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I met Christopher Collins at his gym in Fairburn, Georgia in 2019. He was a trainer, but not my trainer so I’d see him on occasion in passing. In February of 2020, I ran into him at a career day we were both presenting at. That made me look into him. It’s easy in passing to forget that everyone has a story. I wondered what Chris would present.
As luck would have it we were both at the gym that afternoon and he decided to let my trainer work him out with me. (If we fast forward, you should know we are now dating and this was all a ploy to get close to me. Kinda creepy lol) That opened the door to me following him on Instagram because.... millennial, duh! So he seems cool enough but one thing stuck out. He has a video on his road to training and transition from football. I don’t know if I’ve ever heard that story without the word depression yet his story was one of triumph and overcoming. I was intrigued.
I DM’ed him to see if we could sit down and talk because I was rebranding my nonprofit to encompass mental and physical health. I guess he thought that was a pickup line because that particular conversation didn’t take place until September of that year.
So here's me sitting down with my boyfriend to find where our passions and purpose collide.
Corinthia of The Will Wellness: First I want to tell you, the difference between mental health and mental illness so you know exactly what I am referring to. So when we are talking about mental health we are talking about mental well being. Everyone has mental health. It’s our emotions, our thoughts, our feelings, our ability to solve problems and overcome difficulties, our social connections and our understanding of the world around us.
Mental illness is an illness that effects the way people think, feel, behave or interact with others. There are many different mental illnesses and they have different symptoms that impact peoples lives in different ways.
Got it?
Christopher Collins: Got it!
TWW: First introduce yourself.
CC: Hey I’m Chris Collins. I’m from Fairburn, Ga. I am a personal trainer and I went to Tennessee State University.
TWW: How would you describe your mental health?
CC: I feel like my mental health is great but I do have my ups and downs like everybody. I go through sequences of down periods but I like to consider myself in more of an exalted state more often than a depressed state. I’m more happy than sad and I feel like when I do get into a down state or a depressed state, I’m in control and I’m aware of that and I feel like I can just change my outlook or how I see certain things to get out of that mood.
TWW: That's great! You realize you are in control of your happiness! I know you've played football in the past, so let's talk a little about that. Describe the impact your participation in sports has had on your mental health.
CC: My participation in sports played a huge role in my mental health because I played football all of my life and because of it I thought that’s all I was. I didn’t know who I was outside of a football player and once football ended for me, I didn’t know who I was at all. That was big for me. I didn’t feel like I had any type of identity. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with myself. I was down. I was sick about not playing to the point where I had thoughts like I have no purpose of being in this world. I have no purpose. All I wanted to do was play ball and I won’t say it was taken away from me, but once it ended I didn’t know anything else or how to move forward for a while. And it had me in a depressed state for a good minute.
TWW: Wow! How did you get out of that space? Are there now other aspects of your life or activities that give you the feeling that sports did?
CC: My job gives me the same feeling. I’m a personal trainer and I have a gym. All sports are centered around building the foundation of working out. So I feel that same environment inside my gym. That same camaraderie with my clients just working together to push towards a goal. They’re working towards goals as well as me. Just the feeling of working out. My life is still working out like it was if I was playing sports I’m just not getting ready for a competition at this point.
TWW: Did you play football at Tennessee State University (TSU)?
CC: Yes I played all four years then I graduated and that was the end of that.
TWW: How would you describe the resources TSU had available for your mental health?
CC: I feel like, not just my university, but any school, I don’t think they take into consideration players mental health. Definitely dealing with coaches because you kind of feel like you’re just a part of a business. Once you leave high school and go to college it becomes so much of a business that they could care less about your mental health. And it’s not their fault, it’s just what they know. They are trying to keep their jobs and do everything they gotta do. Once you’re done you’re done, you don’t have much connection with your coaches. You can be a great player and if you don’t go to the league it’ll just be over with. They’ll just be like, "oh he was a good player for us" and that’s it. Nobody really checks up to see how a player might be doing. I have heard stories of people who didn’t make it to the league from my school who committed suicide. And I felt where they came from because you just feel lost. So I feel like schools could do so much better of talking about mental health because I didn’t even think about mental health until I was out of my state of depression.
TWW: On a scale from 1 to 5 how knowledgeable do you believe you are about mental illnesses and why?
CC: 2. I’m not very knowledgeable. I know of mental illnesses but I can’t spot it. I feel like if I spot it I’ll just be being judgmental of someone. It’s just a lack of research and trying to understand more about it probably because I was mixing mental illnesses with mental health. I think for a while I’m not gonna say I didn’t believe in mental illnesses, I just didn’t know how severe they were.
TWW: Knowing what you know now about mental health, in what ways do you believe athletics help mental health?
CC: Athletics help mental health by helping you build confidence in whatever you do. I believe I took what I learned in football into my regular life and applied the same type of motivation and grind with my sports into my career today. And just building camaraderie with a team. That’s always good because you know how to socialize with people. Knowing you can get through tough situations. I think that’s the main thing sports teaches you. Going through adversity and not getting down.
TWW: On the flip side, in what ways, if any do you believe athletics harm mental health?
CC: I think if someone doesn’t know themselves or just getting down about a certain situation because like my situation football was all I knew and when it’s taken away from you it’s like what now? Also being in a sport where somebody might get severely injured, it’s easy to get into a depressed state or down state when that reality hits.
TWW: Now that you're no longer playing an organized sport, what things have you done to protect your mental health?
CC: I think meditating is good for mental health. Praying is good. Reading is good. Exercise. I think that's real good for mental health. Just building your confidence back up and just a lot of self-love. I feel like self-love plays into your mental health. Just you taking out time to do things for yourself. Whatever you like to do. You finding you.
I've always said I couldn't imagine being on top of the world, winning championships, with 85 of my closest friends, having my days scheduled around the thing I love the most and then all of a sudden college ends. And the school you worked so hard to play for, that you represented to the fullest, that you took pride in and sometimes made a LOT of money for is now in your rear view. What about lifelong career services? What about counseling services? What are these schools doing for the players who once played there?
This is so many people's reality but I have to believe we can do more for mental health!
Bonus question.......
TWW: How many people that you know do you believe to battle a mental illness?
CC: An actual illness maybe around three. I know one personally but she does a great job in handling it. I think she finds ways to cope with hers where nobody else would really notice it.
Corinthia: Well thanks babe. I try!