WEBVTT - Getting Open with Alexander Mattison 0:00:07.600 --> 0:00:10.000 Hi, everybody. My name is Lindsay Young and I am 0:00:10.039 --> 0:00:13.800 a staff writer and assistant editor here with the Minnesota Vikings. 0:00:13.800 --> 0:00:16.400 Thank you so much for joining us for another episode 0:00:16.400 --> 0:00:19.440 of our Getting Open series, which really focuses on all 0:00:19.480 --> 0:00:22.680 things mental health. Over the past several weeks, we have 0:00:22.760 --> 0:00:26.280 talked to a number of people connected to the Vikings organization, 0:00:26.680 --> 0:00:30.080 from players to general manager Rick Spielman and Chief Operating 0:00:30.160 --> 0:00:34.560 Officer Andrew Miller, really about their personal experiences and their 0:00:34.560 --> 0:00:37.840 thoughts on mental health and also their desire to break 0:00:37.840 --> 0:00:41.159 down the stigma and just really normalize the conversation around 0:00:41.159 --> 0:00:43.480 mental illness and the way that it affects so many 0:00:43.479 --> 0:00:46.199 people in their day to day lives. Today, I'm really 0:00:46.200 --> 0:00:49.000 excited to sit down with Alexander Madison, who's going to 0:00:49.000 --> 0:00:52.159 share a little bit about the way a college experience 0:00:52.479 --> 0:00:55.280 has opened his eyes to the world of mental health 0:00:55.600 --> 0:00:59.480 and really given him a passion to raise awareness for 0:00:59.560 --> 0:01:10.080 suicide prevention. Alex you and I obviously talked earlier this 0:01:10.160 --> 0:01:14.520 winter about mental health and suicide awareness. Can you just 0:01:14.560 --> 0:01:18.400 explain again for us about your connection with Tyler Helenski 0:01:18.560 --> 0:01:22.759 and how his passing has really impacted you. Yeah, yeah, 0:01:22.840 --> 0:01:29.200 So back in twenty seventeen. We played Washington State earlier 0:01:29.200 --> 0:01:32.559 on in the season and we went into a triple 0:01:32.600 --> 0:01:36.640 overtime that game and lost that game. And you know, 0:01:36.680 --> 0:01:39.640 I just it's kind of one of those unexplainable feelings 0:01:40.080 --> 0:01:41.720 where you know, you just go into a game where 0:01:41.760 --> 0:01:44.640 there's that much emotion poured out onto the field, there's 0:01:44.640 --> 0:01:47.880 obviously going to be room for an emotional connection left, 0:01:49.320 --> 0:01:52.440 you know, across the field. So that's just one of 0:01:52.480 --> 0:01:54.880 the things you see in his history unfold. He's a 0:01:54.880 --> 0:01:59.480 Southern California guy, just like myself, and you know, great, 0:02:00.400 --> 0:02:03.680 great athletic talent, and from you know what, the things 0:02:03.680 --> 0:02:05.160 that we hear, you know, he's a great young man 0:02:05.200 --> 0:02:10.360 as well, and just to hear that happened was just 0:02:10.440 --> 0:02:14.080 something that it hurt deeper than what I you know, 0:02:14.120 --> 0:02:16.720 what I would have ever thought, just because I didn't 0:02:16.720 --> 0:02:20.120 personally know him that well. But just like I said, 0:02:20.160 --> 0:02:22.440 being out there on that field and going to war 0:02:23.040 --> 0:02:25.639 like that, you leave room for an emotional connection and 0:02:25.880 --> 0:02:29.520 there's that respect from the other side of the ball. 0:02:29.520 --> 0:02:32.440 Thanks for sharing that. And I think when the news 0:02:32.480 --> 0:02:36.160 came out that Tyler committed suicide, I think it rocked 0:02:36.200 --> 0:02:38.480 a lot of people. And I think part of the 0:02:38.520 --> 0:02:42.280 reason for that is as a society, I think it's 0:02:42.280 --> 0:02:44.760 really easy for us to have a mindset that you know, 0:02:44.880 --> 0:02:48.359 this person is successful, he's an athlete, if they're at 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:51.200 the pro level. You know he has money, he's physically fit, 0:02:51.280 --> 0:02:53.639 you know they have it all. Maybe that that tends 0:02:53.639 --> 0:02:56.000 to be an easy mindset to have. He must not 0:02:56.080 --> 0:02:58.920 have a worry in the world. As an athlete yourself, 0:02:58.960 --> 0:03:01.919 who has witnessed goes the others experience and are now 0:03:02.000 --> 0:03:05.560 at the pro level football, what would you say to that? UM, 0:03:05.600 --> 0:03:10.120 I would definitely say that we're all human, whether you 0:03:10.160 --> 0:03:13.120 know we play professional sports, or whether it's CEO of 0:03:13.120 --> 0:03:16.880 a company, or whether you're you're not any of those. Um, 0:03:17.000 --> 0:03:21.040 everyone's human and everyone has the same problems, the same 0:03:22.360 --> 0:03:25.480 issues to deal with and pan out on a personal level. 0:03:25.560 --> 0:03:28.160 So you know, whether that's your own personal issues and 0:03:28.360 --> 0:03:32.400 problems and emotions that you have to navigate through, UM, 0:03:32.520 --> 0:03:34.760 that's your life, that's your story, that's your path and 0:03:34.760 --> 0:03:37.080 your journey. And I think that you know a lot 0:03:37.120 --> 0:03:40.240 of people might stick to you know, well, you play 0:03:40.320 --> 0:03:43.360 football and you know you have to be this big, 0:03:43.400 --> 0:03:46.200 strong man out there on the field all the time, 0:03:46.200 --> 0:03:48.240 and that you know, that doesn't always have to translate 0:03:48.240 --> 0:03:51.240 to off the field. You know, we we have emotions 0:03:51.280 --> 0:03:53.680 and we have things in life that we have to 0:03:53.720 --> 0:03:57.440 deal with, so um it can be taken for granted 0:03:57.880 --> 0:04:00.200 just as easy as a player as it can be 0:04:01.680 --> 0:04:05.440 a non professional athlete. I think that's exactly right what 0:04:05.880 --> 0:04:08.320 you're just talking about, and that really leads into my 0:04:08.360 --> 0:04:11.440 next question too, because I think throughout this whole series, 0:04:11.440 --> 0:04:14.480 we've been talking about the stigma right that surrounds mental illness, 0:04:14.720 --> 0:04:18.880 and especially it seems to be seen at possibly an 0:04:18.880 --> 0:04:22.800 even deeper level among athletics. You mentioned that kind of 0:04:22.839 --> 0:04:25.599 expectation to be a big, strong man on the field. 0:04:26.120 --> 0:04:28.160 Can you elaborate a little bit on that on why 0:04:28.320 --> 0:04:32.760 that stigma is the way it is among athletes. Yeah, 0:04:32.800 --> 0:04:37.080 I believe that, you know, there's just there's just an 0:04:38.120 --> 0:04:44.440 unknown rule that you can't show emotions that you know, 0:04:44.480 --> 0:04:47.320 if you do, you're soft, If you you know, they'll 0:04:47.480 --> 0:04:51.920 they'll tag you with the terms of not being an 0:04:51.920 --> 0:04:56.080 elite athlete. Whatever it might be there your career, you're 0:04:56.720 --> 0:05:00.560 everything that you've worked for. In a moment of weakness, 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:05.840 it's not really supposed to be seen as weakness. It's 0:05:05.839 --> 0:05:09.680 a moment of dealing with emotions and feeling emotions, but 0:05:09.720 --> 0:05:13.920 it's been tagged with weakness and softness, and you know, 0:05:13.960 --> 0:05:17.640 that's obviously the opposite of what you would expect the 0:05:17.680 --> 0:05:20.279 game of foot wall to be. So I think that 0:05:20.880 --> 0:05:23.880 just the fact that people dealing with emotions get tagged 0:05:23.880 --> 0:05:29.440 with that it shouldn't be that way, especially because in 0:05:29.480 --> 0:05:32.159 this world where there's so much that goes on, and 0:05:32.320 --> 0:05:35.000 you know, life can take you one way and then 0:05:35.040 --> 0:05:38.279 take you the other way the next second. So in 0:05:38.320 --> 0:05:42.080 my opinion, I don't think that stigma is right, and 0:05:42.120 --> 0:05:44.240 that we all have emotions that we have to deal 0:05:44.320 --> 0:05:46.840 with and some people can deal with them better than others, 0:05:47.240 --> 0:05:50.719 but at the end of the day, it's not healthy 0:05:51.040 --> 0:05:53.920 to hold all that in. And that's where you're seeing 0:05:53.920 --> 0:05:58.320 a lot of athletes coming out and expressing themselves nowadays, 0:05:58.400 --> 0:06:00.880 because there have been a lot lot of athletes that 0:06:01.320 --> 0:06:05.240 just become over overwhelmed with so much, so many emotions, 0:06:05.240 --> 0:06:08.560 so many things, the weight of the world on their shoulders, 0:06:08.560 --> 0:06:12.760 and you know, we're just kind of forced to deal 0:06:12.800 --> 0:06:16.280 with it in a way that no one else can 0:06:16.279 --> 0:06:18.400 see us hurting. No one else can see us filling 0:06:18.440 --> 0:06:22.039 those emotions. In the previous segment of Getting Open, we 0:06:22.160 --> 0:06:25.480 talked to Adam and Caitlin Feeling in their Feeling Foundation. 0:06:26.120 --> 0:06:30.200 Really it focuses on how much mental illness in youth 0:06:30.320 --> 0:06:33.760 has increased so much, and that's kind of a topic 0:06:33.800 --> 0:06:37.280 that goes overlooked sometimes. So when you're talking about how 0:06:37.320 --> 0:06:39.680 the tide is kind of starting to turn, you know, 0:06:39.720 --> 0:06:43.359 they're athletes across the NFL, including your teammates. I know 0:06:43.400 --> 0:06:46.120 I've seen some stories from other leagues as well of 0:06:46.160 --> 0:06:50.239 these athletes who are sharing their own experiences around mental health. 0:06:50.440 --> 0:06:52.440 How much of an impact do you think that can have, 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:56.880 especially on the younger generation. Oh man, I think I 0:06:56.920 --> 0:07:02.320 think it can be extremely impactful for especially the youth. 0:07:03.000 --> 0:07:08.200 Just simply for athletes, professional athletes to use their platform 0:07:08.240 --> 0:07:13.480 and share their stories and you know, promote the importance 0:07:13.520 --> 0:07:16.080 of mental health. That's something that goes a long way, 0:07:16.160 --> 0:07:19.720 not only for adults who are dealing with you know, 0:07:19.800 --> 0:07:23.040 bills and stress and all of these things, but kids 0:07:23.080 --> 0:07:26.840 as well, especially during this time or doing school online, 0:07:27.000 --> 0:07:30.600 and you know, there's all these different things that kids 0:07:30.640 --> 0:07:33.760 have to deal with as far as growing up and 0:07:35.200 --> 0:07:37.320 those emotions and all of those things that you go 0:07:37.400 --> 0:07:43.120 through that sometimes not and anyone can just understand that 0:07:43.440 --> 0:07:46.840 some adults can't really understand and put themselves in that 0:07:46.840 --> 0:07:49.400 that perspective of some of these things that these kids 0:07:49.400 --> 0:07:51.360 have to go through because none of us had to 0:07:51.400 --> 0:07:54.760 do school online and couldn't go outside and play with 0:07:54.800 --> 0:07:59.080 our friends and things like that and those types of environments. 0:07:59.120 --> 0:08:01.880 So for me, I think that using our platform and 0:08:02.280 --> 0:08:04.960 being able to share our stories is something that kids 0:08:05.040 --> 0:08:07.400 can look at and anyone that's dealing with anything, they 0:08:07.400 --> 0:08:10.440 can look at that and say, I'm not alone, and 0:08:10.520 --> 0:08:13.000 I'm not the only one that has had these emotions 0:08:13.000 --> 0:08:17.440 and had these feelings, and how can I get out 0:08:17.440 --> 0:08:19.400 of this dark place that I'm feeling like I'm in 0:08:19.480 --> 0:08:21.760 And they can look up to some of the players 0:08:21.880 --> 0:08:24.040 or some of the important people in their life that 0:08:24.080 --> 0:08:27.040 they look up to, and they can hear these stories 0:08:27.080 --> 0:08:29.240 and relate to them, and they can find their way 0:08:29.240 --> 0:08:32.360 out of that dark place. In another recent episode, we 0:08:32.960 --> 0:08:36.400 talked with the Vikings journal manager Rick Spielman, and he 0:08:36.480 --> 0:08:39.600 really emphasized the importance of mental health within the organization 0:08:39.600 --> 0:08:42.040 and how much he cares about the topic and wanting 0:08:42.040 --> 0:08:44.760 to make sure that that players and staff alike, you know, 0:08:44.840 --> 0:08:48.160 coaches have the resources that they need. I guess what 0:08:48.200 --> 0:08:49.960 does it mean to you to be part of an 0:08:50.040 --> 0:08:53.320 organization that does show support for this type of topic 0:08:53.440 --> 0:08:57.160 and empowers you guys to share your stories. It means 0:08:57.160 --> 0:09:00.240 a lot to me. That's one of the things that 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:05.040 I love about this organization is that they care so much. 0:09:05.200 --> 0:09:08.079 And you know, I wouldn't I wouldn't want it to 0:09:08.120 --> 0:09:10.360 be any other way. Just to know that they are 0:09:10.480 --> 0:09:14.240 very supportive and the things that their players are passionate 0:09:14.240 --> 0:09:17.920 about is something that is really inspiring to me and 0:09:18.000 --> 0:09:22.640 definitely just helps me want to use my voice and 0:09:22.720 --> 0:09:25.440 use my platform even more knowing that I have that 0:09:25.480 --> 0:09:28.679 support system behind me and I you've talked about in 0:09:28.720 --> 0:09:32.280 the years since Tyler's passing, you've been passionate about just 0:09:32.400 --> 0:09:36.800 learning more about mental health and learning more about suicide 0:09:36.800 --> 0:09:39.880 and suicide prevention. What are maybe a couple of things 0:09:39.880 --> 0:09:42.720 that you have learned, you know, in your own research 0:09:42.800 --> 0:09:48.280 about those topics. I've dug pretty deep and just just 0:09:48.400 --> 0:09:52.240 finding out a lot about the small things that I 0:09:52.240 --> 0:09:55.319 can help someone turn their mental health around, and someone 0:09:55.360 --> 0:09:59.080 that's not very aware of their mental health and how 0:09:59.200 --> 0:10:02.760 that can creep up on you. And you know, I 0:10:02.800 --> 0:10:06.560 didn't even realize years ago that I was in a 0:10:06.600 --> 0:10:11.720 position where I noticed my mental health was was was 0:10:11.760 --> 0:10:14.240 not good. I was in a place where, you know, 0:10:14.320 --> 0:10:17.080 things were just going bad for me left and right, 0:10:17.080 --> 0:10:19.640 and I'm just like, why, you know, the universe feels 0:10:19.640 --> 0:10:22.040 like it's just crushing in on me, sending home, sending 0:10:22.040 --> 0:10:24.800 home money, my stipend checks and things like that to 0:10:24.840 --> 0:10:29.400 help my parents, my car breaking down, losing friends, all 0:10:29.440 --> 0:10:31.840 of these things are just happening and happening, happening, And 0:10:32.240 --> 0:10:35.160 I realized that I was trying to fix everything myself 0:10:35.640 --> 0:10:39.360 and trying to get answers and solve problems with answers 0:10:39.400 --> 0:10:42.920 that aren't even there. And so a lot of the 0:10:43.000 --> 0:10:45.480 times I realized that, you know, people can find themselves 0:10:46.679 --> 0:10:51.680 trying so hard and forgetting to check on themselves, checking 0:10:51.720 --> 0:10:55.000 on you know, everyone else but themselves, and trying to 0:10:55.040 --> 0:11:01.120 figure out everything without trying to really find out what 0:11:01.200 --> 0:11:05.040 they can do to help their situation. And so, um, yeah, 0:11:05.040 --> 0:11:07.920 there's a lot of different things like yoga and getting 0:11:07.920 --> 0:11:12.120 the right amount of sunlight, the proper foods to eat, 0:11:12.720 --> 0:11:14.120 you don't want to make sure that you're feeding your 0:11:14.120 --> 0:11:17.360 body with the proper nutrients and all those things they 0:11:17.400 --> 0:11:19.800 all come together full circle to help your mental health 0:11:19.840 --> 0:11:23.679 and help you navigate through life. So just to follow 0:11:23.760 --> 0:11:25.800 up on that, were those things that you were able 0:11:25.840 --> 0:11:27.840 to use for yourself when you were going through that 0:11:27.920 --> 0:11:29.480 hard time or was it a little bit more of 0:11:29.480 --> 0:11:32.040 a struggle, and then you kind of learned these these 0:11:32.080 --> 0:11:34.800 techniques later on to maybe help you if if that 0:11:34.800 --> 0:11:38.520 comes up again. So I started doing a yoga that's 0:11:38.520 --> 0:11:40.400 something that the team had for us, and that that 0:11:40.480 --> 0:11:43.280 helped me a lot. But really in that moment, I 0:11:43.360 --> 0:11:45.840 just let go and let God and you know, I 0:11:45.880 --> 0:11:48.400 have strong faith in God and his plan for me, 0:11:48.480 --> 0:11:52.079 and that's kind of where I just handed the baton 0:11:52.160 --> 0:11:55.959 and cast all my burdens onto him and everything started 0:11:56.000 --> 0:11:58.520 to work out for me. And then, you know, looking 0:11:58.520 --> 0:12:01.240 into it deeper, that's when I started to really find 0:12:01.280 --> 0:12:04.720 out how can I help myself and set myself up 0:12:04.760 --> 0:12:07.760 to be in a better position so that when adversity hits, 0:12:08.240 --> 0:12:10.520 you know, I'm prepared for it and my mental health 0:12:10.600 --> 0:12:14.079 is strong enough and everything's aligned to where I can 0:12:14.080 --> 0:12:17.880 try and navigate through as easy as possible. And something 0:12:17.920 --> 0:12:21.200 else that we've talked a lot about is support systems, 0:12:21.240 --> 0:12:23.920 and you mentioned even helping to support your parents and 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:26.760 things and just kind of the hardship that that was. 0:12:26.800 --> 0:12:28.680 But I know how close you are with your family, 0:12:28.760 --> 0:12:31.360 and you've talked a lot about that. What has a 0:12:31.480 --> 0:12:35.240 support system looked like in your life, you know, whether family, friends, 0:12:35.280 --> 0:12:37.640 What does that look like for you? For me, I 0:12:37.720 --> 0:12:42.640 have an extremely extremely strong support system my mom and dad, 0:12:43.320 --> 0:12:46.280 my brothers, and then my aunt and uncle and my cousins, 0:12:46.320 --> 0:12:49.040 and you know, we're just a really tight knit family. 0:12:49.800 --> 0:12:52.160 I was raised in the church. I was raised to 0:12:53.280 --> 0:12:55.840 ignore all of the bad things going on around me. 0:12:55.920 --> 0:12:57.680 So you know, my parents they kept me and my 0:12:57.720 --> 0:13:02.040 brothers strictly down the path of you know, school and 0:13:02.240 --> 0:13:04.520 sports and just you know, trying to do the right 0:13:04.520 --> 0:13:08.679 things and stay out of the troubles. And so you know, 0:13:08.760 --> 0:13:10.920 I give all credits to them for for raising me 0:13:11.000 --> 0:13:13.320 the way that I am, and my family just being 0:13:13.400 --> 0:13:17.560 so tight and everyone just supporting whatever it is that 0:13:17.600 --> 0:13:19.560 I wanted to do, whatever it is that my brother 0:13:19.640 --> 0:13:21.280 wants to do, whatever it is that my cousin wants 0:13:21.320 --> 0:13:23.440 to do, whatever it is that anyone in our family 0:13:23.480 --> 0:13:25.520 wants to do or one hundred and ten percent in 0:13:25.720 --> 0:13:28.480 and super supportive of each other. And I think that 0:13:28.600 --> 0:13:32.080 really goes a long way and mental health and and 0:13:32.240 --> 0:13:34.320 you know, for me, I was at a point where 0:13:34.320 --> 0:13:37.679 I was kind of hiding my uh you know, just 0:13:37.840 --> 0:13:40.160 you live in that that lifestyle of that stigma where 0:13:40.160 --> 0:13:42.360 I was kind of just holding in my emotions and 0:13:42.360 --> 0:13:44.920 no one really knows what's going on. And you know, 0:13:45.360 --> 0:13:48.400 I just know that I have that support system back home, 0:13:48.440 --> 0:13:51.040 and so some people don't have that, and so I think, 0:13:51.080 --> 0:13:53.480 you know, it's it's right, and it's the best to 0:13:53.600 --> 0:13:57.280 encourage people to, you know, support your loved ones, support 0:13:57.280 --> 0:13:59.640 your family, support your friends, whatever it is that they're 0:13:59.679 --> 0:14:01.360 going or you might not even know it because they 0:14:01.480 --> 0:14:03.680 might not wear it on their sleeve like some people do. 0:14:04.240 --> 0:14:07.640 They might hide it inside what a lot of people do. 0:14:08.040 --> 0:14:11.280 So always be that support system, and you know, I 0:14:11.320 --> 0:14:14.120 just encourage people to just reach out to friends and 0:14:14.160 --> 0:14:17.360 family and just check on each other because it's hard times. 0:14:18.160 --> 0:14:21.120 And just in our conversations, I know that you know 0:14:21.200 --> 0:14:23.280 that is your heart just to help other people and 0:14:23.960 --> 0:14:26.480 to encourage other people. And that kind of leads into 0:14:26.520 --> 0:14:28.080 my next question as well, because I want to talk 0:14:28.120 --> 0:14:32.400 about your brand I Am Gifted. You know you're wearing 0:14:32.440 --> 0:14:34.200 some of the merchandise right now. I know I have 0:14:34.240 --> 0:14:36.200 one of the sweatshirts. I know you were recently back 0:14:36.200 --> 0:14:39.560 in Boise and being able to share that with other people. 0:14:39.760 --> 0:14:42.840 Can you tell us a little bit about kind of 0:14:42.880 --> 0:14:46.080 the message behind your brand and the vision that you 0:14:46.120 --> 0:14:50.360 have for it in the future. Yeah. So when I 0:14:50.400 --> 0:14:54.000 think about life, it's what you make of it, and 0:14:54.040 --> 0:14:58.720 so I just always want to ask myself the question too, 0:14:58.760 --> 0:15:01.240 what do you want to make of your life? So 0:15:01.560 --> 0:15:03.640 that's something that people can always just ask themselves, what 0:15:03.680 --> 0:15:06.160 do you want to make of your life? And my brand, 0:15:06.320 --> 0:15:09.080 I really wanted to start a brand that was more 0:15:09.160 --> 0:15:13.400 than just a logo, more than just my initials tagged 0:15:13.440 --> 0:15:15.960 on some merchandise or anything. I wanted to be more 0:15:15.960 --> 0:15:19.360 of a movement, more of something that can mean something 0:15:19.400 --> 0:15:22.360 to somebody like it means to me. So I came 0:15:22.400 --> 0:15:25.160 with I Am Gifted. And that's because I wanted to 0:15:25.160 --> 0:15:28.720 integrate my initials into something that was meaningful and that 0:15:28.880 --> 0:15:33.600 something that people can support. And with that, I say 0:15:33.680 --> 0:15:36.200 that everyone has a gift inside. Everyone's born with a gift. 0:15:36.960 --> 0:15:39.640 You just have to find it, embrace it, and use 0:15:39.680 --> 0:15:42.720 it to shed some light into the world. And I 0:15:42.760 --> 0:15:46.760 think that, you know, wholeheartedly believe that just seeing I 0:15:46.800 --> 0:15:51.840 Am gifted, you're subliminally telling yourself that you're gifted, and 0:15:52.320 --> 0:15:53.960 I think that goes a long way. So I'd like 0:15:54.080 --> 0:15:58.040 to have merchandise where you know, it says I am gifted, 0:15:58.040 --> 0:16:00.960 and people can look at that and just in the 0:16:01.000 --> 0:16:02.840 second of you reading that, whether it was in your 0:16:02.840 --> 0:16:05.920 head or out loud, you know, passing by, you just 0:16:06.000 --> 0:16:09.760 hold yourself, I am gifted and just spreading that light, 0:16:10.040 --> 0:16:13.720 that positivity, that love, there's something I'm super passionate about, 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:16.760 and so I just I just really wanted to make 0:16:16.760 --> 0:16:19.240 sure that my brand means something and that it's more 0:16:19.280 --> 0:16:21.360 of a movement. So that's why I really wanted to 0:16:21.400 --> 0:16:25.840 do that collaboration and emphasizing mental health and suicide prevention 0:16:25.920 --> 0:16:28.920 so that people around the world that you might be 0:16:29.000 --> 0:16:31.040 feel like they're in a dark place, they can, you know, 0:16:31.160 --> 0:16:35.040 look at I Am Gifted and the message behind it 0:16:35.240 --> 0:16:38.040 and believe in something. Well. I know, I definitely love 0:16:38.080 --> 0:16:41.320 the mission behind that. The sweatshirt is super comfy too, 0:16:41.360 --> 0:16:43.920 which is an added bonus, but definitely hope that people 0:16:43.960 --> 0:16:46.360 go ahead and check that out. So thank you for 0:16:46.400 --> 0:16:49.600 sharing more about that with us. And then lastly, I 0:16:49.640 --> 0:16:52.400 guess just kind of bigger picture, you know, why did 0:16:52.400 --> 0:16:54.080 you want to be a part of this Getting Open 0:16:54.160 --> 0:16:56.160 series and what do you hope that people can take 0:16:56.200 --> 0:16:59.360 from this? Everything's bigger than me, So I want to 0:16:59.400 --> 0:17:01.160 be a part of something and that's bigger than myself, 0:17:01.200 --> 0:17:03.720 and I've been able to do that. I been blessed 0:17:03.720 --> 0:17:06.280 to be in a position with my platform and being 0:17:06.280 --> 0:17:09.240 a part of such an amazing organization in the Vikings, 0:17:09.280 --> 0:17:12.359 and I just wanted to make sure that I was 0:17:12.400 --> 0:17:15.480 able to be vulnerable so that somebody else can look 0:17:15.520 --> 0:17:17.480 at that and they can be vulnerable as well. So 0:17:17.720 --> 0:17:20.120 I think They're Getting Open series is something that's amazing 0:17:20.200 --> 0:17:24.040 for us to share our stories and for people to 0:17:24.080 --> 0:17:26.840 be able to relate. And like I said, I just 0:17:26.880 --> 0:17:30.480 hope that anyone out there watching, anyone out there listening, 0:17:30.520 --> 0:17:33.040 and they get the message that you're not alone, and 0:17:33.840 --> 0:17:36.840 anyone that has anyone around them that is feeling that way, 0:17:36.920 --> 0:17:40.360 just continue to show that love and support and make 0:17:40.400 --> 0:17:43.440 sure that you're that support. Sis. Thank you so much, 0:17:43.480 --> 0:17:46.040 Alex I think that's all I have for you. Awesome, 0:17:46.119 --> 0:17:53.400 thank you. Thanks so much to Alex for really being 0:17:53.440 --> 0:17:56.600 open and honest about his experiences and sharing with us 0:17:56.720 --> 0:18:00.560 more about his desire to support additional reas sources for 0:18:00.680 --> 0:18:04.320 mental health as well as continue to raise awareness for 0:18:04.560 --> 0:18:07.879 suicide prevention. In the coming weeks, keep an eye on 0:18:07.920 --> 0:18:10.880 all Vikings digital platforms as we continue to roll out 0:18:10.880 --> 0:18:12.160 our Getting Open series