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Speaking at the AFL Awards, Smith bravely went in-depth into his personal battles before joining the Cats, admitting for the first time he needed medical assistance, voluntarily spending a month at a Melbourne hospital.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was about a year ago I got out of a psych ward \u2013 I was in Epworth Camberwell for like four weeks. I got a couple of hours out a day, and I spent that training,\u201d Smith said on Fox Footy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went through a really dark time.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah I didn\u2019t think I\u2019d get, I suppose, to the other side.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m super grateful to be here through the support of my family, my manager Robbie being there through the shocking times. I know it\u2019s just an injury but until you experience it and have a sense of identity sort of taken away from you and sort of go through some teething issues with moving clubs and I don\u2019t know, outside noise and still trying to just grow up and rehab a knee. I\u2019m super grateful to be on the other side of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t change it for the world. But certainly surprised to be where I am today, yep.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cI\u2019ve never said that before.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bailey Smith speaking at the AFL Awards.Source: FOX SPORTS<\/p>\n
Smith was congratulated by Fox Footy\u2019s Mark Howard on being so willing to open up in front of a large room of people.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was hard (going into the psych ward). But it was something I sort of had to do,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was obviously voluntary to go in. I still see my psych today. It sort of just helps me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI sort of initially felt, not weak but emasculated a little bit needing to reach out for help.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I sort of just changed my mindset from you know, if you have an injury you have to rehab it in the gym or whatever. If you have an injury mentally, it\u2019s just rehabbing it and keeping on top of that. Like going to the gym for your fitness, I\u2019m going to the gym for my mental fitness.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe word gets thrown around a lot these days \u2013 mental health. I suppose it\u2019s an excuse in some cases. It\u2019s not a sympathy, \u2018poor me\u2019 thing. It\u2019s more to raise awareness you can put your hand up and yeah. It\u2019s a tough period but wouldn\u2019t change it for the world<\/p>\n
\u201cIt always makes sense in retrospect \u2013 just know whatever dark period you\u2019re going through, one day I guess it will make sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
He concluded: \u201cIf we can normalise that (treatment of mental health), the better we can see the community become, both young men and young women.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been pretty surreal to be where I am now \u2013 there\u2019s so much work to be done. Smell the roses while you can but I\u2019ve just got to keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n
If you or someone you know needs help, contact: beyondblue 1300 224 636 or beyondblue.org.au; Mens Line 1300 789 978; Lifeline on 13 11 14 or visit lifeline.org.au.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An incredibly brave Bailey Smith has spoken about spending a month in a psych ward before his move…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102051,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-102050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}