Mental health is something Muñoz has become a champion for, he said this week at Wright State University, after seeing youth struggling with their mental health.
The weight of stress
Panelists brought together by the nonprofit Project Blackbird used their unique backgrounds and stories to spark conversations normalizing talking about mental health during a recent event at Wright State University.
For Muñoz, he battles negative self-talk on a daily basis, and he still feels some residual pressure from his football career.
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“For over 20 years, every week I had to step on a scale, and they gave me a weight, and I don’t know how they determined what was the best weight for me as an offensive lineman, but I had to weigh at that weight or below or else I was fined,” Muñoz said.
Even though he was working out seven days a week, he was still anxious when it came time to weigh in.
“Even though I knew I was always below that weight, come Thursday morning, I was like, ‘I hope I make that weight. I hope I make that weight.’ And I jump on that scale, and it’s like, now I can relax for another week,” Muñoz said.
That pressure to weigh a certain weight stayed with him even after he retired from the sport.
“That scale still has an effect on me,” Muñoz said, describing the anxiety he sometimes feels at the doctor’s office when it’s time for an annual checkup and he has to get weighed.
The pressure to succeed is something also known to Alicia Donley, a former NCAA Division 1 soccer player at the University of Dayton and current coordinator of partnership strategy and creative solutions with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
At the top of her game, Donley had to find ways to cope with the stress and pressure that came with being a collegiate athlete.
“You face a lot of scrutiny and a lot hardships in thinking, ‘Okay, what did I do wrong? What can I be better about?’” Donley said. “For me, it was really just taking a step back and saying, ‘I need to love myself first.’”
‘It became unavoidable’
Project Blackbird holds touring events like this across the U.S., showcasing a short film inspired by the nonprofit’s founders to spark dialogue on mental health.
“This short film is based on my own personal story and a young woman who I met at a mental health treatment center, but that is followed by not only my story, but a conversation with different public figures that we bring to the table,” said Alexandra Miles, founder and CEO of Project Blackbird.
Other panelists like Miles, mental health advocate Kendra Williams ― whom Miles met at a mental health treatment center and is portrayed in the Project Blackbird film ― and Dr. Troy Baker, a clinical psychologist, talked about challenges to their mental wellbeing.
“As human beings, we have an amazing way to turn away from our pain,” Baker said.
Baker tried turning away from his mental health struggles, but he found that those problems would crop up elsewhere, he said.
“For me, ultimately, it became unavoidable to start to pay attention to what’s going on inside and to really address the pain that was at the core of the different ways that showed up at different points of my life,” Baker said.
Miles and Williams shared how meeting and connecting at a mental health treatment center helped find support to continue healing.
“When I was in that experience (I) was definitely very shut down, and I was also very used to that working for me,” Williams said.
Williams was used to people leaving her alone when she shut down and stopped talking, she said.
“I was used to being left alone and that was my comfort zone, and that is not what I got with Alexandra,” Williams said. “In the most beautiful and blessed way, she broke me out of my shell and got me to start expressing what my inner world was.”
Miles showed Williams it was okay to share her feelings and talk about what she was struggling with, Williams said.
“Whatever story you have to tell matters,” Williams said.
Miles still has tough mental health days where she still finds herself struggling, but it is a reminder to her that she doesn’t need to hide those feelings.
“That is the most authentic thing that I can say, and I think the most authentic message that I can bring to you all today is that I still have days,” Miles said.
Healing is not linear, she said.
“That’s part of being human,” Miles said.
For more information on Project Blackbird, visit projectblackbirdinc.org.
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