FRIDAY, May 2, 2003 (HealthDayNews) -- Terry Bradshaw and Ricky Williams are quintessential macho men, phenomenal football players who exude confidence and physical health and enjoy enormous financial success.
So why could Bradshaw, four-time Super Bowl winner, never bask in the glory of his victories? And why did 1998 Heisman trophy winner Williams hide in his house instead of flying home to San Diego after a successful season with the New Orleans Saints?
Because, both admit, they were walking around with untreated and serious mental disorders -- Bradshaw with depression and Williams with social anxiety disorder.
"I didn't understand that after every Super Bowl victory, I could never find pleasure in what I'd done. Instead, I immediately began thinking how I was going to get this all to happen again the next year," Bradshaw said Thursday at a New York City news conference kicking off National Mental Health Awareness Month in May.
"I didn't realize I had a problem," he added.
The two men, now successfully being treated for their disorders, are on a national speaking tour in hopes of encouraging others who may be suffering from depression or anxiety to seek help.
"It's embarrassing and uncomfortable, and it takes a lot of courage," said Bradshaw, a Hall of Famer who is now a co-host for Fox NFL Sunday. "No one likes to admit there's something wrong -- but you can get help. And you'll say, 'God, why didn't I do this 30 years ago?'"
Williams, now a running back for the Miami Dolphins who had his most successful season ever last season, admitted his notorious insistence on wearing his helmet during interviews when he first began playing for the Saints was not a sign of disdain for reporters but rather a manifestation of his disorder, an anxiety that made him extremely fearful of talking to people.
"Wearing the helmet was me trying to put a barrier between me and the cameras," he said. "In a situation that was pretty normal, I was really uncomfortable."
Bradshaw, 54, said he had probably suffered from depression for most of his life, and because he didn't know what was wrong, he spent lots of time and money trying to feel better.
"For instance, I'd buy horses for my ranch, and we'd unload them, and they'd look beautiful, but then I still wasn't happy, so I'd buy more horses," he said. "I was trying to buy happiness, and didn't understand the vicious cycle of depression."
It was the breakup of a marriage that forced him to seek help.
"Often, you have to have a traumatic experience, and a divorce certainly gets your attention," he said. "I couldn't deal with it."
He went to his preacher, who recommended a family counselor, who sent him to a psychiatrist, who diagnosed him as having a serious depression. He started therapy and began taking an antidepressant, and within two weeks began to feel his symptoms improve.
"No more massive anxiety attacks, no more feeling down, no more stupid decisions, no more marrying the first woman who's sweet to me," said Bradshaw, who has been married three times.
For Williams, 26, the crisis came in his second season with New Orleans.
"The season had just ended, I was 22 years old, and I thought, 'I'm sitting on top of the world, have a boatload of money and could do anything I wanted, and I can't get out of the house,'" he recalled.
He sought help through a friend's mother, went into therapy and, like Bradshaw, started taking Paxil.
"It hasn't been extremely easy, but not too hard, because the focus was to feel better," he said. "And when I was diagnosed, I had something to call the way I feel."
Although depression is the most common psychiatric disorder in the country, affecting 19 million Americans, or one in 10 adults, it is significantly under-treated. Only about one-third of those suffering from depression are getting the help they need, said Dr. Charles Nemeroff of Atlanta's Emory University School of Medicine, who spoke after Bradshaw and Williams.
Social anxiety disorder is also a major disorder, affecting five million to 10 million adults, but only 5 percent of those with the illness get the help they need, Nemeroff said.
"Further, women are much more likely than men to seek help," he said, "largely due to the stigma, the idea that men should pull themselves up by their own bootstraps."
Bradshaw and Williams hope to erase that stigma in their tour, which is sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline, the manufacturer of Paxil.
"It's tough, especially for men, to admit you have any kind of problem," Williams said. "But if someone is well-known and people see you have overcome this, then they think, 'I can too.'"
"To all you men who are out there, there's help," Bradshaw added. "You need to be strong and recognize you need help."
More information
The National Institute of Mental Health has launched a campaign to focus on depression in men. For information on social anxiety disorder, you can visit Madison Institute of Medicine.
