings organization,
Speaker 1: from players to general manager Rick Spielman and Chief Operating
Speaker 1: Officer Andrew Miller, really about their personal experiences and their
Speaker 1: thoughts on mental health and also their desire to break
Speaker 1: down the stigma and just really normalize the conversation around
Speaker 1: mental illness and the way that it affects so many
Speaker 1: people in their day to day lives. Today, I'm really
Speaker 1: excited to sit down with Alexander Madison, who's going to
Speaker 1: share a little bit about the way a college experience
Speaker 1: has opened his eyes to the world of mental health
Speaker 1: and really given him a passion to raise awareness for
Speaker 1: suicide prevention. Alex you and I obviously talked earlier this
Speaker 1: winter about mental health and suicide awareness. Can you just
Speaker 1: explain again for us about your connection with Tyler Helenski
Speaker 1: and how his passing has really impacted you. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: So back in twenty seventeen. We played Washington State earlier
Speaker 1: on in the season and we went into a triple
Speaker 1: overtime that game and lost that game. And you know,
Speaker 1: I just it's kind of one of those unexplainable feelings
Speaker 1: where you know, you just go into a game where
Speaker 1: there's that much emotion poured out onto the field, there's
Speaker 1: obviously going to be room for an emotional connection left,
Speaker 1: you know, across the field. So that's just one of
Speaker 1: the things you see in his history unfold. He's a
Speaker 1: Southern California guy, just like myself, and you know, great,
Speaker 1: great athletic talent, and from you know what, the things
Speaker 1: that we hear, you know, he's a great young man
Speaker 1: as well, and just to hear that happened was just
Speaker 1: something that it hurt deeper than what I you know,
Speaker 1: what I would have ever thought, just because I didn't
Speaker 1: personally know him that well. But just like I said,
Speaker 1: being out there on that field and going to war
Speaker 1: like that, you leave room for an emotional connection and
Speaker 1: there's that respect from the other side of the ball.
Speaker 1: Thanks for sharing that. And I think when the news
Speaker 1: came out that Tyler committed suicide, I think it rocked
Speaker 1: a lot of people. And I think part of the
Speaker 1: reason for that is as a society, I think it's
Speaker 1: really easy for us to have a mindset that you know,
Speaker 1: this person is successful, he's an athlete, if they're at
Speaker 1: the pro level. You know he has money, he's physically fit,
Speaker 1: you know they have it all. Maybe that that tends
Speaker 1: to be an easy mindset to have. He must not
Speaker 1: have a worry in the world. As an athlete yourself,
Speaker 1: who has witnessed goes the others experience and are now
Speaker 1: at the pro level football, what would you say to that? UM,
Speaker 1: I would definitely say that we're all human, whether you
Speaker 1: know we play professional sports, or whether it's CEO of
Speaker 1: a company, or whether you're you're not any of those. Um,
Speaker 1: everyone's human and everyone has the same problems, the same
Speaker 1: issues to deal with and pan out on a personal level.
Speaker 1: So you know, whether that's your own personal issues and
Speaker 1: problems and emotions that you have to navigate through, UM,
Speaker 1: that's your life, that's your story, that's your path and
Speaker 1: your journey. And I think that you know a lot
Speaker 1: of people might stick to you know, well, you play
Speaker 1: football and you know you have to be this big,
Speaker 1: strong man out there on the field all the time,
Speaker 1: and that you know, that doesn't always have to translate
Speaker 1: to off the field. You know, we we have emotions
Speaker 1: and we have things in life that we have to
Speaker 1: deal with, so um it can be taken for granted
Speaker 1: just as easy as a player as it can be
Speaker 1: a non professional athlete. I think that's exactly right what
Speaker 1: you're just talking about, and that really leads into my
Speaker 1: next question too, because I think throughout this whole series,
Speaker 1: we've been talking about the stigma right that surrounds mental illness,
Speaker 1: and especially it seems to be seen at possibly an
Speaker 1: even deeper level among athletics. You mentioned that kind of
Speaker 1: expectation to be a big, strong man on the field.
Speaker 1: Can you elaborate a little bit on that on why
Speaker 1: that stigma is the way it is among athletes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I believe that, you know, there's just there's just an
Speaker 1: unknown rule that you can't show emotions that you know,
Speaker 1: if you do, you're soft, If you you know, they'll
Speaker 1: they'll tag you with the terms of not being an
Speaker 1: elite athlete. Whatever it might be there your career, you're
Speaker 1: everything that you've worked for. In a moment of weakness,
Speaker 1: it's not really supposed to be seen as weakness. It's
Speaker 1: a moment of dealing with emotions and feeling emotions, but
Speaker 1: it's been tagged with weakness and softness, and you know,
Speaker 1: that's obviously the opposite of what you would expect the
Speaker 1: game of foot wall to be. So I think that
Speaker 1: just the fact that people dealing with emotions get tagged
Speaker 1: with that it shouldn't be that way, especially because in
Speaker 1: this world where there's so much that goes on, and
Speaker 1: you know, life can take you one way and then
Speaker 1: take you the other way the next second. So in
Speaker 1: my opinion, I don't think that stigma is right, and
Speaker 1: that we all have emotions that we have to deal
Speaker 1: with and some people can deal with them better than others,
Speaker 1: but at the end of the day, it's not healthy
Speaker 1: to hold all that in. And that's where you're seeing
Speaker 1: a lot of athletes coming out and expressing themselves nowadays,
Speaker 1: because there have been a lot lot of athletes that
Speaker 1: just become over overwhelmed with so much, so many emotions,
Speaker 1: so many things, the weight of the world on their shoulders,
Speaker 1: and you know, we're just kind of forced to deal
Speaker 1: with it in a way that no one else can
Speaker 1: see us hurting. No one else can see us filling
Speaker 1: those emotions. In the previous segment of Getting Open, we
Speaker 1: talked to Adam and Caitlin Feeling in their Feeling Foundation.
Speaker 1: Really it focuses on how much mental illness in youth
Speaker 1: has increased so much, and that's kind of a topic
Speaker 1: that goes overlooked sometimes. So when you're talking about how
Speaker 1: the tide is kind of starting to turn, you know,
Speaker 1: they're athletes across the NFL, including your teammates. I know
Speaker 1: I've seen some stories from other leagues as well of
Speaker 1: these athletes who are sharing their own experiences around mental health.
Speaker 1: How much of an impact do you think that can have,
Speaker 1: especially on the younger generation. Oh man, I think I
Speaker 1: think it can be extremely impactful for especially the youth.
Speaker 1: Just simply for athletes, professional athletes to use their platform
Speaker 1: and share their stories and you know, promote the importance
Speaker 1: of mental health. That's something that goes a long way,
Speaker 1: not only for adults who are dealing with you know,
Speaker 1: bills and stress and all of these things, but kids
Speaker 1: as well, especially during this time or doing school online,
Speaker 1: and you know, there's all these different things that kids
Speaker 1: have to deal with as far as growing up and
Speaker 1: those emotions and all of those things that you go
Speaker 1: through that sometimes not and anyone can just understand that
Speaker 1: some adults can't really understand and put themselves in that
Speaker 1: that perspective of some of these things that these kids
Speaker 1: have to go through because none of us had to
Speaker 1: do school online and couldn't go outside and play with
Speaker 1: our friends and things like that and those types of environments.
Speaker 1: So for me, I think that using our platform and
Speaker 1: being able to share our stories is something that kids
Speaker 1: can look at and anyone that's dealing with anything, they
Speaker 1: can look at that and say, I'm not alone, and
Speaker 1: I'm not the only one that has had these emotions
Speaker 1: and had these feelings, and how can I get out
Speaker 1: of this dark place that I'm feeling like I'm in
Speaker 1: And they can look up to some of the players
Speaker 1: or some of the important people in their life that
Speaker 1: they look up to, and they can hear these stories
Speaker 1: and relate to them, and they can find their way
Speaker 1: out of that dark place. In another recent episode, we
Speaker 1: talked with the Vikings journal manager Rick Spielman, and he
Speaker 1: really emphasized the importance of mental health within the organization
Speaker 1: and how much he cares about the topic and wanting
Speaker 1: to make sure that that players and staff alike, you know,
Speaker 1: coaches have the resources that they need. I guess what
Speaker 1: does it mean to you to be part of an
Speaker 1: organization that does show support for this type of topic
Speaker 1: and empowers you guys to share your stories. It means
Speaker 1: a lot to me. That's one of the things that
Speaker 1: I love about this organization is that they care so much.
Speaker 1: And you know, I wouldn't I wouldn't want it to
Speaker 1: be any other way. Just to know that they are
Speaker 1: very supportive and the things that their players are passionate
Speaker 1: about is something that is really inspiring to me and
Speaker 1: definitely just helps me want to use my voice and
Speaker 1: use my platform even more knowing that I have that
Speaker 1: support system behind me and I you've talked about in
Speaker 1: the years since Tyler's passing, you've been passionate about just
Speaker 1: learning more about mental health and learning more about suicide
Speaker 1: and suicide prevention. What are maybe a couple of things
Speaker 1: that you have learned, you know, in your own research
Speaker 1: about those topics. I've dug pretty deep and just just
Speaker 1: finding out a lot about the small things that I
Speaker 1: can help someone turn their mental health around, and someone
Speaker 1: that's not very aware of their mental health and how
Speaker 1: that can creep up on you. And you know, I
Speaker 1: didn't even realize years ago that I was in a
Speaker 1: position where I noticed my mental health was was was
Speaker 1: not good. I was in a place where, you know,
Speaker 1: things were just going bad for me left and right,
Speaker 1: and I'm just like, why, you know, the universe feels
Speaker 1: like it's just crushing in on me, sending home, sending
Speaker 1: home money, my stipend checks and things like that to
Speaker 1: help my parents, my car breaking down, losing friends, all
Speaker 1: of these things are just happening and happening, happening, And
Speaker 1: I realized that I was trying to fix everything myself
Speaker 1: and trying to get answers and solve problems with answers
Speaker 1: that aren't even there. And so a lot of the
Speaker 1: times I realized that, you know, people can find themselves
Speaker 1: trying so hard and forgetting to check on themselves, checking
Speaker 1: on you know, everyone else but themselves, and trying to
Speaker 1: figure out everything without trying to really find out what
Speaker 1: they can do to help their situation. And so, um, yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of different things like yoga and getting
Speaker 1: the right amount of sunlight, the proper foods to eat,
Speaker 1: you don't want to make sure that you're feeding your
Speaker 1: body with the proper nutrients and all those things they
Speaker 1: all come together full circle to help your mental health
Speaker 1: and help you navigate through life. So just to follow
Speaker 1: up on that, were those things that you were able
Speaker 1: to use for yourself when you were going through that
Speaker 1: hard time or was it a little bit more of
Speaker 1: a struggle, and then you kind of learned these these
Speaker 1: techniques later on to maybe help you if if that
Speaker 1: comes up again. So I started doing a yoga that's
Speaker 1: something that the team had for us, and that that
Speaker 1: helped me a lot. But really in that moment, I
Speaker 1: just let go and let God and you know, I
Speaker 1: have strong faith in God and his plan for me,
Speaker 1: and that's kind of where I just handed the baton
Speaker 1: and cast all my burdens onto him and everything started
Speaker 1: to work out for me. And then, you know, looking
Speaker 1: into it deeper, that's when I started to really find
Speaker 1: out how can I help myself and set myself up
Speaker 1: to be in a better position so that when adversity hits,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm prepared for it and my mental health
Speaker 1: is strong enough and everything's aligned to where I can
Speaker 1: try and navigate through as easy as possible. And something
Speaker 1: else that we've talked a lot about is support systems,
Speaker 1: and you mentioned even helping to support your parents and
Speaker 1: things and just kind of the hardship that that was.
Speaker 1: But I know how close you are with your family,
Speaker 1: and you've talked a lot about that. What has a
Speaker 1: support system looked like in your life, you know, whether family, friends,
Speaker 1: What does that look like for you? For me, I
Speaker 1: have an extremely extremely strong support system my mom and dad,
Speaker 1: my brothers, and then my aunt and uncle and my cousins,
Speaker 1: and you know, we're just a really tight knit family.
Speaker 1: I was raised in the church. I was raised to
Speaker 1: ignore all of the bad things going on around me.
Speaker 1: So you know, my parents they kept me and my
Speaker 1: brothers strictly down the path of you know, school and
Speaker 1: sports and just you know, trying to do the right
Speaker 1: things and stay out of the troubles. And so you know,
Speaker 1: I give all credits to them for for raising me
Speaker 1: the way that I am, and my family just being
Speaker 1: so tight and everyone just supporting whatever it is that
Speaker 1: I wanted to do, whatever it is that my brother
Speaker 1: wants to do, whatever it is that my cousin wants
Speaker 1: to do, whatever it is that anyone in our family
Speaker 1: wants to do or one hundred and ten percent in
Speaker 1: and super supportive of each other. And I think that
Speaker 1: really goes a long way and mental health and and
Speaker 1: you know, for me, I was at a point where
Speaker 1: I was kind of hiding my uh you know, just
Speaker 1: you live in that that lifestyle of that stigma where
Speaker 1: I was kind of just holding in my emotions and
Speaker 1: no one really knows what's going on. And you know,
Speaker 1: I just know that I have that support system back home,
Speaker 1: and so some people don't have that, and so I think,
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's right, and it's the best to
Speaker 1: encourage people to, you know, support your loved ones, support
Speaker 1: your family, support your friends, whatever it is that they're
Speaker 1: going or you might not even know it because they
Speaker 1: might not wear it on their sleeve like some people do.
Speaker 1: They might hide it inside what a lot of people do.
Speaker 1: So always be that support system, and you know, I
Speaker 1: just encourage people to just reach out to friends and
Speaker 1: family and just check on each other because it's hard times.
Speaker 1: And just in our conversations, I know that you know
Speaker 1: that is your heart just to help other people and
Speaker 1: to encourage other people. And that kind of leads into
Speaker 1: my next question as well, because I want to talk
Speaker 1: about your brand I Am Gifted. You know you're wearing
Speaker 1: some of the merchandise right now. I know I have
Speaker 1: one of the sweatshirts. I know you were recently back
Speaker 1: in Boise and being able to share that with other people.
Speaker 1: Can you tell us a little bit about kind of
Speaker 1: the message behind your brand and the vision that you
Speaker 1: have for it in the future. Yeah. So when I
Speaker 1: think about life, it's what you make of it, and
Speaker 1: so I just always want to ask myself the question too,
Speaker 1: what do you want to make of your life? So
Speaker 1: that's something that people can always just ask themselves, what
Speaker 1: do you want to make of your life? And my brand,
Speaker 1: I really wanted to start a brand that was more
Speaker 1: than just a logo, more than just my initials tagged
Speaker 1: on some merchandise or anything. I wanted to be more
Speaker 1: of a movement, more of something that can mean something
Speaker 1: to somebody like it means to me. So I came
Speaker 1: with I Am Gifted. And that's because I wanted to
Speaker 1: integrate my initials into something that was meaningful and that
Speaker 1: something that people can support. And with that, I say
Speaker 1: that everyone has a gift inside. Everyone's born with a gift.
Speaker 1: You just have to find it, embrace it, and use
Speaker 1: it to shed some light into the world. And I
Speaker 1: think that, you know, wholeheartedly believe that just seeing I
Speaker 1: Am gifted, you're subliminally telling yourself that you're gifted, and
Speaker 1: I think that goes a long way. So I'd like
Speaker 1: to have merchandise where you know, it says I am gifted,
Speaker 1: and people can look at that and just in the
Speaker 1: second of you reading that, whether it was in your
Speaker 1: head or out loud, you know, passing by, you just
Speaker 1: hold yourself, I am gifted and just spreading that light,
Speaker 1: that positivity, that love, there's something I'm super passionate about,
Speaker 1: and so I just I just really wanted to make
Speaker 1: sure that my brand means something and that it's more
Speaker 1: of a movement. So that's why I really wanted to
Speaker 1: do that collaboration and emphasizing mental health and suicide prevention
Speaker 1: so that people around the world that you might be
Speaker 1: feel like they're in a dark place, they can, you know,
Speaker 1: look at I Am Gifted and the message behind it
Speaker 1: and believe in something. Well. I know, I definitely love
Speaker 1: the mission behind that. The sweatshirt is super comfy too,
Speaker 1: which is an added bonus, but definitely hope that people
Speaker 1: go ahead and check that out. So thank you for
Speaker 1: sharing more about that with us. And then lastly, I
Speaker 1: guess just kind of bigger picture, you know, why did
Speaker 1: you want to be a part of this Getting Open
Speaker 1: series and what do you hope that people can take
Speaker 1: from this? Everything's bigger than me, So I want to
Speaker 1: be a part of something and that's bigger than myself,
Speaker 1: and I've been able to do that. I been blessed
Speaker 1: to be in a position with my platform and being
Speaker 1: a part of such an amazing organization in the Vikings,
Speaker 1: and I just wanted to make sure that I was
Speaker 1: able to be vulnerable so that somebody else can look
Speaker 1: at that and they can be vulnerable as well. So
Speaker 1: I think They're Getting Open series is something that's amazing
Speaker 1: for us to share our stories and for people to
Speaker 1: be able to relate. And like I said, I just
Speaker 1: hope that anyone out there watching, anyone out there listening,
Speaker 1: and they get the message that you're not alone, and
Speaker 1: anyone that has anyone around them that is feeling that way,
Speaker 1: just continue to show that love and support and make
Speaker 1: sure that you're that support. Sis. Thank you so much,
Speaker 1: Alex I think that's all I have for you. Awesome,
Speaker 1: thank you. Thanks so much to Alex for really being
Speaker 1: open and honest about his experiences and sharing with us
Speaker 1: more about his desire to support additional reas sources for
Speaker 1: mental health as well as continue to raise awareness for
Speaker 1: suicide prevention. In the coming weeks, keep an eye on
Speaker 1: all Vikings digital platforms as we continue to roll out
Speaker 1: our Getting Open series