Former NFL player Brandon Marshall targets mental health stigma with pillars of ‘fitness’
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NEW ORLEANS — Former NFL wide receiver and longtime mental health advocate Brandon Marshall emphasized the importance of maintaining mental health and shared his methods for staying mentally “fit.”
“This is the most important conversation taking place here,” Marshall told attendees in a plenary session at Academy ’23. “Mental health touches everyone. If it’s not you, it’s your loved one, your child, your neighbor, your co-worker.”
Marshall shared the story of his own mental health journey, beginning with his upbringing in Pittsburgh in a volatile home where his father was a drug dealer.
“I believe my borderline personality disorder was born of my environment,” Marshall said. “I’m a lot like my father. I’ve learned that through therapy.”
Marshall was diagnosed in 2011 with borderline personality disorder at McLean Hospital in Boston, where he was admitted for 3 months. There, he learned to assess his emotions and approach mental health like a form of fitness.
“There’s a lot of stigma around mental health, so I like to do things differently,” he said. “New movements come with new language, so I call it mental fitness.”
Marshall shared five pillars he follows to reach peak mental performance:
- Train your body 4 to 5 days a week.
- Fuel your body with nutritious foods and hydration.
- Speak with someone about what you are feeling.
- Recover by getting plenty of sleep and rest.
- Build a community or support system.
“I had to learn things so I could get to a space where I could navigate through life,” he said. “I’m learning that it starts with us.”
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Marshall B. Plenary session: Mental health in optometry. Presented at: Academy; Oct. 11-14, 2023; New Orleans.
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