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Basketball Star Chamique Holdsclaw Talks About Recovering From Mental Illness

Megan Mack
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WXXI News

Former women’s basketball star Chamique Holdsclaw was the keynote speaker for an event Tuesday night sponsored by NAMI, the Rochester chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

It’s  a support and advocacy group for people living with mental illness.

Holdsclaw has struggled with depression and bipolar disorder and she says she really wants to share her story.

“A lot of people here, even though they support such a tremendous cause they may not know my personal journey and I just want to show them through my words and my story that recovery is possible with the right support system, and for me, that’s making sure I go to therapy, I take my medication and I have a circle of support in my life.”

Holdsclaw was the keynote speaker, and she does motivational speaking now, sharing her story of having struggled with depression and bipolar disorder.

“At first I was in denial, like, you’re telling me this world class athlete and a person that’s in control of their body, that I have something that I can’t control and I have to take medicine for it? And so I would go off and on my meds just like most people do that go through this but after a while I say that I have to approach this like I do athletics, I have to be serious because I want to live a healthy and productive life.”

Credit Megan Mack / WXXI News
/
WXXI News
WXXI Connection host Evan Dawson receives the Jessica Henderson Spirit Award

The event at the School of the Arts also honored Evan Dawson, host of WXXI’s Connections talk show, for using that program to help address community concerns on a variety of mental health topics.

The Henderson Spirit award is named after Jessica Henderson, who lost her life to mental illness at the age of 21. In her honor, Jessica’s parents established a lecture series with help from the Rochester chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

Randy Gorbman is WXXI's director of news and public affairs. Randy manages the day-to-day operations of WXXI News on radio, television, and online.