I continue to be so proud of this guy, & humbled to work on a team w him.
Here’s some context for this story: @robinlehner40 had been out for well over a month w what the team called an “upper body injury.” In hockey (& sports), this is common. Teams will say vague things like: upper body injury or lower body injury. The thought is – we don’t want to reveal the specific area so that opponents don’t “hunt” those susceptible areas when the injured player returns (eg target a knee after an MCL sprain).
Here’s what makes Robin’s story so unique. He’s been OPEN abt his MH challenges in the past, & the help he’s gotten. So, w this most recent injury, being out for over a month, the rumor mill was on full blast. You had so many saying: “he’s likely back in rehab”…& similar sentiments.
Robin came out to a press conference yesterday & just destroyed that way of thinking/publicly saying those things, showing how harmful it is. A guy who’s been MORE open than any other athlete, ever, while in his prime, not being given the benefit of the doubt when he injures something else – concussion in this case? If someone tears a knee ligament, gets it repaired, then hurts their shoulder – do we come out in droves saying: must be the knee again? When we open up abt MH, we have to be given the right (in & out of sports) to deal w other bruises & scrapes & ailments, & it not always be tied back to MH!
Way to educate & be a leader, Robin. Love all he stands for. He is a champion for all of us. From his press conference: “The stigma around mental health is insane. EVERYONE deals with it; I don’t care what anyone says. Everyone deals with it in some form or another during their life.” Thank you RL90!
**Moving forward bc of what IG has done to us w suppression for yrs now, for talking openly abt MH (many diff types of treatments, what the media isn’t doing, what we need to change), we’ll be using the tag: #instagramsuppression moving fwd. Join us if you’d like. Know it affects a lot of you – personally & what is/isn’t in your feed.
