Not all players can handle their mental stress equally regarding on and off-field matters, however, the New York Jets starting quarterback Aaron Rodgers has many success stories to share in this regard.
Despite collecting so many accolades throughout his 18 years of NFL journey, the four-time MVP Rodgers had a long history of depression and mental trauma leading the quarterback to take the support of hallucinogen as he recently shared.
Aaron Rodgers’ psychedelic journey has sparked interest from athletes
Many players used to go through a period of sadness after being selected for the top leagues due to their performance on the field and some personal problems.
Like the one-time Super Bowl winner, some basketball players, baseball players, and some popular faces also have their names on the list and shared their journey with the quarterback and he shared those stories on Wednesday at the Psychedelic Science 2023 conference in Denver, Colorado being a guest speaker.
“Basketball players and baseball players and surfers and entertainers and my own teammates and colleagues across the league reached out and either share their story about their own medicine journey or ask to be a part of an upcoming one was pretty special,” said Aaron.
Most interestingly, some of the A-rods’ league mates were also in the line for a solution like him to continue their NFL journey and the legendary quarterback felt grateful for being able to help them during their bad period of life,
“In this process, there’s been hundreds of NFL guys that have reached out – text or whatever the young guys do these days, DMs and different (stuff) — but it’s been really fun to connect with these guys who have done medicine work or are fascinated by it and want to learn more about it. I’m really, really thankful for those opportunities.”
What hallucinogen did Aaron Rodgers do?
The 39-year-old revealed on “The Pat McAfee Show” in 2022 that Rodgers uses ayahuasca, a psychoactive brew made from leaves and vines that have been utilized by indigenous groups in South America’s Amazon to lessen the fear of dying.
Once rumors circulated that the end of the world was imminent and this news caused a great deal of fear in the former quarterback’s mind and caused him to go through a prolonged period of depression because he believed that if the rumor came true, all of his dreams would remain just that—dreams.
“I had a major fear of death… there was a lot of weird sentiment around Y2K, remember that? The world was going to end,” he said. “For me personally, since I was a young teenager, I was like, man if the world ends and I’m 16, I’m not going to be able to accomplish anything I want to accomplish.”
The Jets quarterback utilized psychedelics later, which helped him move past the trauma and concentrate on his life’s purpose. He also simultaneously kept in touch with the treatment, going on a trip for recovery, before being chosen as the NFL’s most valuable player two years in a row.
“It relieved a lot of the stress around the idea of needing to accomplish things before I actually die, kind of taking away some of that fear,” Rodgers said. “I think when you’ve seen the other side, it makes the idea more of a passage and less of an ending. More of just kind of the next chapter of life.”
What is your take on Aaron’s mental struggles? Do you suffer from similar issues as well? Let us know in the comments below!
