Flames Tyler Parsons opens up about his mental health struggles

Glenn Isildur Healy

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Oct 8, 2013
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Happy to see another player open up about their struggles as it's never easy to share

Tyler Parsons was in a dark place. The darkest, actually. And the rising sun was doing nothing to brighten his mood.

Completely undone by anger and anxiety and depression, he was slumped in the passenger seat of his mom Kim’s car and bound for Detroit Metro Airport on the Fourth of July.

But Parsons never reached his destination.

Because Kim – upon hearing an emotional outburst from her son, including chilling rants about suicide, about his desperate need to make the pain stop – was so alarmed, so upset, so scared, that she immediately pulled over.



Flames prospect Tyler Parsons opens up about his mental...
 

Paris in Flames

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Feb 4, 2009
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Great to hear that he's in a better place now and nice to see how well the Flames handled it. Seems like he got a lot of support from not only his family but the team.

I'm glad he feels comfortable talking about it. If only one person suffering in silence is encouraged to talk/get help just by reading this article then he's already done so much.
 
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HugginThePost

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As has been discussed in several threads on HF, I'm always amazed at the amount of goalies that have metal health issues.

Actually, no, that's not true, I'm not surprised about it but more so comforted. It's a feeling of "I'm not alone".

As a goalie with a lot of mental issues, OCD, anxiety, intrusive thoughts, etc.....I always wonder if it's because most hockey players perceive goalies to be nuts that it's easier for us to "come out"? You don't hear very often a skater coming out with mental issues, it's always the goalie.

And good for them......it needs to be brought to light. If these sort of articles were available to me in the 80's when I was growing up and having all these thoughts, my life may have been vastly different.
 
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Deuce Awesome

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Feb 23, 2010
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That was a great read, I love hearing about kids make it to the big leagues who came up the hard way. Best of luck to this guy hope he makes it to the Flames full time!
 

End on a Hinote

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Rohin Lehner came out recently about his mental issues as well.

I'm curious if all these players suffering from this is a result of more and more people becoming affected by mental health issues or if more people are just coming out about it.
 

Stand Witness

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I read parts of this the other, day and I'd echo similar comments to what I said in the Lehner thread (how impactful this is).

I also unfortunately wonder how long of a leash he will be given as a prospect versus an established player, especially as a goalie. If anything ever happens, I would welcome him with open arms to my teams organization to help work with him. With that being said, props to have the Flames have handled it thus far, or at least to my understanding.
 
Mar 12, 2009
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Rohin Lehner came out recently about his mental issues as well.

I'm curious if all these players suffering from this is a result of more and more people becoming affected by mental health issues or if more people are just coming out about it.
It's the latter imo. There has been a stigma around it for so long that no one dealing with the issues (if they even knew what they were dealing with, because it's talked about so little) wanted to speak up as they feared the consequences of doing so.
 

Lunatik

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Oct 12, 2012
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Rohin Lehner came out recently about his mental issues as well.

I'm curious if all these players suffering from this is a result of more and more people becoming affected by mental health issues or if more people are just coming out about it.
It's very clearly the latter. As someone with mental health issues myself, I can speak for the stigma surrounding it. I've lost friends, relationships, jobs and been alienated by my peers for my mental health issues, to the he point where I was not only afraid to seek help, but afraid for confide in anyone.
 

Lunatik

Normal is an illusion.
Oct 12, 2012
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I read parts of this the other, day and I'd echo similar comments to what I said in the Lehner thread (how impactful this is).

I also unfortunately wonder how long of a leash he will be given as a prospect versus an established player, especially as a goalie. If anything ever happens, I would welcome him with open arms to my teams organization to help work with him. With that being said, props to have the Flames have handled it thus far, or at least to my understanding.
The Flames actually hired Brian McGrattan a little over a year ago in a "player development role" to work with players that have mental health and addiction issues.
 
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Paris in Flames

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Feb 4, 2009
15,903
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Rohin Lehner came out recently about his mental issues as well.

I'm curious if all these players suffering from this is a result of more and more people becoming affected by mental health issues or if more people are just coming out about it.

I know it's been said but it's definitely that people are just more open to talking about the now.

There was a stigma, especially with men, that talking about it made you weak or whatever so...God knows how many people kept it bottled up. There's been a lot of positive movement (through initiatives like Bell Let's Talk and even stuff like this where "famous" people come forward) that have kinda...finally broken down the idea that you're weak or whatever if you talk about it. More and more people are realizing that it's okay to not be okay so we're going to hear more stories like this and that's definitely a good thing.
 

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