The baseball athlete suffered from depression as he thought his career was going to end after he had several injuries.
- Aug 10, 2018
AceShowbiz - Justin Verlander opened up about his experience in dealing with depression on August 9. The Houston Astros pitcher claimed that his wife Kate Upton was the one who guided him back to a healthy mental state. Four years ago, he went through a rough patch as he thought his career was going to end after he had several injuries.
"Who knows," Justin said in an interview with Bleacher Report magazine. "If I'm even here if it wasn't for her?" The MVP winner then revealed how he tried to hide his depression, "She was instrumental in me not...like, jumping off a bridge, I was depressed and kind of just upset at the world and trying to hide my own s**t."
Justin started to feel pain on his shoulder in 2013 and the pain continued to grow. He then hurt his groin while doing a squat during the offseason. Afterward, his doctor found that he had a core muscle injury in his abdominal muscles, which led to a bilateral sports hernia repair surgery.
In the following year, the World Series-winning picther got better, but his shoulder still hurt. Due to the injury, Justin then was pulled by his coach after the first inning of a game in Pittsburgh on August 11. Justin figured that he would need a shoulder surgery. "I really thought it was the end," the baseball star recalled.
Justin told the interviewer that he couldn't discuss his problem with other people except Kate at that time. She was the only one whom he could talk to and he considered her as his therapist. "I don't like to talk to people about being hurt. As athletes, you're not supposed to. It's an excuse...but she was someone I could talk to. I mean, basically a therapist," he said. "Somebody I could trust with...worries about my career. Worries about, 'Can I make it?' worries about what I'm going through to get back. And just the overall 's**ttiness' of it all."
Meanwhile, Kate recalled her husband's condition during his darkest time, "It was so emotional. He was in so much pain, and he was just trying to find the best path back."
