Chicago Bears wide receiver Brandon Marshall. Credit: Mike DiNovo/USA TODAY Sports.
Following his [borderline personality disorder] diagnosis three years ago, Marshall, now 30 and a Pro Bowl wide receiver for the Chicago Bears, set an ambitious goal: become for mental health what Magic Johnson is for HIV. He wants to make an off-limits subject commonplace. He's reaching out to players who might need help, teaming with mental health organizations through his charity and raising awareness and cash for early-detection programs. "Where we are now is where the HIV community was 25 years ago," he says. "We can raise all the money in the world, but people might not go get help. They're still going to see it as a taboo topic. So it's important for us to get the conversation started."
Other NFL players have come forward about mental illness -- social anxiety (Ricky Williams), depression (Eric Hipple), bipolar disorder (Erik Ainge) -- but Marshall's statement in 2011 was genuinely trailblazing. Other than memoirist Susanna Kaysen (Girl, Interrupted), the only public figure to declare a diagnosis of BPD has been Dr. Marsha Linehan, developer of one of its most respected treatments.
Marshall has acknowledged that some see his disclosure of the diagnosis as an attempt to excuse his past behavior. "I'm making myself vulnerable, and I want it to be clear that this is the opposite of damage control," he said in 2011. BPD is far less understood than other disorders, and some therapists won't work with patients who suffer from it, owing to the unpredictable and challenging behavior that it causes.
In the year after his diagnosis, Marshall did a PSA for the NEA-BPD and founded Project Borderline to educate the public about the disorder. He started the Brandon Marshall Foundation to raise awareness about broader mental health issues and provide resources to prevention and treatment programs. And he visited Congress to help push for the Mental Health in Schools Act after headlining the first-ever Kennedy Forum, a mental health summit, last fall. Joe Biden spoke, followed by Marshall -- who teased the VP about his long-windedness before turning to 450 members of the mental health community and declaring: "This is my team."
Comments (0)