Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Clyde Edwards-Helaire has opened up on his struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after revealing he is battling against the condition on X earlier this week.
“Living With PTSD is no small feat, its hard and very overwhelming,” he posted on Monday. “Within the last month I’ve Had many flare ups and the Amazing staff here at the Chiefs have been helping me get through some tough times.
"I’ll be back rolling next Practice! All Love, Glydro.”
The two-time Super Bowl winner has now discussed the condition in more detail, after revealing that his PTSD diagnosis has been why he has missed practice time at various points during his four-year Chiefs career.
"Sometimes I'm admitted into the hospital, something like I can't stop throwing up and it's just, I [don't] know [anything] pretty much to stop it,'' the 2020 first-round draft pick said, as per ESPN.
"Real bad dehydration ... but it's really just mentally just not being there. It is one of those things where early on guys who kind of pay attention like Travis [Kelce] and Kadarius [Toney], at times they can even, they'll know ahead of time like, 'OK, Clyde's not laughing, he's not giggling, he's not himself.'"
Edwards-Helaire has not disclosed what brought on the condition, but did say it started on December 22, 2018, when he and a friend were in ‘a self-defence situation’.
“My first couple of years, you just try to block everything out and it's like, 'Oh, at some point I'm going to get over it,'" he added. "And you start to realize that that just doesn't happen. You get older and you realize, 'Hey, no matter the age, no matter the person, no matter the situation, everyone needs help at some point.'
“It takes courage to talk about it and having PTSD and dealing with it once people kind of bring it up, it is not something that I'd always want to talk about. I never really know how my body will react or my mind, it is just something that I can't really pinpoint or know exactly what's going to happen.
"I feel like talking is a big thing, but it is just getting over that hump personally, being able to know that honestly, just everybody goes through things good [and] bad ... It's a stepping stone. I'm just 25 years old and trying to live the rest of my life healthy.''
Edwards-Helaire is about to enter his fifth season with the Chiefs, as his team aim for an unprecedented third consecutive Super Bowl victory.
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