Wrestling & Depression

This article is part of #ATPW24, in aid of MIND Charity. You can help support the cause by going to www.justgiving.co.uk/acrossthepondwrestling

I mentioned in my intro to today's #ATPW24 that wrestling had played a very important part in helping me recover from depression and helping me to stay clear of falling back into those darker moods. This is the main reason why MIND was chose as the charity to represent for this stupid challenge!

Wrestling seems to have a similar effect on me as it does on a lot of people. It's an escape, I always know if I'm feeling down, or feel like I could becoming down, that I'm only ever so far away from being able to stick WrestleMania X-7 and just allow myself to fall into the stories of the matches and forget that everything exists for just a few hours. I can laugh at the clowns. Marvel at the acrobats. Gawk at the bearded lady. Get wrapped up in the show. A wrestling show can be, at it's best a roller coaster of emotions and a cavalade of colour. When all you see is black, that colour is a lifeline.

Even when the show finishes, my mood will be higher than when I first pressed play on that DVD or on Demand content. There's then a whole community out there that I can discuss my thoughts and debate on all kinds of various topics, many of these people might be in similar situations to me. Healthy debate then begins to stimulate my brain, and when before watching a show I might have felt unable to get out of bed, suddenly I'm capable of a quick nip to the shops.

I can understand how this might sound silly, to someone who either hasn't dealt with depression or someone who doesn't understand the draw of pro wrestling. I can understand how it may sound like running away from problems and hoping they go away, in fact it is the very opposite. Depression can be crippling, even if someone wanted to sort their problems out they out they could not, they might even actively make them worse, because they are unable to think in the way they would do when their mind was functioning at full capacity. For me, wrestling is something familiar, it's something that I've had around since childhood and maybe that's why I have used it as a metaphorical blanket. I know, when two men in spandex pants are bashing each other that I'm safe. You can't have dark thoughts whilst watching something so silly. I'd imagine the same system could apply to any form of entertainment, whether that be a certain TV show, film or book. That feeling of safety is sometimes the most important thing.

Wrestling, baby, it's powerful stuff in the right hands. Long live the wrestling.