{"id":378173,"date":"2026-01-19T08:32:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T08:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/378173\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T08:32:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T08:32:11","slug":"st-helens-and-nrl-legend-opens-up-on-mental-health-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/378173\/","title":{"rendered":"St Helens and NRL legend opens up on mental health battle"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

St Helens and NRL legend James Graham has revealed that he had a short spell in rehab with the 40-year-old opening up on his mental health battle.<\/p>\n

Graham, one of the few players to ever earn a Golden cap for playing 50 or more internationals, retired back in 2020 after returning to England to help his boyhood club St Helens land their second of four straight Grand Final wins.<\/p>\n

That return to St Helens ended a nine-year spell in the NRL where he made over 180 appearances, starring for Canterbury Bulldogs and St George Illawarra Dragons.<\/p>\n

Since retiring, Graham has turned his hand to punditry and working in the media, launching his own very successful podcast,\u00a0The Bye Round,\u00a0whilst also working for a number of broadcasters, including the BBC during the recent Ashes series.<\/p>\n

Graham has now used his podcast to share details of his own battle with mental health and alcohol, confirming that he attended a rehab clinic at one point in the past year.<\/p>\n

St Helens legend James Graham makes honest admissions around mental health<\/p>\n

Speaking on a recent episode of\u00a0The Bye Round<\/a>, Graham explained that he took a week off and attended a rehab clinic, despite stating at the time it was just a holiday.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot many people know about this but I made the decision to go rehab,\u201d the ex-St Helens star said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I said I was away on holidays, I was a week in a facility for mental health, which probably wasn\u2019t long enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re supposed to stay there for three but due to the job, I couldn\u2019t disappear for three weeks. Disappearing for one week was difficult enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Graham then admitted that one of the reasons he didn\u2019t see out the full three weeks was worrying about if people would know, something he stated he wrestled with, adding: \u201cWhy would I care if people know or not?\u201d<\/p>\n

Continuing, he urged others to seek support, stating: \u201cFor anybody who is on I guess that crossroads of needing to go away, I can\u2019t recommend it highly enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt had a really good short-term fix for me, I felt like a new person but it was so nerve-wracking going in but in the week I spent there, I felt like I learnt so much and started to see things differently.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 40-year-old did admit that he\u2019d slipped back into old habits, particularly drinking alcohol, revealing that a recent eye opener for him was a conversation with his best mate from school, with whom he said he talks every day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen 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

\u201cHe said, \u2018Lad, I actually genuinely worry you\u2019ve done something when I don\u2019t hear from you\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d never do that and I think that\u2019s important to know, and he knows that too. But I think to hear your friend say that (is eye opening).\u201d<\/p>\n

Graham also revealed that he finds running a very beneficial way of dealing with his mental health and that he also sees a therapist, something he recommended to those who are struggling.<\/p>\n

Check out the latest episode of The Serious About Rugby League Show on\u00a0our YouTube channel here.<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St Helens and NRL legend James Graham has revealed that he had a short spell in rehab with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-378173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}