Even Super Bowl-winning athletes suffer from anxiety, but cannabis can help manage those symptoms.
Two data points don’t make a trend but what about a couple hundred? Anyone who still doesn’t comprehend the relationship professional football players have with cannabis—i.e. NFL athletes routinely use marijuana to manage pain, inflammation, and injuries—only need to read the news. Following retirement, notable stars continue to emerge as cannabis advocates while others enter the marijuana business. And like millions of others, this Super Bowl champ used medical marijuana to relieve so serious health issues.
Former Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Percy Harvin is the latest to discuss his trials as an NFL athlete and how marijuana helped him cope. In a Bleacher Report interview, Harvin revealed his struggles with anxiety throughout his eight seasons in the NFL. He was given several anti-anxiety medications but none worked until Harvin tried cannabis.
RELATED: Why These 4 Professional Athletes Use CBD To Manage Pain
“The only thing that really seemed to work is when I would smoke marijuana,” Harvin told Bleacher Report. “There’s not a game that I played in that I wasn’t high.”
Untold Stories Episode 3 with Percy Harvin
Percy Harvin shares how he smoked weed before every game to help with his anxiety disorder/migraines.
Plus, he opens up about fighting Golden Tate before Super Bowl 48.pic.twitter.com/8xnaY9qOCZ
— Master (@MasterTes) October 2, 2019
Harvin, who also suffers from migraines, visited the Mayo Clinic to better understand what was going on. Even when he was diagnosed with severe anxiety disorder, he didn’t confront what that meant. But when he was traded from the Minnesota Vikings to the Seattle Seahawks, he said it was “probably the worst years of my life. My anxiety is at its worst when I go into unfamiliar situations.”
Eventually, he learned what it meant to live with anxiety as a public person. Cannabis helped him manage those symptoms, which is why he decided to speak out about using marijuana and anxiety now.
RELATED: Anxiety And Stress Scientifically Proven To Be Reduced By Cannabis
“That’s what I kind of want the world to see today,” Harvin said. “It’s not a stigma and you know people doing it and getting in a whole bunch of trouble. It’s people that’s just living regular life that got deficiencies or maybe want to enjoy themselves. It’s a natural way to do so.”
