How a Father's Influence Shaped This Athlete's Mindset

I knew a professional athlete, very famous person, who constantly was belittled by his father. His father told him he was never going to amount to anything. He was never any good, constantly put pressure on him to perform. Sometimes a parent may think, if I really push my kid, I can push him by constantly beating him down, toughening him up, dealing with adversity. But this particular athlete had an amazing career. He was so, so, so talented. And what he told me was every time he had to perform in his sport, every single time he heard his dad in his head saying, you're stupid, you're not good enough, you're never going to make it. That had a major effect. And so the only way he could shut off his father talking in his head all the time was to use drugs and alcohol. Ended up with a very, very serious drug and alcohol problem. Serious. And so when parents do those kinds of things that they think are actually good for their kids, it's going to show up not only their physical health, but it's going to show up in their emotional health. Trauma has a major effect on the way we live our lives on a day to day basis.