Olympic champion Cate Campbell has opened up on her battles with mental health, which could so nearly have derailed her Tokyo campaign.
Australian Olympian Cate Campbell has revealed she was diagnosed with depression last year and opened up on her struggles with mental health, explaining how she sought medical help for the first time just weeks before the Tokyo Games.
The 29-year-old swimmer, who this year took part in her fourth Olympics, announced the news on social media and said she hopes her story will spark more conversations around mental health.
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“In July 2020 I was diagnosed with depression,” Campbell wrote on Instagram. “In June 2021 — four weeks before the start of the Tokyo Olympics — I finally admitted I needed some medical help, and I am so grateful I did.
“Mental health is not a sign of weakness. It does not discriminate. It is very real, and most of us will face it at some point in our lives.
“I wish conversations about mental health were more common — if they were, I might have sought out help earlier than I did. So I am sharing my story in the hopes it will prompt a conversation in your household, dispel a stigma, or encourage you to be a bit kinder to the person next to you.
“I still struggle to not feel shame around my mental health, so please be kind.”
Campbell elaborated on her experience in a first-person piece for Mamamia, where she explained exactly what she was going through.
“I have always thought of myself as a tough person; someone who doesn’t shy away from hard work. When I encounter an obstacle, I push through,” she wrote.
“When faced with pain, I grit my teeth and keep going. When tired, I get out of bed anyway. When unmotivated, I shake it off and try harder. Yet something had changed.
“It was like my brain transformed into a dark vortex, sucking me in. While I was trapped in the deep, inky well, neon words flashed before my eyes. They said: ‘You’re weak’. ‘You should be able to get over this’. ‘You’re pathetic’. ‘You’re better than this’. ‘Your life is good’. ‘What’s wrong with you?’
“It was a deep, unending, unbearable sadness. On a scale I had not experienced previously — and one which I would have scorned prior to my diagnosis. The weight of it crushed me.”
Campbell started seeing a clinical psychologist but she still struggled with self-confidence as her training ramped up in preparation for Tokyo. When she reached Olympic trials, she was “paralysed by an overwhelming sense of impending doom” but muscle memory kicked in and she secured her place on the Dolphins team, despite the mental demons she was fighting.
Still, the overriding emotion was fear that Campbell would be back on the blocks in little over a month in Japan. She didn’t know if she could go through with it.
So she saw a GP and started taking medication to treat her anxiety and depression, which had a positive effect. Admitting she previously thought medication was an “easy way out”, Campbell’s perspective had drastically changed by the time she arrived in Tokyo.
The medication was helping and Campbell was thinking more clearly and feeling more at ease with herself. She went on to enjoy a stellar campaign in Tokyo, winning gold as part of the women’s 4×100 freestyle relay team and 4×100 medley relay team, while also picking up an individual bronze medal in the 100m freestyle.
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