Dan’s Story

1. Give a short biography of yourself, particularly your occupation and experience in sport.

Hey All, My name is Dan, and I’m a customer experience manager working in telecoms, I love all things strength sports, mainly powerlifting but more recently I’ve taken on a new challenge in learning weightlifting.

2. What personal experiences with mental health do you have? Either with yourself, people in your field or friends.

I’ve struggled my whole life with anxiety, self doubt and confidence issues in social situations even from a relatively young age I could always remember not really fitting in, this got worse as I got older with the added pressures of working in a highly stressful corporate environment. around 4 years ago I finally acknowledged that I couldn’t allow this to continue as I felt like I was wasting the best years of my life feeling the way I did, hating what I saw in the mirror, the sound of my own voice, I could never allow myself to feel good about the amazing things that were going on in my life at the time positive, being fearful in situations like walking into a busy bar or meeting at work. This needed to stop. 

I visited my GP first, who prescribed me medication, counselling, CBT but I only ever found these were temporary fixes until I found sport. 

3. How do you feel sport/fitness affects mental health?

The idea of participating in anything sporty used to put the fear of god in me as when I was at school I was always that geeky, not cool kid that used get bullied as I just couldn’t play football or do cross country or basket ball, when the teams used to get picked in PE I’d always be the last one 🤣 and as I result I resented it until I accidentally discovered powerlifting.

When I went to the drs they told me to try to exercise so I joined a gym and started going with my friend, after a while I started seeing changes in my body and got stronger not only physically but putting myself in this vulnerable position did wonders for my confidence, I got a Coach and within 12 months I stepped on the platform and I won my first competition, I have made the best friends and have never felt more empowered all through my sport, I’ve achieved things I’ve never thought I’d ever do, the feeling of seeing those numbers creep up is so empowering, the ups the downs all taught me things about myself I never knew. 

4. What advice do you have for people in sport/fitness who struggle with mental health issues?

Talk, there are always people around who absolutely do care and want to help, I was blown away at the amount of people who have at some point been though something similar or equally know someone that has. 

Remember it’s supposed to be fun, enjoy it and take the time to remind yourself how far you have come and be grateful for the things you can do today that you couldn’t do 6 months ago. 

5. What advice do you wish you had been given before going through (or observing) the experiences you have? 

That everything works out eventually, that you ARE good enough! Don’t be afraid to break out and give things a go as it will probably be the best thing you ever do (and don’t wait till you are 30 to start weightlifting as you need very bendy hips) 🤣