Thanasi Kokkinakis Talks Depression: "Couldn't Even Go For A Walk"
Thanasi Kokkinakisspoke in the Ordineroli Speaking podcast about phases of depression that the Australian has gone through.
by Michael Rothschädl
last edit: Mar 04, 2021, 09:03 am
The opening success of Thanasi Kokkinaki at the Australian Open was not only one of the most emotional moments of this year's majors Down Under - the victory over the Korean Soonwoo Kwon also marked the end of a long dry spell that the Australian had suffered in the last few years due to many injuries, some of them serious Years ago.
Depressive phases
At the same time as his downright odyssey of physical complaints, it was also his mental health that has bothered the 24-year-old in recent years, as he reveals in the Ordineroli Speaking podcast. The Australian explains that between 2016 and 2017 he repeatedly suffered from depressive episodes, repeatedly falling into deep holes.
But the mental illness also hit him in 2019, as Kokkinakis explains: "The worst moments of the illness were between the end of 2016 and a large part of 2017. Then I had other phases, like in 2019 when I was injured by the Pectoral muscle relapsed but the time I was most depressed was in 2016. I was unable to see anything positive, the only thing I could do was lock myself in my room without that I could stop crying for no apparent reason. I felt tremendously afraid of everything and couldn't even go for a walk. "
Kokkinakis: "The psychical pain is worse"
In addition to the depressive episodes, it was mainly anxiety that hit Kokkinakis particularly hard. Once, for example, when the Australian was sitting in a cafeteria, he felt so watched that he became enormously anxious and his heart began to race. "The worst part was that it was impossible for me to have positive thoughts about anything."
Now, according to Kokkinakis, he is doing much better, especially when he returned to training that his condition improved bit by bit. Nevertheless, it is important to the 24-year-old to bring the effects of depression into the public discourse: "What I want to make clear is that depression is a real illness that eats you up inside and prevents you from doing anything positive in your life The feeling is so strange and difficult to explain that I think only those who have been through the disease can understand it. I have gone through a lot of physical pain with my injuries, but the psychological one is much worse and I want to Help as few people as possible get through what I've been through. "