MVP Tommy Boyd - The Grand Final Enigma

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Dannnnnnnnnn said:
Hidden amongst a sea of Barrett abuse, Beveridge says: "We've been really happy with a 22-year-old developing ruckman who potentially, as we move into mid-twenties, will be an operational and damaging key forward – that would be outstanding."

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2018-07-17/bevo-slams-disgraceful-sliding-doors-column
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Nice.
When I read articles like that I get that same warm fuzzy feeling you get in a movie when the bad guy gets his come-uppance from somebody brave enough to tackle him head-on while everyone else is ducking for cover.

In Bevo We Trust.
 
Senor Ed said:
"I suffer from quite severe panic attacks" - Tom Boyd interview tonight on Channel 9 news tweeted by Tony Jones.

Poor bloke.
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Colour me unsurprised. I wonder if the relentless and unjustified pressure that the media and one of its leading lights have heaped upon his shoulders has anything at all to do with it.
 
Wish Tom all the best and hope he finds a way to take the pressure off himself.

The money he has accepted brings pressure, both internal and external. That's just how it is for anyone in any aspect of life who is on big money and it will never change.

Hope it works out for him whatever he decides to do.
 
BULLDOGS star Tom Boyd has opened up about his panic attacks, anxiety and depression around the time of the team’s historic 2016 premiership win.

While Boyd’s playing career was flying, he said his mental health was suffering.


“We had an amazing year. We managed to win the flag which was an incredible experience,” he said.

“But from my point of view I think it papered over a lot of the cracks that were starting to appear in my mental health.


Tom Boyd is talking about his own mental health issues to help other young men.

“The real moment my mind started to turn was when I began having panic attacks while driving — that physiological effect of your heart racing, you’re sweating and you can’t concentrate, feeling dizzy.

“It’s hard for some people to understand. It’s not tangible; it’s not something you can see.”

Boyd will front the launch of ‘headcoach’ a national campaign giving young men tips on how to look after their mental, as well as physical, fitness.

At age 21, Boyd took time out of football to receive clinical treatment for anxiety and depression.

“My mental health has hindered me more than any physical injury I’ve sustained in my life and I’ve had multiple surgeries,” he said.


Boyd kicks a goal in this year’s round six clash with Carlton. Pic: Michael Klein

“I really had no idea of some of the techniques you can use not only to help with mental health issues but also to prevent them.”


Headspace CEO, Jason Trethowan, said it was hoped headcoach helps reduce the incidence of depression and anxiety among young men, one in seven of whom will experience it each year.

“Young men are three times more likely to die by suicide (than other people), it is the leading cause of death of males aged between 15 and 44 …(but) less than one in five seek help for mental health issues.”

The National Youth Mental Health Foundation, headspace, has partnered with elite athletes to create education for young men on how to care for their minds.


Headspace CEO Jonathan Trethowan hopes ‘headcoach’ will help young men care for their mental health.

Boyd advises young men to do things they enjoy to help protect their mental health.

“Some of the things that can be helpful for me during challenging times can be as simple as monitoring my breathing and getting ahead of moments of stress and anxiety,” he said.

“Now I can say to myself I’m not feeling great, let’s go and do something enjoyable, let’s take the dog for a walk or get the camera out or go surfing.”
 

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Panic attacks are horrible. Being an AFL player is not an easy path, even for the most well-prepared young men. Tom came to the club under dramatic circumstances and has been under enormous pressure from the minute he walked into the club. Many would crack under the scrutiny he's had to endure.
 
Doggiesfan14 said:
BULLDOGS star Tom Boyd has opened up about his panic attacks, anxiety and depression around the time of the team’s historic 2016 premiership win.....”
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Thanks heaps for posting... The Hun pay-walling this kind of defeats the purpose!

Good on Tom for going into specifics of the issues he has faced.
 
A bit more in the age:

About 12 months ago, Tom Boyd was battling.

He had struggled to sleep for close to six weeks as his mental health deteriorated and he needed a break.

Boyd wasn't embarrassed. He just needed time away to work on his health and with the Western Bulldogs' support he made the brave step and took a leave of absence from the club.

Those around him were concerned, but they weren't surprised because once Boyd knew he was dealing with a mental health issue, he had no trouble talking to those close to him about what he was experiencing.
That's why it wasn't such a leap for the Western Bulldogs ruckman to agree to tell his story on video as part of a headspace campaign being launched at the MCG on Wednesday to encourage young men to manage their own mental health and wellbeing.

"[The reason] why it is important that I speak about it and people in the public sphere do speak about it if they are going through these things is because … people in all circumstances and in all walks of life are dealing with these things," Boyd told Fairfax Media.

Now 22, Boyd has worked his way back into the flow of both football and life. He has played a dozen games in 2018 after returning to the seniors in round five, his latest match being against West Coast last Sunday at Optus Stadium.

His grin is quick to appear when asked how he is feeling.

"Good, great,” he says. “It's funny, it's often my narrative that after the grand final is when it all started but to be totally honest this was happening a long time before that."

On reflection, Boyd said, signs were emerging that things were not quite right when, as the No. 1 pick in the 2013 national draft, he moved from his Melbourne home to join Greater Western Sydney.


"I first started to have mental health issues and struggles in 2014 when I moved away but really had no idea how to deal with it or even an awareness it was abnormal, I suppose," Boyd, who was then 18, said.

His response – to keep it to himself – was not unusual. Research shows one in seven men aged between 16-24 experience mental health issues, but only 13 per cent let others know they're struggling.

Boyd became football's biggest story when he returned to Victoria after just one season with the Giants on a seven-year, multimillion-dollar deal to join the Western Bulldogs – an exchange that saw Dogs skipper Ryan Griffen head to GWS.

Boyd's health problems came with him.

By 2016, he was seeing the Western Bulldogs' pyschologist Lisa Stevens regularly to deal with the anxiety issues he was confronting as the Bulldogs charged towards an unlikely premiership, with 20-year-old Boyd saving his best performances for the finals.
He kicked three goals in the grand final and finished third in Norm Smith Medal voting.

Boyd says now the amazing season allowed him to paper over any cracks.

Panic attacks, however, started during the next pre-season before 2017 had even begun, and then as the season unfolded symptoms began to get worse, with insomnia setting in.

Boyd hardly slept for four to six weeks.


"[It] makes it difficult to function obviously. I think for me the main reason I took time away from the game was the fact that I couldn't sleep and I couldn't train and at the end of the day I really wasn't able to perform my job in the way that I wanted to," he said.

"That was a real turning point for me because for all the surgeries and injuries and stuff I have had, this is the one that definitely affected me the most."

Although he was still confident he could return to playing, managing Boyd's mental health became, for his friends, family, teammates and club, much more important than football.

The time away allowed him the opportunity to explore meditation and yoga and breathing techniques and also, most importantly, with the help of his friends, family and girlfriend Anna Von Moger, realign his outlook as he took steps towards recovery.

"It was all about making time to do the things you really love doing," Boyd said.


He found he loved other activities besides playing football, including hitting the surf and taking his dog Nala for walks
Now I can address everything realistically and say, 'You know what, I am not feeling great, let's go and do something enjoyable, let's take the dog for a walk, go surfing, take the camera out, do anything and just invest in enjoying life and trying to be yourself'," Boyd said.

His teammates and the club supported him as he endeavoured to work his way through a difficult situation, equipping himself with the tools needed to keep himself mentally healthy.

"It's the smallest things that make the biggest difference," he said. It helped that he brought his colleagues into what was happening and why he was taking time away.


"I was really open with all of my teammates I spoke to leading up to the time where I took some time off and they were really supportive," he said. "The club and the players and my mates have been unbelievable in this regard and a large part of the reason I got through this and got through it really well."

He is not sure what effect the pressure that comes with being an AFL player had on him, although he acknowledges that high-stress environments can exacerbate mental health problems.

But he also knows that what has happened to him can happen to anybody, a key reason why he has gone public with this video. "These things happen to people in all circumstances," he said.

At just 22, he says it is important for young men to talk about mental health; but at the same time he is adamant that the message underpinning the campaign should not be lost in the clamour to hear the story of his journey.

"I have never been embarrassed to share what I went through," Boyd said. “It happens every day to millions of people around the world.

For all the struggles that I went through admitting to myself and understanding that something was going on ... once I got my head around that it was never an issue for me [to go public]."

Headspace CEO Jason Trethowan said the campaign could help young men develop the tools and confidence to manage their mental health.

"Simple tips like staying connected to others, building coping strategies, doing things you enjoy and sleeping well, can all play a vital role in building resilience and maintaining a healthy headspace," Trethowan said.

Along with the six other athletes featured in the campaign – Dale Thomas (AFL), Kurtley Beale (rugby union), Usman Khawaja (cricket), Brandon Defina (eSports), James Tedesco (NRL) and Daniel Arzani (soccer) – Boyd hopes young men will learn to become better at opening up about how they are feeling.


"Young men are consistently poor at understanding what is going on inside their head, but we seem to be all right at looking after our mates so if that is the one takeaway that we will get out of this campaign, it is to support your mates," Boyd said.

"If a mate doesn’t seem himself, go out and ask him and see how he is going."
 
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BRWB said:
Wish Tom all the best and hope he finds a way to take the pressure off himself.

The money he has accepted brings pressure, both internal and external. That's just how it is for anyone in any aspect of life who is on big money and it will never change.

Hope it works out for him whatever he decides to do.
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From my perspective, I don't think the discussion is about pressure, it's about how he responds to symptoms of a mental health condition. Those symptoms can occur in any number of contexts. Sounds like he has the right supports in place.

This might feel like I am having a crack, so I'll apologise in advance if it does, it's not my intention. Just want to highlight a difference in how we can read his experience.

Your post reads as if you are attributing the experience of poor mental health to his move to the Club and the money etc. In the article I read, Boyd acknowledged he was experiencing symptoms as early as 2014 once he'd moved away from home. There will be some people out there who would agree that he brought it on himself by accepting the contract, that seems not to be the case. Not in its entirety at least.

It is a strong narrative out there, most recently revisited by Tony Shaw, that the kid is "not worth the money," and that this must weigh heavily on him. It might, but what I've herd today suggests it's just as likely not to be the case.

In any case, Tom Boyd's understanding of his experience should hold more weight than the malicious, speculative stuff dished up by the likes of Shaw, Matthews et al at various points since Oct 2014.

On a footy only note, he is hovering around OK. Not much better, not much worse than OK. We want/need more from him. He's doing his job at a level Bevo seems reasonably comfortable with given the current situation with the list, his health/fitness and the role we've got him doing. I reckon we'll get some more value out his best form over his career.
 
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