You are not alone, and there is help out there.
That was the message delivered from former National Hockey League goaltender, Olympic silver medalist and former Kamloops Blazer Corey Hirsch Tuesday during a presentation at both Lake City Secondary School campuses focused on mental health.
Brought to Williams Lake by United Way Thompson Nicola Cariboo, Hirsch — now a broadcaster for Rogers Sportsnet — fought a battle during his playing career with anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder that nearly took his life.
“I was 21 and it was so much fun playing in the NHL,” he said. “I was living the dream, but I remember that moment in time for me when things kind of just stopped. Thoughts were screaming at me. Loud. And when you’re a pro athlete and you have a physical injury there are protocols in place.”
The year was 1994. Hirsch, 21 years old at the time, was the third goalie for the New York Rangers, the winners of that year’s Stanley Cup. Hirsch was struggling, in silence, with mental health issues.
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“I was hiding behind a mask and then for my job I’d put one on,” he said.
“The thing with mental health is: you can hide it for only so long. I just wanted the thoughts to stop.”
The Rangers, meanwhile, noticed something wasn’t right with Hirsch, and moved him to Vancouver in 1995 to play for the Canucks.
The words ‘therapy’ and ‘mental health’ weren’t discussed among pro athletes, he said, and during his second season in Vancouver, the “wheels came off,” as he wrote in the most widely clicked on piece ever published in The Players Tribune, until one day he spoke up and told someone the truth.
By that point, his weight had dropped to 140 pounds and Hirsch said it was clear to his teammates something was wrong. The team contacted a psychologist and, following a full day of evaluation, five words, he said, changed his life in a matter of seconds: “You have obsessive-compulsive disorder.”
“Why am I here?” he asked the students. “Because you guys need the information. Self care, things you can do, being able to reach out and the signs and symptoms to watch for. I spent three years suffering, but you don’t have to.”
He encouraged anyone suffering from anxiety, depression or mental health issues to talk to someone.
“There is help out there,” he said. “You just have to let someone know.”
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Following the presentation, Hirsch engaged with students in a question and answer period, where one of the subject’s touched on was how much more accepting society is today of mental health issues due, partly, through the movement of advocacy.
“There’s a huge movement going on right now, and it’s awesome,” Hirsch said.
Ashlee Hyde, community wellness manager, regional supports, with United Way Thompson Nicola Cariboo, said bringing Hirsch to Williams Lake was possible by funding received from the Red Cross following the 2017 wildfires.
“He’s really good friends with our executive director and she connected with him and they wanted to make it happen,” Hyde said, noting Hirsch made presentations in 100 Mile House with the team’s junior ‘B’ Wranglers, and also travelled to Yunesit’in west of Williams Lake for presentations.
“He was great, and I think the students were engaged.”
sports@wltribune.com
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