Speaker 1: Hey, everybody. My name is Lindsay Young and I am
Speaker 1: a writer and assistant editor here with the Minnesota Vikings.
Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us for our fourth installment of
Speaker 1: the Getting Open series that focuses on all things mental health.
Speaker 1: So far, we've talked with Jalen Holmes, We've talked with
Speaker 1: All Pro linebacker Eric Kendricks and his fiance Ali Cortnall,
Speaker 1: and last week we sat down with tight end Tyler
Speaker 1: Conklin to hear about the ways that his family has
Speaker 1: turned a personal tragedy into community outreach and suicide prevention.
Speaker 1: Over the coming weeks, you will continue to hear personal stories,
Speaker 1: organizational initiatives, and more about foundations that support this area
Speaker 1: of mental health. Today, we're sitting down with Vikings cornerback
Speaker 1: Harrison Hand, who was a rookie for Minnesota in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty and contributed both on special teams and on defense.
Speaker 1: Although Harrison acknowledges the difficulty of being invulnerable, he's passionate
Speaker 1: about the area of mental health and self care. The
Speaker 1: NFL did their Micause My Cleats campaign this year with
Speaker 1: you being a rookie, what did it mean to you
Speaker 1: to be able to participate in the MICUs my Cleats initiative. UM,
Speaker 1: it was very important to me just because I thought
Speaker 1: it was opportunity to bring light and attention to um,
Speaker 1: you know, mental health and you know it's awareness and everything.
Speaker 1: You were one of two players on the Vikings Rafter
Speaker 1: who had NAMI on your cleats. Can you just tell
Speaker 1: us a little bit about why you chose NAMI specifically,
Speaker 1: why that organization is important for you, and why you
Speaker 1: wanted to raise awareness. I chose that specific organization because
Speaker 1: I believe they do a great job in helping, you know,
Speaker 1: the youth, you know, coping find ways to um, you know,
Speaker 1: go through life and hope with their problems, and I
Speaker 1: just believe that that's really important. So you and I
Speaker 1: talked a little bit offline just about the importance of
Speaker 1: talking about mental health and taking care of one's mental health.
Speaker 1: Can you share a little bit of your story, as
Speaker 1: much or as little as you'd like, just sort of
Speaker 1: around the area of mental health. UM. Yeah, UM, you know,
Speaker 1: just like about everyone else in this world, I went
Speaker 1: through some tough things growing up, and you know, at
Speaker 1: a young age, you really don't know um fully or
Speaker 1: understand what you're going through to an extent, you just
Speaker 1: find ways to cope and um, you know, do what
Speaker 1: whatever makes you feel happy, I guess. And you're not
Speaker 1: taught how to cope with your feelings and everything else.
Speaker 1: You're really just told really to you know that they're
Speaker 1: not real or suppressed them. And you know as a
Speaker 1: on the male side, as be a man and on
Speaker 1: the female side, that you're being too sensitive. And that's
Speaker 1: just something small. But I just feel like that, see,
Speaker 1: that's something that needs to change because you were kind
Speaker 1: of being fed that messaging in society. What did you
Speaker 1: do to sort of cope with the things that you
Speaker 1: were feeling or experiencing? You know, you know a lot
Speaker 1: of people have, you know, different ways, but my specific way,
Speaker 1: I tend to know I had a lot of things,
Speaker 1: had a lot of different ways, but one specific way
Speaker 1: that you know, whether it's may be positive, maybe negative,
Speaker 1: or however you see it. But I tend to forget
Speaker 1: the past. I'm more so than I live in the now,
Speaker 1: and I look just like the float. And I think
Speaker 1: that's kind of because of what not been through and
Speaker 1: how you tend to just forget and put everything by
Speaker 1: the experiences that you had growing up and also the
Speaker 1: ways that you kind of cope with things, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of moved on from the past. How has that
Speaker 1: shaped you as a person and the man that you
Speaker 1: are today? Oh yeah, definitely shaped me because no matter
Speaker 1: what you react to certain things, on how well I
Speaker 1: react to certain things, on how I know, you know
Speaker 1: I've chose to grow up and how I chose to
Speaker 1: reacting things, and you know, it's still shaping me because
Speaker 1: I like to get deep and know why I'm acting
Speaker 1: like that, and then I like to know the why why.
Speaker 1: I want to know that, and I know it's still
Speaker 1: shaping me into this being that I want to be.
Speaker 1: Why do you think that it's important for everybody, regardless
Speaker 1: of their background, of their experiences, or their current situation.
Speaker 1: Why do you think it's important for everybody to pay
Speaker 1: attention to their mental health and to take care of
Speaker 1: their mental health. Um. I think it's very important for
Speaker 1: everyone to prioritize their mental health and their alive because
Speaker 1: it affects the way we think, feel and act. No
Speaker 1: matter whether you know it or not, you're you react
Speaker 1: to certain things because of you know, what you've been
Speaker 1: through or what happened in your past life. So I
Speaker 1: feel like that's a very important thing to know. People
Speaker 1: use the word self care a lot, right to kind
Speaker 1: of make sure that they're taking care of their emotions,
Speaker 1: their mental health. What does that look like for you?
Speaker 1: I wouldn't say it's a no consistent route every day.
Speaker 1: But for one, I don't not a huge technology person,
Speaker 1: so I just tend to flow, go away, and I
Speaker 1: just like to live in the now or either you know,
Speaker 1: watch the TV shows or music, But mainly I like
Speaker 1: to be alone, um, you know, just quiet time. I
Speaker 1: really think whether that's you know, going for a walk
Speaker 1: or you know, just going down sitting in nature, or um,
Speaker 1: you know, meditating or yoga, reading a book, there's you know,
Speaker 1: things of that nature. They're really you're just either locking
Speaker 1: into something or you really find another reality to go to.
Speaker 1: What types of books do you like to read. Do
Speaker 1: you like to read like fiction novels, or do you
Speaker 1: like to read kind of like nonfiction self help type
Speaker 1: of stuff. I'm all over the board. Um right now,
Speaker 1: I'm actually reading scripts of movies, different movie in place.
Speaker 1: But I like to also research, like you said about
Speaker 1: you know, self care and different things in the world.
Speaker 1: I feel like this past year obviously we've had to
Speaker 1: navigate the pandemic. There's been increased emphasis or awareness of
Speaker 1: the social injustices that are going on. And but then
Speaker 1: on top of all of that, it's your rookie season,
Speaker 1: You're with a new team, you're in a new city.
Speaker 1: How important was it this past year to put that
Speaker 1: focus on your mental health? I say it was not
Speaker 1: so difficult because, as you know, mental health is something
Speaker 1: that I really live by. It's not something that I
Speaker 1: kind of, you know, think of or every here and there.
Speaker 1: It's really a lifestyle. You know, it's a lot going
Speaker 1: through this pandemic, you know, coming through them, you know,
Speaker 1: combine coming to the season, different things, testing of fans.
Speaker 1: There was just a lot of different stuff. And that
Speaker 1: doesn't even play into the actual learning of the playbook,
Speaker 1: in the tech me that you're going through. So um,
Speaker 1: I say, it's a lot. It caused me to do
Speaker 1: a lot of learning about myself. Now. I learned something
Speaker 1: new about myself every day. And I say it was crazy,
Speaker 1: just because trying to juggle everything that you're going through.
Speaker 1: But no, it's possible. Why do you think there is
Speaker 1: so much stigma around mental health? I think people are
Speaker 1: being more and more willing to talk about it, but
Speaker 1: there still tends to be kind of that stigma. Why
Speaker 1: do you think that is? I want to feel like
Speaker 1: they're willing to talk about it more now is because
Speaker 1: more people are coming out and explaining themselves of who
Speaker 1: they are and why they are. But I feel like
Speaker 1: there's a stigma because when people hear mental health, they
Speaker 1: tend to think of somebody being crazy, or you know,
Speaker 1: they have anxiety or depression, they just want to kill themselves,
Speaker 1: and you know, to an extent, it may be all
Speaker 1: of that, but it's understanding that the feel you know,
Speaker 1: feeble minded and weak if they feel or have empathy
Speaker 1: towards something or at a young age where taught we're
Speaker 1: not taught how to deal with things. We're told to
Speaker 1: suppress them, and that really no one cares, and reality,
Speaker 1: to an extent, majority of the world really doesn't. You
Speaker 1: have to find the ones that you know really do,
Speaker 1: so you just have to really throw out everyone's opinions.
Speaker 1: But the stigma is there. You mentioned like finding the
Speaker 1: ones who are there in your life who do care.
Speaker 1: How have you been able to kind of find those
Speaker 1: people in your life that are in your corner who
Speaker 1: are that support system, whether it's family, friends, teammates. What
Speaker 1: does that look like for you? Um, let's start off
Speaker 1: by saying that I want to say everyone gets a
Speaker 1: different part of you and you can't you. I guess
Speaker 1: in some situation there are some people that feel you
Speaker 1: can't tell everything too. But it's hard just because I
Speaker 1: truthfully don't have a lot of people that I know
Speaker 1: really confide and I can talk to people about things,
Speaker 1: but when it comes down to fully understanding me, I still,
Speaker 1: to this day, I still keep things to myself just
Speaker 1: because you know, I've been doing it since I was born.
Speaker 1: Finding the person and the people it's really about the
Speaker 1: energy and the feeling that you have towards that person
Speaker 1: in the relationship that you you know that whatever you
Speaker 1: say will stay between you and the other person, and
Speaker 1: also that when you're telling them everything that you feel,
Speaker 1: it's more so they listen and they're not telling you
Speaker 1: how to feel. They're more so just there for you
Speaker 1: to listen and you know, explain how you feel and
Speaker 1: they also may feel the same way they don't, but
Speaker 1: to an extent, they're going to know how you feel.
Speaker 1: The last question I had written down is just what
Speaker 1: do you hope that people get out of this, whether
Speaker 1: it's specifically from your message or maybe someone else who's speaking.
Speaker 1: What kind of impact do you hope that this series makes? Truthfully,
Speaker 1: I hope that everyone that watches this or or sees this,
Speaker 1: that they either find ways to cope and find ways
Speaker 1: to somebody to talk to, or really just understand themselves
Speaker 1: of how to be free. And there's either always somebody
Speaker 1: else that's been through that, and there's always somebody as
Speaker 1: willing to listen, no matter who it is, And I'd
Speaker 1: be a person that for me they can talk to.
Speaker 1: And that's just something that I believe that no people
Speaker 1: should learn. Big thank you, of course to Harrison for
Speaker 1: sharing his thoughts with us and for being a champion
Speaker 1: for such a great organization like NAMI. Thanks for tuning
Speaker 1: in again, and we invite you to keep an eye
Speaker 1: on all of Vikings digital platforms for upcoming features and
Speaker 1: are getting an open series