‘If you don’t talk about them, you are digging yourself a bigger hole’ – Monty Panesar on dealing with mental health issues

Monty Panesar, the former England cricketer, reckons that not talking about mental health issues can lead to dire consequences in the future. The retired spinner feels that opening up on the problems can help one’s family stay aware of what’s wrong with the individual. The 38-year-old Panesar himself has gone through the hardships after being diagnosed with paranoia.

He went away from the game in 2014 with his last international match coming way back in December 2013. Once regarded as one of the Three Lions’ best spinner with 193 wickets, the Bedfordshire-born couldn’t get his career going.

I’m not a big fan of medication: Monty Panesar

“You need to talk about it. We use the word taboo in a wrong way. It’s like how can we normalise having conversations when you are sitting with your parents, you talk to them and say look ‘I just can’t concentrate or I felt I over-slept this week, don’t know what’s going on’,” Panesar was quoted as saying on the Hit and Miss Podcast.

Panesar said that he isn’t a ‘big fan’ of medication as he reckons that it’s only a temporary solution to get rid of the pain. Rather, he suggests going through the phases of anxiety through communicating, thereby conquering all the fears.

“The more you talk about it, the more your family would know what’s going inside. If you don’t, you are digging yourself a bigger hole and you get to a point when you may need medication. What medication does, you don’t care about the problem. Anti-depressants numb the pain and you don’t care and it’s like it doesn’t exist now.

“But when the numb goes away, you feel the pain again. That’s what ends up happening and I’m not a big fan of it. Sometimes you have to walk through the truth, talking to friends in order to walk through the anxious phases. If you don’t do, you are never going to overcome your fear,” he added.

A number of players have opened up on their mental battles in the last year or so. England’s Sarah Taylor retired from the game due to anxiety after which Glenn Maxwell took a break midway through the T20I series against Sri Lanka. The likes of Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni have also highlighted the importance of taking care of one’s mental well-being.