{"id":421353,"date":"2026-01-18T14:26:43","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T14:26:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/421353\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T14:26:43","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T14:26:43","slug":"james-graham-opens-up-on-mental-health-battle-rehab-stint-alcohol-abuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/421353\/","title":{"rendered":"James Graham opens up on mental health battle, rehab stint, alcohol abuse"},"content":{"rendered":"

NRL great James Graham<\/a> has opened up on his battle with mental health issues, revealing he spent time at a rehab facility last year.<\/p>\n

The retired front-rower, who played 424 first grade games with St Helens, Canterbury and St George Illawarra, has transitioned into a full-time media career in recent years.<\/p>\n

Graham hosts a weekly podcast, The Bye Round, while also working for Triple M.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Carey’s candid admission after surprise World Cup snub<\/a><\/p>\n

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During the middle of the 2025 season, Graham left the airwaves for a brief period and the Englishman has now revealed the reason why.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

James Graham during his stint with the Dragons.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

“This last 12 months has been particularly hard, there’s probably a number of different reasons why that’s happened,” he said on his podcast.<\/p>\n

“Not many people know about this … I made the decision to go to rehab.<\/p>\n

“When I said I was away on holidays, I was a week in a facility for mental health. Which wasn’t long enough. You’re supposed to stay there for three but due to the job, I couldn’t disappear for three weeks. Disappearing for one week was difficult enough.<\/p>\n

“I’m pretty good at justifying things, if I was involved in an accident and had an illness and I needed three weeks off work I’d do it, but for some strange reason (I didn’t). One of the reasons why I didn’t was because people would know, but why would I care?<\/p>\n

“I can’t recommend it highly enough. It had a really good short-term fix for me, I felt like a new person. It was so nerve wracking going in, in the week I spent there I felt like I learnt so much and started to see things differently.”<\/p>\n

Graham revealed he had “started to slip back into old habits” since leaving rehab.<\/p>\n

“Unnecessary drinking and abuse of alcohol,” he continued.<\/p>\n

“People talk about balance in life, I don’t have that balance, for me it’s just go hard at everything. That’s going hard at partying, wake up the next day hungover, dealing with the mental health, and then I go running.<\/p>\n

“I run a lot, which I’ve found is so beneficial for mental health. I do weight training as well but running in particular is helpful.<\/p>\n

“I’ll finish a really hard run but then want to go hard again on the drinking or eating, or whatever it may be. It’s not a balancing act, it’s just all in.”<\/p>\n

He shared a conversation with a close mate – who expressed concern that Graham had taken his own life – that opened his eyes.<\/p>\n

“My best mate from school, we talk every day,” Graham said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

James Graham speaks about his mental health.\u00a0Nine<\/p>\n

“When I was away on the tour recently and having a decent drinking sesh, I go off my phone, and the next time we spoke he said something that hit me between the eyes.<\/p>\n

“He said, ‘Lad, I actually genuinely worry you’ve done something when I don’t hear from you’. I’d never do that and I think that’s important to know, and he knows that too.<\/p>\n

“But I think to hear your friend say that (is eye opening).”<\/p>\n

Graham is regarded as one of the toughest players of the modern era and one of the greatest English imports to the NRL.<\/p>\n

He has also spoken openly about his battles with concussion during his playing days.<\/p>\n

If you or anyone you know needs immediate support, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or via lifeline.org.au<\/a>. In an emergency, call 000<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NRL great James Graham has opened up on his battle with mental health issues, revealing he spent time…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-421353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421353","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=421353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}